Study Steel Shelving Can Be Attractive As Well

| Saturday, August 10, 2013
By Andrea Davidson


The very need you have for storage, in your manufacturing plant, does not mean you have to have unattractive units for this to work out well. You might have been laboring, until now, with wooden or plastic shelves that do not do the job. Taking the step in getting steel shelving will assist in many ways and one of them will be to brighten up the place.

Wood shelving, in order to hold as much as possible, will need to have cross rigging to make it structurally sound. This prevents adequate planning and access that must be had when you are talking about moving things on and off efficiently. They are also not cleanable and must be painted and then will allow stains to bleed through quickly.

The durability of steel for this type of storage has to be looked into. There are any number of configurations that are designed into these units. There are many different surfaces and looks and the colors can be anything that fits into the area. They can be as colorful or as muted as they need to be.

As far as organization is concerned, there are two basic types of shelving available. The open and the closed system, each with their advantages and disadvantages. The open one will allow the removal or placement of material through the back or front of the space. Three way movement can be accessed if the space is on the aisle with room for the fork lift or pallet jack.

The closed racking system will not allow as free of movements as the open. The back of the spaces have cross braces or bars preventing this movement. This might be best for heavier than normal pallets or dangerous storage. It does make for a stronger more stable unit, however, when it is not necessary, it simply creates problems for most material handling personnel.

Steel does come in many different gauges and the selection of the correct one will be important. This is especially important if you have a lot of very heavy materials needing to be moved on and off these racks. A company who specializes in these racking units will be in the best position to recommend the appropriate thickness and quality of steel to be used.

A standard quality of steel used will be in the range of between 18 and 20 gauge and will be the cold rolled variety. This has been identified as being the median strength for most applications. It will stay in shape and can be mounted to walls, if so desired. The stand alone models have been tested to hold all material placed on them and are actually stronger when filled to capacity.

The various ways that steel shelving assist in maintaining order and organization is paramount. The ability to have everything where it is needed to be can make or break a process or schedule considerations. The companies who do this design and installation work will make suggestions and they should be considered as the thoughtful, scientific input they are.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment