Grade B pallets
A Grade B pallet has been repaired with replaced deck boards, plates or plugs. It is also called grade 2, it is sound, and it is fine for most dry freight.
What a repair looks like
A plug is a short board nailed beside a cracked stringer; iGPS says plugs run from 6 to 24 inches long. A plate is a metal fastening across a split. A replaced deck board looks newer than its neighbours. Millwood's guide lists deck board spacing of at least 4 inches and repaired stringers or plugs larger than 1 1/4 inches as Grade B features.
- Also called
- Grade 2.
- Form condition
- grade-b.
- Brand mark
- A B burned into a square.
Who buys it
Most dry-freight shippers. The repair tells a buyer the pallet was worth fixing, and it costs less than Grade A. It is the usual answer for recurring supply to distribution buildings and for plants that treat the pallet as a one-way carrier. In the metro it moves along all five legs, with the heaviest flows near Will Rogers airport and the Tinker corridor.
Questions worth asking
- How many repaired boards per pallet are acceptable?
- Do plugs near the fork pockets matter for your lift?
- Is the deck coverage enough for your cartons, or do they sag between boards?
If a customer inspects the pallet, step up to Grade A. If the pallet is leaving the country, ask for heat-treated. For the repair details, read plugs, plates and repairs.
Where Grade B ends
Grade B tolerates repairs: replaced boards, plates, plugs. It does not tolerate structural failure. If a stringer is split along the grain or more than a few boards are missing, the pallet leaves Grade B and joins Grade C or the cores.
Selling and buying Grade B
This is the workhorse grade. Factories, distributors and shippers use it by the thousand because it balances cost and reliability. It is also the grade most often misdescribed, since sellers want it to sound like A and buyers want it to behave like A.
A fair seller counts the pallets that have repairs and describes them. A fair buyer inspects a sample and agrees on tolerances. Between them, a number such as no more than two repairs per pallet can settle arguments.
If you have a stack that is mostly B, say so, and include a note on how it was stored. Dry, covered stock keeps its grade; stock left outside drifts toward C.
Spot checks on delivery
Inspect ten pallets taken from different layers of a load. Count the repairs on each, check the stringers for splits and measure the deck for flatness. If more than one in ten fails, raise it with the supplier before unloading the rest.