Pallet maker saves P80K a month with DOST-FPRDI technology
April 08, 2015
ACE + FA Enterprises, a Laguna-based maker of wooden pallets, has been saving around Php 80,000 a month on its operations for one year now. How did it do this? It stopped renting the services of another company and now uses its own low-cost heat treatment facility (LHTF) to disinfect its pallets.
Designed by the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI), the LHTF provides the heat needed to kill insects and other pests infesting wood packaging materials (WPMs) such as wooden pallets.
WPMs are commonly used in shipping goods around the globe as they are cheaper than plastic and metal containers. However, WPMs made of raw wood are prone to pest attacks and can introduce and spread pests from one country to another.
In 2002, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) adopted the Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade or the ISPM 15, which requires all WPMs to go through heat treatment or methyl bromide (MB) fumigation before they can be stamped with the IPPC seal.
“Heat treatment using the LHTF is a safe way to get IPPC marks for wooden pallets,” said Dr. Romulo T. Aggangan, FPRDI Director. “MB fumigation, the traditional way of controlling pests possibly carried by shipping containers, is 60 times more damaging to the ozone layer than chlorine. It is blamed for 5-10% of worldwide ozone depletion and makes wood non-recyclable.”
“Exposure to high MB levels has resulted in a number of human deaths. Meanwhile, heat treatment or HT does nothing to harm the environment. This is why many logistics companies worldwide now prefer it over using MB.”
According to Ms. Wency H. Carmelo, Senior Science Research Specialist at FPRDI, “HT requires that the pallet blocks’ wood core be treated at 56°C for at least 30 minutes. An FPRDI study revealed that the average HT time is five hours which will only cost Php 6.68 per pallet when using a 10,000-board foot-capacity LHTF. This is 46% cheaper than MB fumigation.”
Carmelo added, “The ACE + FA Enterprises is now an accredited HT provider by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI). The LHTF design was patterned after the FPRDI’s furnace-type lumber dryer (FTLD), but 40 percent cheaper.”
Since 2003, nine pallet manufacturers which use the FPRDI facility have passed BPI standards and are now accredited HT providers. Among the first of such companies was Adtek Co., which treated ACE + FA’s wooden pallets before the latter decided to have its own dryer.
The surge in demand for local pallets began with the onset of global industrialization in the late 1990s. In 2009, the Southern Tagalog Region alone accounted for at least 30 pallet makers which produced a total of 2,000 pallets a day.
“With FPRDI’s help to the pallet industry, we not only help keep a greener earth, we also offer to our clients a safer and cheaper way to get IPCC stamps and keep their businesses growing,” Carmelo concluded. (Rizalina K. Araral and Apple Jean C. Martin, 06 April 2015)#
