Warehouse racking could be one of the most important purchases a business can make, considering the effect of the racking system in the daily relentless temporary cycles of flow of in and out stock. Choose the right system and racking does not come into play. Choose the wrong one and your business faces the complications of accessibility, the inefficient use of vertical space, and racking systems which conflict with your equipment.
The number of options available in the racking systems is substantial as racking provides a number of significant variations as most buyers tend to be uninformed.
Select pallet racking
Select pallet racking is the most prevalent racking system in the UK and for a good reason. It offers the most direct access to every pallet and provides the right racking system for a business with varying products and constant product turnover. Select pallet racking is adjustable and provides the racking system for the highest in storage vertical space. Regarding aisle space, which is the space between individual rows of pallet racks, select pallet racking provides the balance in accessibility, efficiency and space usage.
Drive-in and drive-through racking
If space is tight, but you have a large, homogeneous stock, drive-in racking is an option. A lift truck can drive past the vertical supports and load and unload the racking. This design no longer requires an empty aisle for each bay. A drive-in system encodes racking on a last-in, first-out basis. They are ideal for large stocks/warehousing of frozen, seasonal goods, or raw materials when stock rotation is not a priority. For even stock rotation, a drive-through system eliminates the first-in-last-out racking.
For these systems, pallets are only accessible from the front, so they are not ideal for storing different goods.
Cantilever racking
Standard pallet racking is inefficient for storing long and awkward products. This is the exact design of cantilever racking. The aisle face of an arm is completely vertical, so long products can hang fully out of the bay such as these products: timber, steel bars, pipes, and tubular profiles. This design is perfect for construction material retailers, raw material stockholders, and any factory with large holdings of long and raw materials.
Narrow aisle and very narrow aisle racking
Most warehouse racking systems need 2.7 to 3.5 meter aisles for safe operation of counterbalance forklifts. NA and VNA systems use aisles that can be as small as 1.6 meters for racks. This results in more racking in the same building footprint. The drawbacks are that proprietary forklifts are required for operation, and the cost and flexibility differences for forklifts. NA systems are justified if the operation supports enough volume and throughput to cover the investment cost for the handling systems.
Mobile racking
Mobile warehouse racking systems are on powered bases that travel along floors to form operational aisles each time. This method enables maximum density possible in a defined space for the storage of materials. Resources that are conditioned within sites are categorized as cold storage. Depending on the cost of handling and conditioned space, mobile racking can be justified in a conventional storage system.
SEMA standards
In the UK, reputable warehouse racking suppliers design and test to SEMA (Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association) standards. SEMA approved racking has been engineered to defined load tolerances with appropriate safety margins, and there is a framework created for inspections, damage classification and repair decisions. Racking without SEMA approval may meet the basic load requirements, however, the design and the documentation to back a compliant inspection are lacking. Racking that’s SEMA approved should be the standard for any permanent placement in a working warehouse.
Getting the specification right
Once you determine the requirements for each pallet and/or unit load, the dimensions of each item to be stored, the height and clearance, the width of your handling equipment, the number of pallet. levelling, safety, and storage positions you need, you will be able to approach vendors for pricing of the warehouse racking. Most of the suppliers who do not ask for and/or determine these requirements before quoting are providing you with a guess and the shortcomings of a warehouse system that is not well integrated are normally quick to reveal.