Winter is quickly approaching, and we have learned from our years of experience that this is an important season to start paying particularly close attention to quality control within the pallet industry.  If you as the customer are not prepared and we as the supplier are not prepared, cold weather might cause substantial damage to our pallets and ultimately your products.

When temperatures drop, the material (wood) gets damp and sometimes even frozen when harvested. Therefore, the wood becomes difficult to nail and cut. When the logs have extra moisture, the chances of the cants freezing are high.

Below we explain two major challenges the colder months bring to the pallet manufacturing process.

1. Nail Depth

One of the challenges we will face first is nail depth. To maintain our high-quality standards, in this case, we make sure that all of our nailing machines and countersink dimensions are double-checked throughout the wintertime to avoid tears or punctures of the products our clients place on top of the pallets.

At Timber, we are careful and proactive about this and have quality control procedures to ensure that appropriate nail countersinking continues.

2. Temperature Difference

The second challenge we will face is the difference in temperature between the manufacturing facilities where the logs are made, which isn’t always regulated, and the temperature in our facilities once we get them. If there is condensation in the pallet, we can change to a kiln-dried product that has lower moisture content.

It is also essential to communicate these issues to our customers, which we have done throughout the years. They need to remember this is a natural product that comes out of the earth, is transported in an open truck, and gets cut and processed at a sawmill, also uncovered. The logs we use for pallets will never be kiln-dried since it is a distinct kind of wood and handled differently than construction building wood.

Our concentration on double-checking every single step of the manufacturing process helps to serve our clients with the highest quality they have come to expect, and guarantees they do not encounter any problems while using our products.

Have you experienced any of these issues during the winter season? How did your supplier handle this with you?