How long before the price gap over timber pays back?

Answer: At 500 trips a year and a 300 yuan gap per unit, a little over two years. Below 200 trips a year it never comes back.

With only three tiers, does clearance still matter?

Answer: Yes. Clearance decides whether a person can pick standing up, not the tier count.

Can a projectile pallet replace a roto-moulded bin outdoors?

Answer: Short term yes, long term no. Two years of ultraviolet embrittles the latches before the wall fails.

Is timber banned for sea export?

Answer: Not banned, only conditioned. ISPM 15 adds a day plus a certificate, and it stays worthwhile at low volume.

Which whole-life item gets missed most often?

Answer: Empty return. Volume-based charging over five years separates nesting from rigid designs by the price of a batch.

With all four numbers in range, is price still worth comparing?

Answer: Yes, but only between identical structures. A different wall thickness makes two quotes incomparable.

Four Numbers, Four Lines: When a Projectile Pallet Loses

Quick answer: A projectile pallet is not the default answer. Under fifty trips a year, over forty kilos a lift, five tiers, or a one-way shipment, wood, steel racks or roto-moulded bins cost less.

Four Numbers That Screen the Field
Line One: Cycle Count and Weight per Lift
Line Two: Tier Height and Rack Clearance
Line Three: Open Storage and Thermal Cycling
Line Four: Unit Price versus Whole-Life Cost
When It Loses: What the Alternatives Win
FAQ

1. Four Numbers That Screen the Field

The usual mistake in a selection meeting is treating one option as the only one. The window where a projectile pallet pays off is narrow enough to draw with four numbers.

Number	Typical	Past the edge
Trips a year	600 and up	Below 50, one-way timber is cheaper
Weight per lift	25 kg	Past 40 kg, forks become mandatory
Usual stacking	3 tiers	At 5 tiers, steel takes over
Empty weight	11 kg	Above 15 kg, empty returns double

All four must sit left before price matters.

2. Line One: Cycle Count and Weight per Lift

Cycle count decides whether tooling amortises. A pallet rated for 600 trips spreads mould cost to under two yuan a trip; on a 50-trip route the same money lands at twenty-odd yuan each.

Projectile Pallet: lid raised, brass rounds packed to the wall, black convoluted foam on the lid

Weight per lift decides handling and structure together. Two people manage 25 kg, forks become mandatory past 40 kg, and by 300 kg plastic ribs give way to steel.

Timber carries a hard constraint: export falls under ISPM 15, so boards are fumigated, adding a day and a certificate to every batch. On a single sea shipment that is still worth paying.

3. Line Two: Tier Height and Rack Clearance

Three tiers is where plastics feel comfortable and five is steel territory. The split is creep rather than strength: under steady load, plastic keeps deforming after the third tier and can sag three millimetres in half a year. At 1.8 m clear, a 250 mm projectile pallet stacks seven high, so three tiers is about reaching, not space. A steel rack carries 800 kg and pays for it in tare: often over 60 kg empty, with rust within half a year of one broken zinc coat.

4. Line Three: Open Storage and Thermal Cycling

Open storage gets waved away with a claim about having a roof. Under one, the swing still runs from minus 30 °C to plus 60 °C twenty times a year, and the latches take all of it.

Projectile Pallet: open case on a workshop bench, grey blocks seated in foam pockets, egg-crate foam in the lid

Timber loses outright. Boards stay under 18 per cent moisture to hold shape, and three months outdoors puts the water back: panels crown, nails surface.

A roto-moulded bin is the rival: a 6 mm seamless wall keeps water out for two years, at 30 per cent more weight for the same capacity.

5. Line Four: Unit Price versus Whole-Life Cost

Unit price alone always misleads. Split whole-life cost into five parts:

Purchase price: four to six times timber, paid up front.
Empty return: charged by volume, so nesting cuts it to sixty per cent.
Repair: latches and handles are ten-yuan parts; timber has none.
Scrap value: plastics recover eight per cent, timber almost nothing.
Downtime: one broken loop costs more than the four items above.

Three can be calculated and two only estimated. Where estimation fails, multiply annual trips by cost per trip and keep the configuration while the gap stays under twenty per cent.

6. When It Loses: What the Alternatives Win

Each alternative owns a condition; none is a fallback.

Option	Wins when	Loses on
One-way timber pallet	Under 50 trips, single leg	Warps outdoors, needs fumigation
Roto-moulded bin	Long outdoor storage	30 per cent heavier
Foam-lined aluminium case	High-value items	Highest price, hard to repair
Steel rack	Five tiers, items past 100 kg	60 kg tare, eats capacity

The boundaries are sharp: high cycles go plastic, open yards go roto-moulded, few expensive items go aluminium, heavy and high go steel. A projectile pallet sits between the first two and can be displaced from either side.

Conclusion

The four lines are for elimination, not ranking. Cycle count removes one-way options, weight per lift removes manual handling, tier height removes plastics, outdoor years remove timber. Only among the survivors does a projectile pallet earn its price, and forcing it onto every route is the expensive mistake.

This article discusses only the container (case body) side of specifications and design intent, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.