J Crate Design™

The J Crate design is the heart of WoodFree Crating’s simple concept. Viewing the sidewall from the top will reveal a “J” shape that interlocks with another identical “J” shape as its opposing sidewall. Both J walls make up four sides of the crate creating superior strength while maintaining a speed of packing and unpacking.
These “J’s” also interlock with the “Kickplate”.

Kickplate Design™

The Kickplate is the floor and/or ceiling of the WoodFree Crate that provides a couple of services:

• Firstly, it increases the floor-loading capability. We make the Kickplate in the Cross-Core fashion, which stiffens the crate floor.
• Secondly, it forms a channel around the perimeter for the J walls to fit into. This inhibits side impacts from being able to move the walls inward. This is particularly useful for long crates.
  

Crosscore Design™

The Crosscore is utilized to strengthen not only the floor but has been patented to strengthen the sidewalls when necessary. To give you an example of the strength of Crosscore below is the description for our Department of Defense (DOD) Crate:

The DOD crate has a rated top loading strength of 22,710 pounds. The military specification for this crate is to have an 8 times service factor so that it can place 4000 pounds on top of the crate for stacking.

We started with our typical 1100 Triplewall J sidewalls with the flutes heading vertically, made for a crate-sized 87x47x87. The crush test for the sidewalls without Crosscore peaked at 5081 pounds with 1” of deflection. Gluing just 500 Double wall Crosscore panels (Total 1600 test strength) with the flutes heading horizontally increased the strength to 13,990 pounds. (2ea. 1500 Vertical Triplewall J’s glued (Total 3000 test strength) provided 13,450). Utilizing the patented Crosscore technology from WoodFree Crating the wall is 45% lighter in weight while providing a stronger solution.

In order to meet the DOD’s demands we added a third layer of 1100 Triplewall with the Crosscore sandwiched in-between for a total sidewall strength of 22,710 pounds.

Spiralfoot Design ™

Our newest patented technology for 2006 is the Spiral Foot Design. It utilizes two small pieces of plywood to enable the crate to be nailed to the spiral foot. The spiral foot is nailed to the plywood rail.

What does this provide? For the first time a WoodFree designed Corrugated crate is LTL (less than truckload) ship-able. The spiral design provides a number of benefits for crating your machinery, etc.

• It provides the durability needed to ship machinery worldwide
• It naturally provides a level of cushioning and vibration protection that Wood cannot.
• Need more Cushioning? The Double-Dura Cushion Foot provides an inexpensive alternative to the die-cut glued foam that is typically placed within a crate.

W Fold™

An additional simple additional patented technology is the W Fold. It allows the sidewalls to fit inside the crate for shipping. We do this for our standard motorcycle and liftvan crates or where a reusable crate is required for ease of return. The sidewall merely has additional scores that allow the sidewalls to be folded up and placed in side the crate. This is only necessary when the height is longer than the width.

Heat Treating Stamp

Heat Treating Stamp: All of our crates leave WoodFree Crating with the HEAT TREAT STAMPING to ensure worldwide compliance. Although we only use a small amount of plywood that is exempt from Heat-Treating we are authorized by the lumber association to provide this stamp.