Warehouses storing goods on pallets, must be equipped with pallet racks of adequate strength and strong construction. The best raw material for this type of storage furniture, is steel. How to choose the right pallet rack?
High storage warehouses – definition and classification
High-bay warehouse is a common name that refers to warehouse management. What height of a warehouse according to Polish law makes it considered a high-bay warehouse? Existing regulations, among others. concerning health and safety, do not clearly define what a high-bay warehouse is. It follows that in Poland there can be no legally normalized definition of this type of warehouse.
Here are some types of warehouse breakdowns:
- Division by storage height:
- Up to 4.2 meters – low storage,
- 4.2 to 7 meters – medium storage,
- From 7 to 25 meters and above – high storage also known as multi-story storage.
- Division by building height:
- Up to 12 meters – low,
- Up to 25 meters – medium-high,
- Up to 55 meters high,
- Above 55 meters – high altitude.
When a warehouse with a height of more than 12 meters has racks that fill the space to its maximum height, it can be called a high-bay warehouse.
Modern warehouses are increasingly built in such a way that pallet racks are both the supporting structure of the roof and walls – they are inseparable from the technological layout of the warehouse. Such facilities are often called high-bay warehouses because the pallet racks used there (self-supporting or cantilevered) are elements of the load-bearing structure, and the storage area is serviced, for example, by automatic stacker cranes, cranes or forklifts with lifts.
Not only the height of the facility, but also the type of technical equipment affects the criterion for using the name “high-bay warehouse.” Often such equipment includes loading ramps, sidings, maneuvering yards, stacker cranes and racking cranes, conveyors and conveyors.
Pallet racks – what is important in the construction?
Most important to ensure a high level of safety are the right materials and quality of racking construction. Pallet racks should be properly assembled. What does this mean? The entire rack structure must be stable – this problem is most common in low warehouses. In this context, it is important to properly prepare the room, including such elements as a hard floor on which the shelves can stand firmly and stably. What’s more, all elements of the rack must fit tightly together and form a single, strong structure, resistant to, for example, damage from forklift impacts.
Pallet racks must fit the room, so they are best made to order, especially if the storage room has unusual dimensions. Here, too, it is useful to have the help of an expert – a designer who knows how the bookcase must be constructed to serve its purpose. Pallet racks designed by specialists are convenient for warehouse workers, because designers and builders know what the light between shelves (the distance of one shelf from another) must be so that goods can be removed from the rack without hindrance.
Materials and workmanship
Pallet racks consist of vertical frames and shelves or horizontal beams called traverses. Most often they are made of closed profiles. This type of storage furniture is characterized by high strength, as it is most often made of cold-rolled sheet metal. The thickness of the sheet metal from which the frame or shelves are made must be matched to the type of goods that will be stored on them. The most common thicknesses used are: 1.85 mm, 2.2 mm, 2.5 mm. These parameters mean that pallet racks can support up to 30,000 kg of weight per field (the calculation is for the rack frame) or 2250 kg of pallet space load – these are sample loads.
The pallet racks available from us can be customized as we have a machine park that allows for laser cutting of metal sheets, powdering of steel, welding and many other services. On our racks you can store not only palletized goods, but also goods that do not require pallets for storage.
We focus not only on the highest quality workmanship, but also on aesthetics, for this we also offer powder-coated pallet racks. What’s more, our experts will advise on the technical parameters of the racks to choose and match them to the needs of the warehouse.