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Used Pallet Racking
THE NATIONS LARGEST STOCKING DEALER OF USED PALLET RACKING AND OTHER WAREHOUSE EQUIPMENT!
We stock over 50,000 beams and 15,000 uprights at all times!
“Pallet racking” is used to store palletized products in your warehouse. It comes in many different varieties. Pallet Racking enables you to store your products vertically within your given warehouse space while utilizing your cubic footage available and freeing up valuable floor space for forklift travel and other storage requirements. With the rising cost of warehouse space it is always a good idea to incorporate pallet racking in to your application to avoid the often unnecessary expense of excessive warehouse space. Pallet racking simply saves you money in efficiencies and real estate costs if your operation calls for handling palletized products.
Selective Pallet Rack Systems
Selective pallet rack is today’s most popular style. Like all pallet racking, selective pallet racking is built from structural steel or roll formed steel. Selective Pallet racking affords the user better selectivity over other types of pallet racking like drive-in or drive-thru for example. When using selective pallet racking the user will typically have single rows of racking that are set up back to back. All products stored on or off a pallet on the pick side or pick aisle of the pallet racking row can be easily accessed by the warehouse worker. This type of pallet racking system creates efficiencies in the stocking and picking process due to the variety of products /SKU’s that are easily accessible.
Roll Formed Pallet racking is built from Sheets of “Cold Rolled” steel that are bent to a desired shape using roll forming machines. This is the case for both the pallet rack uprights and the beams.
Structural pallet racking is built from “Hot Rolled” steel components that are each formed to a desired shape while the steel is still at a high enough temperature to be manipulated by a machine.
Selective pallet rack aisles can be set up in Three (3) different configurations:
- Standard Aisle
- Narrow Aisle
- Very Narrow Aisle
Standard Aisles: When you are considering the use of pallet racking in your warehouse the objective is to achieve as many pallet positions of various products that you can in a given space. Many counterbalance sit-down type forklifts will only operate safely in an standard aisle that is at least 12 feet to 12-1/2 feet wide. These wide aisles will generally reduce the number of pallet positions of storage that can be created within your warehouse space. If the counterbalance sit-down forklifts are what you currently have or they are what is needed for your particular application, then the standard aisle configuration may be the best choice. Narrow aisles mean more products in your warehouse! You might consider purchasing additional forklifts that will work within a narrow aisle application which could gain you a reduction in required aisle spacing by a minimum of 40%. Simply put, in a general selective pallet racking application the narrower the aisle the more products you can store.
Standard Narrow Aisles: By reducing your aisle size requirements in your warehouse you are generally able to achieve more pallet positions of storage. A standard Narrow Aisle configuration is typically sit up where the aisle widths are between 9 ½ feet & 10 1/2 feet wide. This reduction is aisle widths greatly affects your ability to add more pallet racking depending on the size of the overall building whereby increasing your overall pallet positions. To operate safely in a narrow aisle rack system will require the use of “Narrow Aisle Forklifts”. These forklifts are specifically designed to operation in tighter aisles than that of the typical counterbalance sit-down forklifts. These types of forklifts are typically referred to as Reach Trucks & Dock Stockers. The value of achieving additional pallet positions within you warehouse will often offset the costs associated with the purchase of Narrow Aisle forklifts within a short time.
Very Narrow Aisle (VNA): The second type of narrow aisle pallet racking system is the Very Narrow Aisle configuration. This configuration like the standard narrow aisle configuration once again enables you to set up your warehouse with narrower aisles than that required when using the typical counterbalance forklift and even the narrow aisle forklifts. These aisles can be as narrow as 54 inches wide. These very narrow aisles enable you to set your warehouse up with aisle widths that are less than half of what are required in an application using the counterbalance sit-down forklifts. The simply means you have the ability to achieve even greater pallet position counts in your warehouse. Like the narrow aisle pallet racking system, you will have to use specialized forklifts to operate within the very narrow aisles. The typical forklift types used in the very narrow aisle configuration are order pickers and swing-reaches. Another name for swing-reaches you may hear in the warehousing industry is “Turret Trucks”. These specialized forklifts can travel down the very narrow aisle for picking and stocking your products in the selective pallet rack system. These forklifts are typically referred to as man-up forklifts which simply means that the operator rides in a compartment that is elevated up and down to the required elevation within the rack system necessary to pick or stock material. Due to the very narrow aisle spacing, these forklifts will typically be guided down the aisle by either a rail-guided or wire guided system.
Common components of selective rack include the following:
- Beams: The beams in the selective pallet rack system can be either box beams, step beams or C-Channel type structural beams.
- Step Beams are designed with a step on the top which enables wire decking, pallet supports and other items to sit in the step to create a beam or shelf level within the racking bay. This step is typically 1 5/8” deep and is located at the top inside edge of the step beam. Located on each end of the step beams are connector clips which enable the beams to be attached to the uprights. These connectors have a variety of pins or hooks that connect to the upright itself.
- Box beams are made from the same roll formed steel but do not have the step on them. They are actually square shapes like a box. They too have the same type of connectors that the step beams do.
- Structural Beams are made from structural steel. The beam body itself is basically a C-Channel with a connector clip welded on both ends like the step and box beams. The connectors for the structural beams can by similar to the connectors for the roll formed beams. However, they are generally a bolt on type connector that enables the structural beam to be attached to the upright frame by running a bolt though the beam connector and the upright face and installing a nut on the bolt from the back side of the upright.
- Uprights: These are typically referred to as uprights, upright frames or simply frames.·
- Roll formed uprightslike the roll formed beams are built from “Cold Rolled” sheets of steel that are bend to the desired shape. They have specific holes punched in their face to allow for the beam connection. These holes come in a variety of styles. The most prevalent hole design on the market today is called a “Tear Drop” design. This design basically resembles and upside down tear drop.
- Structural uprights like the structural beams are built from structural components. They have round holes punched in their face that enable the round hole beam connectors to attach to the upright with the nut and bolt system. Structural uprights generally provide a higher capacity than the roll formed uprights.
- Row spacers: Row spacers are used to tie the rows of pallet racking together when they are standing. These come in a variety of lengths based on particular storage requirements. The most typically length is 12” Long. They add rigidity to the pallet rack system to prevent toppling of the pallet racking sections.
