Engineered Wood Blocks
Choosing Litco Extruded Wood Blocks™ and Inca Extruded Wood Blocks™ is Easy as "A-B-C"
A: Available and made in the USA – Eliminate long overseas shipping lead-times.
B: Benefits your Bottom Line – Reduce labor, materials, waste and processing costs.
C: Consistent quality, dimensions and nail-withdraw resistance.
If you are building block-style pallets, want to reduce costs and improve
pallet performance, we want to talk to you today!
Reduce Labor and Equipment Costs
- No additional processing required, resulting in less labor and equipment costs.
Purchasing Litco’s blocks will reduce the number of employees needed for cutting, quality inspection, and moving them through from the cut shop to the assembly line.
Accurate and Consistent Dimensions
- Ready for assembly in automated or manual production.
- Minimal swelling due to moisture and temperature changes.
Litco International’s Engineered Extruded Wood™ block can be manufactured to a variety of exact dimensions that are in demand for European style and industry specific pallets. Its’ consistent dimensions allow for less interruptions and jams during automated manufacturing setups.
Engineered Wood Product
- Reorientation of the wood grain structure helps to reduce splitting block failures from fork tines, provide additional resistance to nail withdraw, and helps reduce cracking of blocks due to fastener placement and shrinkage stress.
- Fasteners can be driven into any face of the block without splitting and provides a comparable withdrawal resistance.
The manufacturing of the Engineered Extruded Wood™ block also changes some of the mechanical properties of wood itself. The processing of the wood fiber provides a more uniform distribution of the fibers in all directions. The redistribution of these fibers strengthens certain mechanical properties of the wood. This is because solid lumber has a different mechanical value when measured in different directions.
Higher Density
- The blocks are composed of a mix of highly compacted softwood and hardwood fibers providing a higher overall density when compared to most solid wood.
- The product is also more resistance to impacts and provides better nail retention.
The increased density of the Engineered Extruded Wood™ block provides more impact resistance to the material. In addition, the denser material provides better fastener retention. This is because fasteners’ helixes and flutes have more material to grab.
Reduce Demand for Solid Lumber
- Reduce stress on facilities’ lumber supply and reduce the amount of created waste.
No need to sort at the production line to try and avoid material loss with solid lumber when converting to blocks, because of wood shrinkage, warping, and twist.
Low Moisture Content
- The product has no drying costs, requires no mold treatment, and causes no moisture damage to product.
- In addition, cracking and checking will not occur due to shrinkage from drying.
The moisture content of Litco’s Engineered Extruded Wood™ block is 7% at the time of manufacture. At this low moisture, they are less likely to promote the growth of mold and attract moisture-sensing pests.
IPPC-ISPM 15 Compliance
- The block is compliant with the regulation due to being a processed wood material.
Our family of engineered wood products are considered “Wood Packaging Material (WPM)” however; they are still compliant with the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures 15 (ISPM 15) regulation. This is because the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) considers them to be of sufficiently low risk for infestation of pests.
Sustainable
- The blocks reuse and repurpose unsuitable solid lumber and fibers into an engineered extruded wood form.
Damaged logs, wood waste, and other wood by-products are the materials of choice for our Engineered Extruded Wood™ blocks. The component materials are easily reusable for the end user as mulch, absorbents, and animal bedding.
Made in the USA
- Because our production plants are located in the USA, the lead-times are much shorter to acquire when compared to other imported composite wooden blocks that are made offshore.
Since they are closer, the shipping costs are lower because less fuel is required to ship them to the end-user. Also, there are less energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide to impact the potentially irreversible consequences of climate change.
All Litco products are designed to Carry your products safely and
securely on through the most demanding supply chains.