For many people in logistics, the wooden pallet on which freight is placed is a staple and workhorse of the industry. It’s not just a platform on which to place freight; it can be important in assisting the carrying of cargo by providing a solid base for forklifts and other vehicles to use. However, it also plays another important role: providing thermal protection when shipping temperature-sensitive products.
Heat Is Always In Motion So Thermal Protection Is Needed
Shipping temperature-sensitive products is all about preserving the optimal temperature for those products to ensure that they arrive at their destination fresh, safe to consume, medically effective, and, in some cases, still operable as consumer electronics.
However, temperature-sensitive products can quickly shift out of that optimal shipping temperature in a variety of different ways. Thermal conduction, for example, is when heat from a warmer object transfers over to a cooler object through physical contact. This is the basis for how cooking works, with heated pots and pans transferring that heat to the ingredients that sit on their surfaces. But heat doesn’t just transfer at extremely high temperatures when cooking. It always happens whenever a warmer object makes physical contact with a cooler one and continues until both objects are at the same temperature.
The Ground Is A Risk
In logistics, thermal conduction is at its greatest through one unavoidable point of contact: the ground. Whether a cargo is sitting in a shipping container or on the floor of an aircraft, the items themselves make contact with the bottom of their cargo container, and the cargo container itself makes contact with the flooring surface of whatever it is being shipped in. As long as that contact persists, so does the act of thermal conduction.
This is the additional reason why cargo pallets are important. They can act as a crucial insulating layer of interference between the cargo and the floor of a shipping vehicle, whether that’s a ship, train, truck, or aircraft. However, cargo pallets are not always available, especially for smaller shipments. In these instances, alternatives such as double-layered Slip Sheets can often provide equivalent or even superior levels of thermal protection against conductivity with temperature-sensitive products. Which solution is right for you depends on many factors, including the size of the shipment, the vehicles involved, pallet availability, and your budget.
If you’re shipping temperature-sensitive products and want to know the best way to get those products to their destination safely, we can help. Contact us to explain your shipping needs and obtain a quote.
