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June 15, 2000 email To Paul Russell Page 1
of 3 Company Hewlett Packard email paul_russell_at_
hp.com Copy Bob Sanders email btsanders_at_us.ibm.c
om Company IBM Re O-T-D Aluminum Pallet for
EIPS Standard Paul, In regards to posting our
drawing on the web, you certainly have our
permission to do so. In reply to Bob Sanders
questions, the weight of the pallet is 45.6
pounds/20.7 kg. The spacing between the deck
slats (per the drawing) is 3.499. This was
calculated by the 60 minimum requirement per the
Physical Properties of the Suggested EIPS Test
Protocol. The top deck coverage per per
our drawing is 61.6. We based our design and
engineering to meet or exceed the criteria as
outlined in the above mentioned EIPS Test
Protocol. We can certainly decrease the slat
spacing by adding an additional slat which would
bring the spacing to 2.155 (8 slat pallet). Or,
we can utilize wider slats which would also
decrease the spacing. This is only one of the
advantages of our aluminum pallets, we can design
and manufacture our products to meet any design
criteria, without any additional costs. Our
products are not influenced or restricted by
expensive molds (i.e. plastics). The cost of
this pallet is 94.00. In large quantities, a
lease/purchase program can be utilized
which would bring the cost to approximately
0.0376 (0.04), per day, per pallet. This is
approximately the same amount a company would pay
for a daily trip rental for a wood pallet! The
following life-cycle comparison illustrates how
cost effective aluminum really is (The
comparison is based on a 10 year, direct
purchase, total life-cycle) Type Wood Plastic
Aluminum Life Expectancy 2 years 5 years 10
years Approximate Cost 20.00 50.00 94.00 Times
purchased per 10 year cycle 5 2 1 Repairable? Y
es No Yes Cost per 10 year cycle, not including
repairs 100.00 100.00 94.00 above
compared to Aluminum 6.00 6.00 - Cost per
year not including repairs 10.00 10.00 9.40
above compared to Aluminum 0.60 0.60 -

If You Can Imagine It, We Can Build It
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June 15, 2000 email

Page 2 of
3 O-T-D Aluminum Pallet for EIPS Standard The
above life cycle information is validated from a
report by Battelle, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, in August of 1997. In this report,
steel pallets were used for comparison. Given
that aluminum will not rust or require any
maintenance, the total life-cycle expectancy
should be greater than 10 years. It
also indicates that wood and plastic pallets have
longer life-cycles that can be generally expected
in a real-life manufacturing environment.
However, for sakes of comparison, I used their
numbers. It should also be noted that the above
figures do not include repair costs for wood
pallets (plastic cannot be repaired), nor the
administrative and operational costs associated
with handling, storage and final
disposal/recycling of wood and plastic
pallets. If you have any additional questions or
would like to discuss our product design in
greater detail, please do not hesitate to contact
me. Best regards, Terry Gabor Manager Business
Development
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O-T-D Aluminum Products vs. Other Materials
Plastic plastics represent a significant fire
hazard - especially toxic gas release when
burning, Group II plastic pallets release THREE
times the heat, pound for pound, than wood
pallets can splinter and crack high tooling
costs and expensive molds for special sizes
limited life-cycle incapable of handling heavy
loads over an extended period of time can
loose shape or fit over time (lower
durability) bulky design to meet load
requirements - resulting in higher stacks and
lost valuable storage space costly recycling
and disposal difficulties very low scrap
value Steel rusts - requiring maintenance
higher life-cycle costs promotes an adverse
environmental impact from the process of
scraping and painting heavier - higher freight
and handling costs costly recycling and
disposal difficulties negligible scrap
value Wood fire hazard holds dust and
dirt - can contaminate product decays
splinters and exposed nails cause injury to
personnel and damage to product and
equipment difficult to produce uniform sizes
in volume quantities will attract insects if
it is not treated - a real problem for
international shipments recycling and disposal
difficulties especially if impregnated with
preservative or fungicides NO scrap value -
costly disposal fees - negative impact upon
the environment .
Extra Costs additional operational expenses
are incurred in handling and
storing the above materials prior to
their disposal.