Patent ID: 7856933
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: A61L,B65D

Abstract:
1. A method for assembling a pallet comprising: providing a plurality of wooden dowels, each dowel comprising a top surface and first and second lower portions, each dowel having at least two contiguous dowel cylindrical sections having sidewalls of different cross-sectional size; providing a plurality of elongated wooden pallet stringers, each stringer having at least one mounting surface and a top surface; providing a plurality of deck boards; positioning the deck boards in spaced parallel arrangement; positioning the stringers perpendicular to said deck boards, spaced from one another; and wherein each stringer is connected to at least two of said plurality of deck boards by providing pilot holes that extend through each deck board and into each stringer at an angle substantially perpendicular to the mounting surfaces, wherein the pilot holes having at least an upper pilot hole and a lower pilot hole section having decreasing cross-sectional size; applying adhesive material to the mounting surfaces of the pallet stringers; applying adhesive material to the pilot holes or dowels such that adhesive material is ultimately disposed in the pilot holes; inserting the dowels through the deck boards into the pilot holes of the stringers so that the pilot holes cinch the dowels at a lower portion with a ratio between the lower pilot hole cross sectional area and the dowel cross sectional area less than one and there is a snug fit at a top portion of the dowel with a cross sectional area of the upper pilot hole to be equal to or greater than the cross sectional area of the dowel.