Do You Want to Use Slip Sheets in Your Business Operation?
A slip sheet is usually a thin, pallet-sized sheet constructed of corrugated fibreboard, heavy-duty laminated paperboard, or strong plastic. Slip sheets are broader and longer than a typical pallet by several inches to fit a push-pull forklift attachment gripper.
Slip sheets can offer a few benefits compared to pallets:
- Much lower material cost: It will cost you 10% of the pallet price.
- Lower transportation cost: It weighs 5% of the pallet weight and eliminates 4” of height, as a result, offers savings in transportation cost.
- Space-saving: Require less storage space so more room for inventory.
- Environmentally friendly: Slip sheets can readily be reused, recycled, and properly discarded at the end of their useful lives. Compared to pallets, slip sheets put less pressure on landfills.
Pallets, on the other hand, require more space, must be returned and must be fixed if broken. Additionally, when their useful lives are through, they need to be appropriately disposed of.
- Less susceptible to contamination: Pallets may get tainted with goods that have spilled, making further usage risky. Insects and rodents can nest in them in the ideal places. An infected slip sheet can simply be thrown away or recycled.
Top Industries has also used a push pull slip sheet for a number of projects done for different industries.
Slip sheets versus pallets
Slip sheets can offer many benefits as compared to traditional pallets:
- Unit cost: The unit cost of a pallet can be $10 or more, however, slip sheets are usually less than $1.00/piece, thus making them a very inexpensive choice.
- Storage density: Pallets can be many inches high and may consume extra racking space within a warehouse. By eliminating pallets, you can fit several numbers of extra goods in a warehouse.
- Transportation cost: More products may be loaded onto a trailer without the weight and size of pallets, eliminating the need to transfer the additional weight of pallets.
- Labour cost reduction: You can easily dispose of slip sheets and they can be far easier to move and pick up around a facility.
- Eco-friendly: As most slip sheets can be highly recyclable cardboard or paper, they are usually more sustainable as compared to wood products.
Slip sheets generally work better for uniform commodities than mixed pallets of various carton sizes, shapes, and weights. In high-volume settings where most or all cargoes can be packed easily on slip sheets and the expenditure in forklift attachments can readily be justified, and they make the most sense.
Pallet rack considerations
Commonly, slip sheets are used in transportation since they are quite lightweight and also consume little space. However, in the past, the contents were shifted to a pallet for storing at the warehouse.
With the introduction of fork entry bars, goods could be effectively stored without using a pallet. Here the forklift operator must make sure that the pallet load is placed accurately on the risers, so that it does not move during the operation.
In the case of pushback flow systems, there will be need to make the changes in the slip sheet designs to suit the loads that do not have the same dimensions as the pallets.
You can follow on Linkedin profile of Top Industries to know how to use slip sheets in different applications.
