In March this year, the Moravian company Flexipal opened a production line for so-called hybrid pallets in the village of Stanoviště. It is a variation on classic pallets, where wooden blocks have been replaced by hard plastic made from so-called plastic discard, which commonly ends up in incinerators and landfills. The company wants to go even further in development and has also invited experts in machines and robots from BUT to help.
In the Czech Republic, 200 thousand tons of plastic discards are produced annually. It is the least valuable plastic waste that has not yet had a use and has gone to incinerators. This is now changing with hybrid pallets that combine wood and plastic blocks. Flexipal plans to process 5,000 tonnes of discards in the first year, which is 250 trucks fully loaded with plastic waste – half of what Brno residents throw into yellow bins per year.
"Our cooperation started quite by coincidence. At first, we weren't very interested in it, because we make machines, not pallets. However, it soon became clear that it was not an easy matter technologically at all," recalls Professor Jiří Marek from the Institute of Production Machines, Systems and Robotics. Cooperation on hybrid pallets is only part of what Flexipal is working on today with Jiří Marek and his colleagues.
The first task they agreed on with the company was a robotic solution for the pallet repair line. The existing sorting line did not suit the company, and the repair itself is carried out manually by workers and is very demanding in terms of manual work. "It turned out that a robot could do it, and we also designed better and more efficient defect detection using machine vision on the sorting line," says Marek, mentioning the two development jobs they are now working on for the company. "Our people are currently completing a defect recognition system and Flexipal is even considering offering this jointly developed technological solution for sale to other interested parties," adds Marek.
In the current form of the hybrid pallet, FME experts were only in the role of consultants. The combination of wood and plastic blocks offers higher resistance to moisture and chemicals, longer service life and a more environmentally friendly solution for logistics and warehousing. Free collection of pallets for subsequent full recycling is also provided. However, because the company has other ambitious plans for the pallet, it is using the experience of experts from BUT to develop another pallet that will be almost or entirely made of plastic scrap.
"We are currently working on the development of other parts of the pallet where wood could be replaced by plastic. Prototypes of entire pallets are being created, which have the potential to save a lot of wood and waste. It would be a beautiful circular economy," says Marek, adding that there will be a number of other technical issues to be addressed as part of the development. "We have to solve not only the shape of the part and the method of its production but also the tools for machining because the material created from the discard is very hard and durable. There are an awful lot of challenges, it's a completely new thing," Marek points out.
Around 500 million pallets are produced in Europe every year, of which less than half are returnable. The new line for hybrid pallets in the village of Stanoviště has a capacity of 500 thousand hybrid pallets per year. "The use of plastic blocks saves 30 per cent of wood. A ton of plastic scrap is equivalent to 3 cubic meters of raw wood. The annual operation of the first plant will thus save 15 thousand cubic meters of raw wood per year, which represents a forest with an area of approximately 10 Wenceslas Squares in Prague or 71 soccer fields. In addition, a hybrid pallet has at least twice the service life of a conventional one, so the savings are even higher in reality," explains Flexipal owner Tomáš Vojtěch, adding that within five years the company wants to build another line, increase production to millions of pallets and process up to 50 thousand tons of discard per year.