by Homerun Nievera, Negosentro.com |
Early in the 18th century, there arose a need for a way to accumulate and store large amount of physical products in a synchronized manner, in a way that can be accessed easily and attended to if necessary. Pallet racking was developed as a general way of achieving this objective. Pallet rackingis the manual way of organizing of materialistic products. It can be compared to that system used in a library, where bookshelves are the special material object used in place of pallet racks. However, books are assembled in the library in alphabetical order. Pallet racking is done on the basis of some technical hierarchy that is appropriate for the data in concern and is decided by the authority under power.
Warehouse pallet racking:
When it comes to materials and goods, there comes a need for storing it at some place that is safe and accessible. A warehouse, in general, is a large containment house that is used for storage of products and its ambiance can be modified according to the storage needs. They are generally situated at places that are near to sea areas and are accessible through sea routes. Forklift trucks are used to handle the products and place products in their proper place.
Pallet Racking Installations:
The installation process of pallet racks involves hard and systematic work. The installation process generally depends on the pallet racking system. There are many components that are involved in pallet racking.
Common components of selective rack include the following:
- Step beams are roll formed members of the 15/8th of the top inside edge.
- Box beams have four flat sides like a box.
- Structural beams are C formed shapes that are the beams at either end. They are structurally stronger than load beams or box beams.
- Upright frames are the frames that hold the whole structure along with the load beams. The usage depends on the type of pallet racking system, the load in concern and load beam architecture.
- Diagonal braces and horizontal braces are used to give additional support, working along with the upright frames.
- Pallet supports are roll formed channels, placed front to back in between loan beams.
- Timber decking is implemented to provide a floor for the rack if necessary.
- Wire decking is used as a precautionary measure. It is a wired mesh, that would hold the load if the pallet rack floor collapses.
- Footplates are used at the base of the columns to provide better stability.
- Shims are used to level the rack in case they are placed on uneven floors.
Pallet Racking Systems:
- Push Back Pallet: This system implements a push-back system that helps to create more storage space. With an advantage of attaining more storage capacity, it is fairly well priced in the market. However, business community consider investment in a pushback pallet racking system is beneficial in the long run.
- Drive-in Pallet: This type of racking system is used where cost-effective high storage density is required. Its design implements a first-in-last-out (FILO) extractions and entry mechanism and is applicable where the storage items are not time sensitive.
- Pallet Flow Rack: This racking system is also known as “gravity flow”. It implements a First-In-First-Out extraction mechanism to increase the storage density and turnover efficiency. It can be designed to hold 20 pallets in one lane.
- Cantilever rack: There are situations when the products might not be able to fit in the racks. In those cases, cantilever racking system is implemented that monitors storage of large and long items in the long run.
- Carton Flow Racks: These also implement a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) mechanism that fetches a carton or product from one of the racks to the other. It is generally used in getting selective products out of the total lot and for packaging purposes. They can even be custom made to ease the loading process.
Factors to be considered while selecting the type of pallet racks
The factors which play a decisive role in the pallet rack selection are as follows:
- Storage density of your goods and materials
- Accessibility of the goods: this depends upon the design of the material flow of a pallet rack. The needs and wants may dictate LIFO (Last in First Out) or FIFO (First In First Out) flow systems.
- Pallet structural integrity based on the storage requirement.
- Sufficient spacing for forklift access
- Necessary aisle width based on factors such as load requirements, type of forklift used and type of stored goods.
- Presence of any seismic activity near your warehouse.
- Environment around your goods.
Industrial Racking & Storage Solutions:
Due to the heavy increase in demand for products by the customers, industrialists have been forced to increase the production manifold. With a seemingly increase in production, whatever be the demand, there appears a need for storing these products. Warehouse pallet racking is an efficient and cost effective way of storing such products. Hence, modern multinational industries have taken the initiative to store their excess production in pallet racking system in warehouses, from where it can be easily exported and publicized. Different cost-effective and efficient pallet racking systems have been developed and used according to the nomenclature of products that are stored. Hence the problem of overproduction and secured storage facilities has been solved by warehouse pallet racking.
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Homerun Nievera is the publisher of WorldExecutivesDigest.com. He has interests in several tech and digital businesses as director and chief strategist.
Homerun is a digital evangelist, content marketer and lifelong learning advocate. Homerun is the “He Said” in the popular Facebook Page He Said, She Said.
