The actual weight of a pallet depends on its size and material. Generally speaking, the weight of wooden pallets ranges from 10 kg to 30 kg or more. Plastic pallets are very light, usually between 5kg and 20kg.
Knowing the weight of a pallet can help you make the right decision, manage cargo transportation and storage more efficiently, and reduce costs. These are critical to supply chain and logistics processes.
Determinants of Pallet Weight
At FAVOS Plastic, our plastic pallets vary in weight, mainly depending on three factors:
- Pallet design
- Plastic material
- Purpose of pallet
If you need to transport the goods on pallets, you need to know “how much does a pallet weigh?”. Choosing a pallet that is more suitable for you will significantly reduce transportation costs. Next, let’s find out the average weight of a pallet under different standard sizes.
The GMA pallet is a more popular type of pallet. Its dimensions are 48×40. More than 30% of the pallets produced in the United States each year are this size. You can see how popular the GMA pallets are in America. In different regions, the specifications of the pallets they use are other. So in this article, when we talk about “how much does a pallet weigh?” we mainly talk about the weight of GMA pallets under different materials.
Before discussing standard pallet weights, we need to identify popular standard plastic pallet size.
standard pallet size
The standard size for pallets is 48 x 40, but several sizes are also commonly used, such as 36 x 36, 42 x 42, 48 x 48.
Don’t worry if you don’t find the pallet size you need. FAVOS plastic pallet manufacturer can customize pallets, if you want to know more about pallets, please contact us.
How much does a wooden pallet weigh?
GMA pallet (48 x 40 pallet) weight
The average weight of GMA wooden pallets is 13-20kg (30-50 pounds). You may find that they have a wide range of consequences, and that’s because pallets of the same size may have different structures. At the same time, the heavier the pallet, the greater the pressure he can bear. That is, the stronger the tray. In general, GMA pallets can carry items of 2100kg (4700 pounds).
48 x 48 pallet weight
48 x 48 pallets are sometimes called 4×4 pallets. People mainly use these size pallets for transporting liquids in drums. So it is also sometimes called a drum tray. The weight of a single drum tray is 18.2kg (40 pounds), and it can carry about 1600kg (3700 pounds) of items.
42×42 pallet weight
The weight of a single paint pallet is between 12-18kg (30-40 pounds), and it can usually carry objects of 1600kg (3700 pounds). Pallets of this size are commonly used in the paint industries. So people will also call it a varnish pallet.
36 x 36 pallet weight
You may have yet to develop a concept of this size. People mainly use the 36×36 pallet in the transportation of beverages. Beverages are essential to our daily life, which is why the 36×36 pallets are also prevalent in the market. A 36 x 36 pallet weighs approximately 13kg (30 pounds). It can also carry about 2100kg (4700 pounds) of cargo.
What factors affect the weight of a wooden pallet?
For wooden pallets, other things are equal (same size and structure), fir is lighter, and pine is heavier.
The weight of a wooden pallet is also related to the dry density. The finer the wood fibers, the higher the solid wood pellet’s dry density. Dry density is the wood weight and volume ratio when moisture reaches equilibrium under certain conditions. The heavier the weight, the greater the dry density. It shows that the more serious the wood, the higher the hardness and the higher the strength.
Yet, the heavier the solid wood pallet, the higher the water absorption expansion rate. And the higher shrinkage rate when spouting water. In other words, the heavier the wood, the greater the denaturation. The dry density of solid wood pallets depends on the type and quality of the wood chosen. This process is related to time. The higher the dry density, the better.
But when you choose, you should go according to these three factors. They are the difference between the dry density, the moisture content of the solid wood tray, and the local annual average humidity. The smaller the difference, the less likely the solid wood pallet will be deformed.
Wooden pallets are mainly divided into heavy, light, and standard. This classification is based on the weight of the pallet itself. Also, the larger the load, the heavier the wooden pallet.
Relatively speaking, the heavier the wooden pallet with the same layout, the longer the service life.
How much does a plastic pallet weigh?
| Size(inch) | Size(mm) | Weight(kg) | Static Capacity | Dynamic Capacity |
| GMA pallet | 1200×1000 | 7kg-13kg | 1.5T-4T | 0.6T-1T |
| 48×48 pallet | 1200×1200 | 14.5kg | 4T | 1T |
We can easily find that plastic pallets are lighter than wooden pallets when the dimensions are the same.
What factors affect the weight of a plastic pallet?
Plastic pallets can confirm the quotation based on accurate data. Such as the maximum load capacity and the proportion of new materials. There are uncertain quotation factors, such as weight errors. The weight error generally ranges from 0.2 kg to 1 kg. The smaller the weight of the plastic pallet, the smaller the weight error.
- First, the raw materials are different, and the densities of various raw materials are different. Molds produce plastic pallets, and the volume inside the mold is specific. So the weight of plastic pallets of the exact specification is different.
- Secondly, even the weights of plastic trays with the same raw materials still have errors. Because the plastic raw materials cannot completely fill the injection cavity, there must be holes that the naked eye cannot see. And the pressure of the plastic tray injected by the injection molding machine will not be exactly the same each time.
- Finally, the plastic tray is taken out of the mold after the injection molding. It is necessary to manually repair the burrs and burrs on the material inlet and the surface of the plastic tray. The strength and range of manual operation are different. Resulting in various weights for removing burrs, and the weight error of the plastic tray is also different.
Why do you need to know the weight of a pallet?
Why do you need to know “how much does a pallet weigh?”? Knowing the weight of the pallet concerns not only the price of the pallet but also affects its performance. For pallets with the same structure, if you want to increase the load capacity of the pallet, you need to increase the weight of the pallet itself.
But there are exceptional cases as well. For plastic pallets, pallets made from new materials are often of better quality than pallets made from scrap or mixed materials. If these pallets want to achieve the quality of the new material, the proportion of ingredients usually increases. Now, their weight will be heavier than that of the new material pallet. When choosing a pallet, it is also necessary to consider the material used for the pallet.
Knowing the weight of a pallet also can reduce the transportation cost of the commodity as low as possible. When the goods’ weight is certain, the load capacity of the pallet needs to meet the weight of the goods. And under the same load capacity, the lower the weight of the pallet itself, the lower the logistics cost required.
Now I believe you know why you need to know “how much does a pallet weigh?”.