Patent ID: 7726248

Claim:
A twin sheet plastic runner pallet comprising: a generally rectangular lower plastic sheet including upstanding sidewalls and upstanding end walls and defining at least three separate, parallel, upwardly opening longitudinally extending U-shaped grooves extending continuously from end to end of the sheet, and at least two downwardly opening longitudinally extending U-shaped grooves interspersed between the upwardly opening grooves and opening in the end walls of the lower sheet, each upwardly opening U-shaped groove including laterally spaced vertical side walls and a bottom wall; and a generally rectangular upper plastic sheet defining a top wall providing a platform surface for the pallet and a plurality of upwardly opening U-shaped protrusions extending downwardly from the top wall and sized to nest within the upwardly opening grooves of the lower sheet, the protrusions arranged in at least three parallel longitudinally extending rows with at least two longitudinally spaced protrusions in each row, each U-shaped protrusion including laterally spaced vertical side walls and a bottom wall, the upper sheet positioned over the lower sheet with the protrusions positioned in the upwardly opening grooves and the laterally spaced vertical side walls of each U-shaped protrusion fused respectively to the laterally spaced vertical side walls of a respective upwardly opening U-shaped groove and the bottom wall of each U-shaped protrusion fused to the bottom wall of a respective upwardly opening U-shaped groove to form at least two double thickness U-shaped wall structures in each upwardly opening groove at the interfaces of the protrusions and the respective upwardly opening groove, each U-shaped wall structure thus formed in an upwardly opening groove being laterally aligned with U-shaped wall structures in the other upwardly opening grooves, each double thickness U-shaped wall structure including laterally spaced double thickness sidewall structures and a double thickness bottom wall structure; the bottom walls of the upwardly opening U-shaped grooves coacting to define a pallet footprint consisting of at least three separate flat, laterally spaced parallel runner surfaces extending from end wall to end wall of the pallet; the pallet further including laterally aligned cut-outs formed in the double thickness laterally spaced side wall structures of each double thickness U-shaped wall structure to form laterally aligned fork lift slots to accommodate the forks of a fork lift truck and allow passage of each fork through a plurality of aligned slots in a plurality of U-shaped wall structures to provide firm entrapment for the forks whereby the pallet even if unevenly loaded will not tend to tip off of the forks as the pallet is lifted and transported by the forks.