Plastic pallet

Claim 2

A plastic pallet comprising: a substantially planar load bearing deck member formed from upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic; upper deck surface formed from said upper sheet of thermoplastic; lower deck surface formed from said lower sheet of thermoplastic; a plurality of bosses extending between said upper deck surface and said lower deck surface formed from said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic being fused together, said bosses being distributed in a substantially non-hinge forming arrangement.

Claim 3

The pallet of claim 1 wherein said non-hinge forming arrangement further comprises a substantially random arrangement of bosses.

Claim 4

The pallet of claim 1 wherein said non-hinge forming arrangement further comprises: a non-symmetrical distribution of bosses about any axis in the plane of said deck member passing through the center of said deck member.

Claim 5

The pallet of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of upwardly opening and downwardly dependent legs fused from both said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic material.

Claim 6

The pallet of claim 1 further comprising leaf means for increasing the resistance of said deck member to deformation.

Claim 7

The pallet of claim 5 wherein said leaf means further comprises arcuate bands thermoformed in said lower sheet of thermoformable material.

Claim 8

A plastic pallet as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a first boss floor disposed within at least one of said bosses between said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic; and a second boss floor disposed within at least one of said bosses wherein said first boss floor is disposed further from said upper deck surface than said second boss floor.

Claim 9

A plastic pallet as claimed in claim 1, wherein no more than three adjacent boss centers are collinear.

Claim 10

A plastic pallet comprising: a substantially rectangular, substantially planar load bearing deck member formed from an upper sheet of thermoplastic material and a lover sheet of thermoplastic material; a first axis in the plane of said deck member extending through the center of said deck member running between two non-adjacent sides of said deck member; a second axis extending through the center of said deck member in the plane of the deck member perpendicular to said first axis; a plurality of bosses formed in said upper sheet of thermoplastic material depending downwardly to a predetermined depth defining a plurality of boss floors; a plurality of bosses formed in said lower sheet of thermoplastic projecting upwardly to a predetermined depth and defining a plurality of boss ceilings; said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic being fused at the intersection of said boss floors and said boss ceilings; and said bosses being arranged substantially non-symmetrically about one of said axes.

Claim 11

A plastic pallet comprising: a substantially rectangular, substantially planar load bearing deck member formed from an upper sheet of thermoplastic material and a lover sheet of thermoplastic material; a first axis in the plane of said deck member extending through the center of said deck member running between two non-adjacent sides of said deck member; a second axis extending through the center of said deck member in the plane of the deck member perpendicular to said first axis; a plurality of bosses formed in said upper sheet of thermoplastic material depending downwardly to a predetermined depth defining a plurality of boss floors; a plurality of bosses formed in said lower sheet of thermoplastic projecting upwardly to a predetermined depth and defining a plurality of boss ceilings; said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic being fused at the intersection of said boss floors and said boss ceilings; and said bosses being arranged substantially non-symmetrically about one of said axes.

Claim 12

The pallet according to claim 9 wherein said bosses are further arranged substantially non-symmetrically about both said first and said second axes.

Claim 13

The pallet of claim 9 wherein said bosses are further arranged in substantially non-linear distributions.

Claim 14

The pallet of claim 11 wherein said boss floors further comprise stepped boss floors and said boss ceilings further comprise stepped boss ceilings to fuse with correspondingly stepped boss floors.

Claim 15

The pallet of claim 11 wherein said bosses further comprise generally circular cross sections.

Claim 16

The pallet of claim 11 wherein said bosses further comprise a mixture of major bosses and minor bosses, said major bosses having a cross sectional area that is not equal to the cross sectional area of said minor bosses.

Claim 17

The pallet of claim 11 further comprising a plurality of upwardly opening feet depending downwardly from said deck and formed from said upper and lower sheets of thermoplastic being fused together.