BY SUSAN K. LACEFIELD, EDITOR AT LARGE
RACKS AND SHELVING
materialhandlingupdate
TO THE UNTRAINED EYE, IT CAN BE HARD TO DIStinguish between a raven and a crow. But birders know that
ravens are bigger than crows, have a different call, and sport
a wedge-shaped—instead of a fan-shaped—tail.
Similarly, to the untrained eye, one rack can look pretty
much like another. But if you hang around distribution
centers and warehouses long enough, you’ll discover that
there are many different types of racks and that each boasts
unique characteristics.
Just as wildlife guides can help you identify which birds
and animals you can expect to find in which environments,
the following field guide to racks can help you distinguish
among some of the most common types of manual pallet
racks. Ultimately, this information, coupled with a good
understanding of your operation, should help you decide
which racks are best for you.
This quick and dirty primer on the most common types of pallet racks will
help you determine which type is best suited to a particular application.
A field guide to racks
If you’re mentally picturing a rack right now, chances are you’re imagining a selective rack. Featuring
the most basic of designs—two upright frames and
shelf beams placed between them—selective racks
are like the pigeons or sparrows of the rack world.
Walk into just about any distribution center
or warehouse, and you’re likely to see
selective racking somewhere in the
facility.
Selective racking is only one
pallet deep, and racks can be
placed either against a wall or
back to back. In a single bay
of selective racking, you can
have multiple beam levels, with
forklift trucks generally used to
place the pallets on the shelf
beams.
This type of pallet rack is called
“selective rack” because it has a high
level of selectivity, meaning that you can
access every pallet in the racking system. The drawback is that the system does not provide as high a
degree of storage density as other racking systems
do.
Selective racks can be either welded or bolted
together. The welded (or boltless) design is most
popular in the U.S. due to the high cost of labor
required to assemble racks on site and concerns
around liability if the rack manufacturer is not directly
involved in assembly. Bolted designs, however, are
preferred when racks are being shipped long distanc-
es, particularly overseas.
BENEFITS:
b More economical than other
types of rack systems, with the
lowest cost per pallet position
b Can be easily reconfigured
b Provides more selectivity and
flexibility than high-density rack
systems because pallets are not
stored in front of one another
b Does not require the use of
specialized lift trucks
APPLICATIONS:
b Can be installed in just about any setting/
environment and can be adapted to handle products
of almost any volume, weight, or size
b Well suited to product lines with low turnover and
high differentiation
b Good for operations with a high stock-keeping
unit (SKU) count but low volume
SELECTIVE RACK
