The Right Warehouse Racking System Design Aids In Material Movement And Safety

By Gwen Lowe


Things that are made and the parts or ingredients that go into making them must be stored safely, at least for a while. Proper warehouse racking system design and installations allow for the easy flow of material from one area, through the fabricating process, and into the other area. Steel is usually used as this represents the strongest material, although in some applications, fiberglass or extruded plastics are sometimes used.

The appropriate design for these elements of your plant must account for the size of materials and what platforms they are moved around on. The most popular form of racking design is the individual bay, based on the size of the average pallet. This makes it easy to place pallets into the bays and remove them from either the front or back of the bay.

When thinking about the various ways that shelving can be accomplished, know that fasteners are a very good idea for those standing next to wall. The free standing racking need additional assistance to be a safe receiver of materials without falling or moving. Deciding about access, either from the front or back or both will also be on the table for discussion.

The first thing that must be done, when thinking about a new or redesigned racking system is to get an idea of what needs to happen in any average shift. This information will be listed, by the design engineer, and used for planning the perfect system. The material of construction will be identified based on the weight that will be placed on them, the conditions of the floor, walls, atmosphere and height in which they will be constructed.

Floor plans will be consulted to determine the weights that can be placed there and reinforcement, as necessary, will be considered. Traffic patterns for material handling equipment must be defined so easy access is possible to all areas. The decision about access to back and front of the bays will also need to be hammered out.

When considering side access to bays, extra space will often be needed. The use of this type of access is appropriate at the ends of a continuous run of shelves and in specially constructed systems that can be explored. Many of the items stored will have to be analyzed in order to achieve the best use and the most safety in all situations.

A properly designed racking system will take into consideration all items needing to be stored, even for a short time, on and in them. Some of these units will have self facing rollers to bring material to the front area and they load from the back. Others will have tracks for specific types of pallets. Many of them will allow the storage of individual drums on sliders that assist in removing them with special attachments on fork lifts.

Safety is one of your first jobs and everyone must buy into that. The companies who offer these types of racking systems have the bases covered as they consult, design and install the best units for you and your employees. Moving material from one place to another is how you accomplish the world class work you do, so helping you do that is their top goal.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment