Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 10886–10893 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings 2214-7853© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of Advanced Materials, Manufacturing, Management and Thermal Science (AMMMT 2016). AMMMT 2016 Design and Analysis of Rubber Pallet for Industrial Application Venkatesh Gangadhar a , Suresh Babu b , Rahul M Cadambi a ,Arun R Rao a , Nithin Venkataram a * a Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Department, M S Ramaiah Universiy of Applied Science, Bangaluru -560058, India b IndPorcess Polymers, Bangaluru-560090, India Abstract The increase in demand to reduce packaging cost has pushed industries to look for an alternate material for packaging. At present, only wooden pallets are used as it is low cost, versatile and easy to dispose. As a result of these many trees are cut down depleting our forest reserve and increasing global warming. In this paper an attempt has been made to design and analyze the use of rubber material for pallets. Concepts are drawn based on the customer requirement and ISO standard. The rubber material is tested for its properties. Appropriate material model for rubber is selected, modelled and analyzed for deflection. Based on the results, a concept is selected for reduced deflection and weight. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of Advanced Materials, Manufacturing, Management and Thermal Science (AMMMT 2016). Keywords: ANSYS; ISO standards; PHUG matrix; Rubber material; Steel reinforcement. 1. Introduction Transporting industry has grown significantly in the last decade which has forced industries to push for innovative reform in packaging. In industries, packaging plays a key role in branding a product and also protects them from damage during transit. Pallets are an integral part of material handling and storage in industries. Wood pallets are used heavily in industries in comparison with other pallet materials. A majority of low-grade lumber is used in wooden pallet. In recent times, plastic pallets are being introduced in industries for handling machined parts, consumer goods as it is light weight, stiffer and is recyclable. But plastic pallets cost three to four time higher than the wood pallets. The increase in demand to reduce packaging cost has pushed industries to look for alternatives in material for packaging. In this work a comparative analysis of wood, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polycarbonate and high density polyethylene pallets has been carried out for same design load [1]. Design improvement has been suggested * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-998-066-9384; fax: 241-112-05 E-mail address:nithin31@gmail.com / nithinv.me.et@msruas.ac.in