project upwardly through a hole in the slide 80 so as to contact the underside of the pallet a soft plastic cap 93 is preferably affixed to the top of the pin 76 so as to provide a cushioned initial contact with the underside of the pallet the aft end of the pin 76 is connected to a piston head 94 resting on a helical spring 95 within a cylindrical housing 96 the cylindrical housing 96 is filled with a fluid that flows through orifices in the piston head 94 in this manner impact force is absorbed by the piston head 94 moving against both the helical spring 95 and the fluid dampening resistance within the cylinder 96 it is to be noted that the downward travel of the piston head 94 is sufficient to allow the soft plastic cap 93 to move completely into the hole within the slide 80 this produces a flush relationship between the top of the soft plastic cap 93 and the top surface of the slide 80 the underside of a pallet will hence move smoothly down the slides 80 and 82 over the suppressed plastic caps associated with the pins 76 and 78 referring again to fig3 the shelves 20 and 22 will have been reset following the dropping of the pallet 16 to the carriage 46 another pallet may have been loaded onto the shelves while the workpiece in.