New 48 x 45 pallets

The 48 x 45 is listed as the automotive industry’s size and ranks seventh in North American pallet production. Parts move between suppliers and assembly plants in bins, racks and corrugated containers sized to the plants’ lines, and the extra 5 inches of deck over a 48 x 40 suits many of them. Auto plants use it alongside the 48 x 40, so a supplier may need both.

The stringers stay at 48 inches, so a 48 x 45 lifts and racks the same way a 48 x 40 does from the ends. The deck boards grow to 45 inches, which leaves more span between the outer stringers; on heavier parts loads, a fourth stringer or thicker boards keep the deck flat. Parts bins often sit on their corners or feet, so put deck boards where they land.

Assembly plants often publish their own packaging requirements for incoming parts: footprint, height, deck, labelling and sometimes the lumber. If your customer has one, send it with the request and the spec follows it line for line. Automotive parts covers more.

A starting point for the spec at this size. Your load sets the final numbers.

Most automotive packaging requirements also fix how the pallet is marked and labelled, how tall a loaded unit may stand, and sometimes the lumber and fasteners. A supplier who ships to more than one assembly plant may need a separate spec for each. Keeping those specs written, numbered and repeated is the job; the pallet itself is ordinary carpentry, but a rejected load at a plant dock is expensive for everyone.

Stringers

Three, 48 in long; four for heavy parts

Top deck

Boards 45 in long, placed under bin feet

Entry

Notched stringers for side entry, or block

Height

Set by the plant’s overall height limit

Marking

As the receiving plant requires

Why 45 inches?

Parts containers and returnable racks are sized to assembly lines, and many suit a deck a few inches wider than 40. The size became a listed standard for the trade.

Can one pallet serve two plants?

Only if both requirements allow it. Plants differ on height, deck and labelling; send each one and we will say whether one build meets both.

Do parts pallets come back?

Some programs return them, some don’t. A returnable pallet is built heavier for more trips. Say which applies.

What if the plant changes its requirement?

Send the new revision. The written spec is updated, dated and used from the next order, so old and new pallets don’t mix at the dock.

What should a parts supplier send?

The plant’s packaging specification, or the pages covering pallets, the part numbers each pallet carries, the container sizes and the weekly quantity. With those we write a sheet that matches the requirement line for line.