Request · quote · pickup
Term we have missed?
Tell us in the message field and we will add it.
- Block pallet
- A pallet using nine blocks instead of stringers, giving true four-way entry for both forks and pallet jacks. The European standard.
- Board foot
- A unit of lumber volume: 12 × 12 × 1 inches. A 48×40 GMA pallet contains roughly 35–40 board feet.
- Chamfer
- The angled edge cut on bottom deck boards so a pallet jack can climb aboard without catching.
- Companion board
- A second board nailed alongside a damaged one to share the span. A legitimate repair; drops a pallet to B grade.
- Core
- An unsorted, un-repaired used pallet — raw material for a recycler. Sold by the load.
- Deck coverage
- The percentage of the pallet footprint actually covered by boards. Drives whether cartons bridge or sag.
- Dunnage
- Loose wood used inside a load for blocking and bracing. Needs its own ISPM-15 treatment for export.
- Flush pallet
- Deck boards end level with the outer stringers — no overhang. Contrast with single- or double-wing.
- GMA
- Grocery Manufacturers Association, whose 48×40 spec became the de facto North American pallet.
- HT
- Heat treated: wood core held at 56 °C for 30 continuous minutes to satisfy ISPM-15.
- ISPM-15
- The international phytosanitary standard governing wood packaging in cross-border trade.
- KD
- Kiln dried — moisture reduced, usually to ≤19%, to prevent mould and dimensional movement.
- Lead board
- The outermost deck board at each end. Takes the most abuse and is the most replaced part of any pallet.
- Notch
- The cut-out in a stringer that lets a fork enter from the side, making a stringer pallet four-way.
- Plug
- A lumber insert repairing a broken stringer. Structurally sound; cosmetically obvious.
- Skid
- A platform with no bottom deck. Lighter and nestable; lower capacity.
- Stringer
- The lengthwise runner separating top and bottom decks in a non-block pallet.
- Whitewood
- Any non-pooled, non-rental pallet — owned outright rather than leased from a programme.
Use it with
Three reference pages.
The size library
Fifteen footprints, inches and millimetres, with the reasoning.
OpenGrades explained
Plugs, companion boards and plating, and what each does to grade.
OpenAnatomy of a pallet
The long-form article that names every part properly.
OpenNot in the menuThis page lives inside the Journal and FAQ rather than the main navigation — it is a reference you reach from the thing you were reading.