05 Feb Warehouse Racks Used and New – Questions You Need to Ask Before You Buy
Why is everyone trying to sell me pallet racks?
The question you may begin to ask yourself is when you are looking for a used warehouse rack, “is why is everyone trying to sell me a pallet rack when I am looking for used warehouse racks?” The answer to that question is that pallet racks actually are warehouse racks. Pallet racks are just the technical term within the material handling industry that they have associated with that certain product. However, if you are not clicking into the results you probably will not see that this is the case. No one can really blame you. Who would expect you to know the industry term without being in the industry? That is like trying to understand a slang word in English when you do not speak English at all. What you are looking for, in reality, is pallet racking. You want pallet racking that has previously been in service for another person or company. Despite asking for “used warehouse racking”.
What kind of used warehouse rack do you need?
The secondary question that needs to be asked is, “what kind of warehouse rack do you need?” There are several different types of pallet rack in the marketplace. Pallet rack is a blanket term for warehouse shelving or industrial shelving. It is similar to how a car is a blanket term for vehicles. A term that is widely used for any of the automobile manufacturers in the marketplace. You have sedans, trucks, etc. Pallet rack has many of the same types of designations in its own right. You have cantilever rack, push back rack, pallet flow rack, and others. There is one that is the most likely the one you are searching for right now. That type is a selective pallet rack or selective warehouse rack.
“The choice of what deck you use can indeed limit how high you can store your product.”
What is a selective rack?
A selective rack is similar to the shelves you find in your home. “Selective” is an excellent name for this rack. It is because it offers the most selectivity out of any of the previously mentioned rack styles. Basically, you put items, or, pallets depending on what your specific use case is, on the shelf as you deem appropriate. Many of the other systems use some type of system to replace the removal of a pallet or item after the front-most product has been taken away. Pallet flow racks use gravity to replace a front-loaded pallet when removed and that item has to be replenished from the back of the system. The system follows a FIFO system. Push back rack is the opposite where you replenish from the front and take from the front as well. It follows a last-in, first-out process. Cantilever rack is not usually associated with either of the two systems. Cantilever rack holds heavy long products like lumber or pipe. Selective rack does not follow a system and you can use the shelving as you see fit in any way you see fit.
Wood or Steel Decking?
The last thing you have to ask yourself, as far as selecting what type of rack you need in your business, is what type of decking you need for your rack? There are several different types of rack and you can find a large discussion on the different types on our website. The discussion of what decking is right for you can be found in that link. Notwithstanding, we need to look at the use of wood vs. steel decking. Wood decking, although cheap has a lot of disadvantages you may not know if you are not in the material handling industry. It is because of permitting issues and other things that you may not be thinking about right now. One of those issues is that wood is going to burn a lot easier than steel. It is an issue that a fire inspection team or person is going to look at and probably say something about to you. It may not fail an inspection, depending on the rules of your location, but they will likely tell you that they would prefer to see you use another style of decking. The use of wood or plywood, in 2 x 6 dimensions, for most pallet racks, also may not fit the requirement for vertical storage in your area.
Decking Choice:
The choice of what deck you use can indeed limit how high you can store your product. An easy way to avoid most of these problems, again, depending on your location, because it is nearly impossible to track the specific rules of each location you might be in right now, is to use wire mesh decking. Wire mesh decking can have a capacity of 2500 lbs if it is uniformly distributed. It can hold pallets, boxes, and a variety of other items. If you have smaller items then you can put them in a storage bin and have them on your used warehouse racks. Luckily, it is also the most likely type of decking you will find on a used rack if you are in the market for one.
Ready to get your own warehouse racks used for whatever purpose you deem appropriate? Call us to get a used pallet rack for your business. You can find new pallet racks in that link. The phone number is in the footer of this site.
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