PalletPal Roll-On with Turntable Used in Food Facility
| Model | Capacity | Platform Size | Raised Height | Rise Time (seconds) |
| PalletPal® Roll-On™ with Turntable | From 2,500 lbs. to 4,000 lbs. |
40” x 48” Min 52” by 48” Max |
28 3/8” | From 22 to 30 |
Features
- Rotating platform can be lowered to floor level to facilitate unloading with hand pallet truck
- Can be raised/lowered as needed and is fully accessible from all sides
- Photo-eye toe protection on all three working sides
Mission Foods Corp. produces 12 kinds of tortillas and a variety of tortilla snacks, taco shells and snacks at 13 plants across the U.S. Every day, thousands of pallets piled high with these products make it out the door on their way to stores. A main concern for Tom Davis, Safety Manager for Mission Foods, was pallet loading.
Packed with bags of product, a plastic box (called “totes”) weighs as much as 40 pounds. Workers stacked the containers six layers high on every pallet. Stacking the lower layers required bending and at every layer the employees carried full totes around to the other side of the pallet as needed. Another safety issue was the ability of workers to quickly lose their balance while stepping onto a pallet, often resulting in broken or sprained ankles. Since 500 of Mission’s 4,000 employees load pallets, the company recognized 
that pallet loading needed to be addressed. An ergonomic consultant, Tim Pottoroff, was hired by the company to recommend equipment to facilitate pallet loading.
Davis had previously considered purchasing some type of lifting equipment. “At that time, every lift I’d heard of had to be recessed,” recalls Davis. “That meant digging a pit in the concrete floor so the platform could go low enough for the full pallets to be removed with the manual pallet jacks we use in most of our plants.” Pottoroff was able to provide information on Southworth’s PalletPal Roll-On Level Loaders which are moveable and do not
need to be pit mounted.
With a capacity from 2,500 lbs. up to 4,000 lbs, the Roll-On is accessible from all sides, can be raised or lowered as needed so that each tier of goods can be loaded or unloaded at the same height. Easily turned by hand, the rotating platform means workers can stay on the same side of the unit at all times.
“The job of pallet loading is easier now—no question,” Davis says. “The totes come in on a conveyor belt at waist level, so there is hardly any bending. We’ve seen a decrease in injuries, overtime and turnover somewhere in the ballpark of 50%.”