Skid liners, also known as slipsheets and layer pads, are corrugated cardboard or chipboard that can be placed on top of pallets or between items stacked on them. Naturally, businesses that require shipping of items appreciate these sheets — they can protect various items safe from damage during transit in many ways.
Ways you can use skid liners to protect your goods:
- Slip reduction – As the name “slipsheets” implies, skid liners are excellent for keeping heavier items stable while in transit. Skid liners feature a low coefficient of friction, allowing objects stacked on them to resist moving. This prevents heavy items from sliding during transportation, reducing the likelihood of damage.
- Tear-resistant – Chipboard and corrugated are fairly tear-resistant and difficult to damage in case items shift, even when heavy items that may have sharp corners that could cause tearing. They can be used as a buffer between bottles, boxes, packed equipment, and pallets. Older pallets may have protruding nails or splinters that can cause damage or injury; skid liners help shield items from accidental scratches, rips and from contact with damaged pallets.
- Waterproof – Skids liners or layer pads can also be placed on the pallet to reduce risk of water splashing up an damaging a load or on top of a stack of boxes or goods as a “pallet topper” to prevent water damage. If your inventory or items for transport will be exposed to the elements (e.g. rain, dust), corrugated sheets and chipboard can protect them.
- Cleanliness/hygiene – Skid liners can help keep pests away from items they might damage during transit, especially chipboard sheets which are solid sheets which don’t provide places for pests to hide like corrugated sheets do. After use, wooden pallets are often fumigated and decontaminated to resist attracting rodents, insects, and germs. Liners provide a barrier between your property and any chemicals that may remain present.
- Ease of storage – Because chipboard skid liners are denser than corrugated sheets, they take up a lot less space, making them easier to store in a warehouse and helps reduce accidents from falling stacks. Chipboard also optimizes storage space in trucks or containers.
- Load Stabilization – A chipboard sheet especially can help stabilize a load when used on top of a pallet as it doesn’t have flutes like corrugated that could be crushed by the weight of a heavy load. Corrugated sheets and heavier gauge chipboard sheets when used as layer pads both help stabilize loads and reduce the stress on pallet wrap used to contain a load.
- Fewer injuries – Skid liners can make loading and unloading easier on workers who unload heavy items by hand. The skid liners can protect workers from nails or splinters that could cause injuries when they pick up items.
Chipboard and corrugated skid liners and layer pads protect your goods in transit; save your business money and protect your moving team when transporting goods and equipment. When your items arrive in mint condition, your clients are happy and you avoid unnecessary delays or replacement orders.
Hammond Paper provides skid liners, layer pads, pallet toppers and other paperboard products, made and customized to the size you need. Clients across North America have enjoyed our quality products and services since 1993. Contact us at (905) 761-6867; we’re ready to help with your shipping and transport needs.