Resources
Anchor
Anchors connect the pallet rack uprights to the cement floor.
Angle Guard / Deflector
Designed to deflect impacts and are placed on upright frames in areas susceptible to damage. Angle guards can be welded on during manufacturing or bolted on after manufacturing.
Bay
Term used to refer to 2 uprights with beams between them. As uprights and beams are added to a row the number of bays increases in that row. There is always one more upright than there are bays in any one row.
Bollard
Sturdy, short, vertical posts that create a physical and visual barrier, guiding traffic and protecting pedestrians and property
Beam
Beams are heavy duty steel rails that connect to the upright/frame to form a secure level of pallet storage.
Beam End Plate
End plates are welded onto the end of beams. They provide a connection between the beam and the column of a system.
Cantilever Racking
Made up of bases, upright columns, arms and decking, this racking is designed to store long, awkward, or bulky materials of virtually any length. Offers no vertical obstruction in the storage area.
Carton Flow Racking
Carton Flow Racking – Most popular among warehouses with high volume order picking, carton flow racking (or span track) offers great storage for inventories that operation by FIFO management. It uses a gravity feed rear-load design, which helps in optimizing inventory management and operation. Also known as span track, carton flow racking works in tandem with pallet rack systems to offer a pick solutions for high volume order picking operations. Adding the benefit of reduced operator activity, carton flow systems use gravity and rollers to flow product forward to the pick position of the rack system, much like a lighter duty version of pallet flow rack. These rack systems are typically found in “flowing” warehouses with a large number of products being picked daily.
Catwalk System
Catwalk systems are a great solution for order-picking operations and to store small parts in a small footprint. While made with pre-manufactured components, each system is custom designed to the customer’s needs and warehouse configuration as well as local building and fire codes.
Column Guard
Installed on the frame/upright the column guard prevents damage to your pallet rack from forklift and other lift equipment. Column guards are either anchored to the floor or bolted to the front of the pallet rack upright frame itself, protecting it from costly forklift damage.
Conveyor System
Warehouse conveyors have been an essential component for maximizing efficiencies in modern material handling systems for decades. also known as parcel conveyors, are an economical and highly efficient way to move goods and facilitate material handling in a facility without the use of manual labor.
Cross Beam / Diagonal Strut
Connects into the upright frame on both ends to create a shelf for the pallets to rest upon. Two beams make up one shelf level. Cross beams are available in numerous lengths and capacities.
End of Row Guard
Heavy steel protection that is attached to the frames/uprights positioned at the end of a row of pallet rack where posts are most vulnerable to forklift traffic. Floor Guards are used in rack systems primarily to protect the outside end-of-aisle frames on a rack system. Floor guards run along the outside of the upright and wrap around the front, maximizing protection in high traffic areas.
Drive-In Racking
Drive-in racking provides a lower cost solution for companies who have high density storage needs. It involves the forklift entering the racking from one side to load or retrieve the pallets. Each drive lane should have the same sku/pallet type and it is a first-in last out system so no dated products work well with drive-in unless the enter lane is unloaded at one time.
Foot plate
Footplates provide a means of anchoring the rack to the floor and also increase the stability of the pallet rack.
Frames / Uprights
Also referred to as “upright columns” because they’re stood up and used as a column to which the beams can connect. Uprights have holes (often teardrop-shaped)on the front face of the columns into which the pins of the beam connectors engage. Our pallet rack uprights consist of two frame columns connected together by steel channels that are welded into place. The steel channels are cut at different sizes, which are determined by the depth of the frame. A starter bay of pallet racking consists of two upright frames that are connected by a minimum of two shared crossbeam levels.
High Pile Stock Permit
High-piled combustible storage is defined as storage consisting of closely packed piles of combustible materials on pallets, in racks, or on shelves where the storage top is greater than 12 ft in height. When high-hazard commodities are involved (e.g., Group A plastics, rubber tires, flammable liquids, and idle pallets), minimum height drops to 6 ft. Most codes require that a high piled storage permit is obtained when more than 500 sq ft of high-piled storage is present in a building.
LED Lighting
LED lights are up to 80% more efficient than traditional lighting such as fluorescent and incandescent lights. 95% of the energy in LEDs is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat. … Less energy use reduces the demand from power plants and decreases greenhouse gas emissions. The light-emitting diode (LED) is one of today’s most energy-efficient and rapidly-developing lighting technologies. Quality LED light bulbs last longer, are more durable, and offer comparable or better light quality than other types of lighting.
Material Handling
Material handling is defined as the process of movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products undertaken in certain workplace environments that deal with the manufacturing, distribution and disposal of products.
Mezzanines
A work platform, also known as a “mezzanine platform” or “mezzanine,” is an elevated surface that allows for greater usage of vertical space. Like pallet racking, work platforms take unused vertical space and create a usable surface. But unlike pallet racking, work platforms create large, flat areas of flooring that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Common work platform applications include elevated machinery space, catwalks elevated product storage space, and even office space.
Pallet Flow Rack
Pallet flow racking is all about moving inventory in and out faster using a skate wheel conveyor system. This first-in/first out (FIFO) loading system and with a 3 lane and pallet break system is costly but provides a valuable means of high density storage since pallets can go 20+ pallets deep.
Pallet Stops
Pallet stops are used as a brake, so that your forklift driver knows where to stop when putting the pallets into place. Pallet stops are also used to prevent pallets from being pushed off the rack or pushed in too far and damaging other pallets.
Pallet Support
Pallet Supports maintain the structural integrity of pallets in the rack by minimizing the amount of deflection while supporting the bottom of the pallet to prevent it from falling between beams. Pallet support bars are used in pallet rack for added pallet fall protection. Pallet supports connect from the front to the back of the cross beams.
Pick Module
Warehouse pick modules are high density storage systems that are composed of a combination of storage solutions like pallet rack, shelving, carton flow rack and pallet flow systems in order to store inventory for picking and order fulfillment. The idea behind the warehouse pick module is optimum flow efficiency. Palletized loads are moved by gravity through the system before being broken into cartons and pieces, then sent to pick areas and finally shipped to the consumer.
Push Back
Pushback racking is medium to high density storage with selectivity at each pallet facing of the system. Pallets can be stored from 2 to 6 deep along a wall or back to back eliminating aisles and adding more pallet positions to the facility compared to selective or double deep. The Pushback system is made up of a couple of rails and nesting carts that move forward and back on a 2 degree incline. The first pallet is loaded on the top cart by a forklift. When the second pallet is loaded it pushes the first pallet back and so on.
Row
A series of interconnected frames and beams.
Row Spacer
Row spacers are placed between frames/uprights to create consistent spacing between back to back pallet rack rows. Row spacers are used in flue spaces between uprights to stabilize the rack system or provide clearance for building columns and other obstacles. Row spacers bolt onto each upright and join the uprights together.
Safety Netting
Safety netting is attached at the rear side of a pallet rack bay, and can either sit flush against the upright columns or offset, depending on how deep the pallet loads usually extend back. Netting made to snag runaway product may have a tighter mesh pattern than that intended for humans. Pallet rack safety netting is made of a nylon or plastic mesh which is placed on the back of rack systems for increased safety and fall protection.
Shim
A thin, often tapered piece of material (such as wood, metal, or stone) used to fill in space between things (as for support, leveling, or adjustment of fit). When installing a pallet rack system on an uneven floor, shims are used under the uprights to ensure the pallet rack footplate is as close to plumb with the floor as possible.
Slab Testing
Measuring concrete slab thickness, reinforcing bars distribution, size and depth, concrete cover thickness, concrete hardness and strength.
Seismic Engineering
According to OSHA, all goods, materials, and equipment at work sites must be stacked, stored, and secured in such a way that they do not flow, move, roll, or collapse. In areas that are at known risk for seismic activity, your pallet rack must be stronger and able to withstand the forces of the earth’s movement without collapsing and damaging your inventory, or injuring employees.
Selective Rack
This is the most common style of pallet rack found in warehouses today. The name “selective” defines this system well because you can unload any pallet from the system without having to move another pallet to get to it. In this aspect, selective pallet rack offers operators the most flexible storage option. Almost all pallet rack manufacturers offer a standard selective rack design for their customers, although not all are engineered and manufactured the same. Each manufacturer has a slightly different beam-to-frame connector that differentiates them from the rest. Among these, the “teardrop” selective design has become the favorite and most common design found in warehouses.
Shelving
Industrial steel shelving systems are ideal for bulk storage applications that don’t require the high capacity or storage volume provided by pallet rack. Steel shelving is a widely popular storage solution in warehouses, industrial settings, fulfillment centers, record storage centers, the food and beverage industry, and many other applications. Industrial steel shelving is available in a wide range of capacities, from light duty shelving to heavy duty bulk shelving capable of holding several thousand pounds per unit.
Teardrop Rack
Teardrop pallet racks are one of the most popular types of pallet racking used by warehouse storage and distribution centers. The boltless design allows for fast and simple assembly without the need for bolts, clips or other fasteners.
Wire Guidance
Wire Guidance is an electronic and mechanical system that controls VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) enabled forklifts steering by tracking an energized guidewire.
Wire Mesh Deck
Wire mesh deck is a popular form of pallet support that consists of a welded wire grid with channel supports that sits across the load beams creating a shelf level for added protection from falling pallets or products. It is lightweight and allows for airflow and visibility. Most wire decks have support channels welded on the bottom of the wire for increased load support capacity.