Shelving units in your home, garage, retail store, or warehouse allow you to keep your belongings or goods organized, protected, and available for retrieval. Shelving units supplement racking systems in many warehouse settings, providing storage space for small, lightweight items.
Even as a homeowner, you can benefit from shelving units, reducing household clutter, and preventing the loss of important items.
Why Shelving for the Warehouse or Factory?
In a warehouse, factory, or stockroom, it’s crucial to keep products and foodstuffs off the floor. Not only does keeping goods on the floor pose a potential hazard to your workers, but it can also increase the risk of damage or spoilage.
By placing your goods on shelves, you can keep them off the floor, organized, and free from dust. Shelving is distinct from racking and can play an essential role in storing goods in warehouses and tools in factories.
The primary purpose of a racking system is to store pallets, which workers load and retrieve using forklift trucks. These pallets rest on horizontal beams supported by uprights (vertical columns). If your forklifts require repair or replacement or your budget doesn’t allow for purchasing or leasing racking systems or vehicles, you may consider shelving units as a low-cost alternative. Shelving units are generally smaller, lighter, and don’t have the same kinds of load capacities.
Warehouses that store non-palletized inventory can benefit from the increased accessibility of shelves to workers, especially for small, lightweight items.
In factories or machine shops, industrial shelving, combined with storage bins, can keep tools and easily lost small parts neatly arranged and separated from each other.
Heavy-Duty Metal Shelving
Heavy-duty shelving takes many forms, depending on the load capacities you need and what kinds of products you store. In a warehouse or factory, heavy-duty shelving is suitable for heavy items that are not big enough for a pallet rack. Castings, engine and aircraft parts, jigs, fixtures, dies, and machine parts can fit on these shelves without difficulty.
High-capacity boltless shelving
The boltless assembly method allows for simple installation, as no fasteners are needed. Simply attach rivets or connectors to corresponding slots in the posts (uprights). If you need a high-capacity boltless shelving unit, we carry several products manufactured by Edsal.
The all-steel construction — 16-gauge steel shelves and 14-gauge steel beams — provides 1,500 lbs. of load capacity per shelf. While these kinds of systems are ideal for storing heavy automotive and machine parts, metal stock, and other equipment, they’re also adjustable using 1½” centers.
All-welded heavy-duty steel shelving
For a more heavy-duty storage solution, you can also buy all-welded steel shelving. At Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc., we supply Little Giant products that can fulfill the requirement for increased load capacities. The 12-gauge reinforced steel shelves can support up to 2,000 lbs. each — one ton. The unit also has footpads with anchors, so you can securely attach the shelving system to your facility’s floor for increased stability.
Klip-It industrial steel shelving
Klip-It is versatile and available in either open or closed configurations. The open design has load capacities up to 400 lbs. — ideal for large quantities of small items or a few heavy products.
The posts are designed at an offset angle, allowing them to support heavy loads. The shelving unit uses compression clips for straightforward assembly, allowing you to adjust the shelves independently. As you load the shelves, the weight increases the locking strength.
The shelves are made from cold-rolled steel, and the unit features a rust-protective phosphatized cleaning and enamel finish.
Wire Shelving
Wire shelving is highly versatile and useful for a wide variety of applications. Whether you need wire shelving for your home or business, the open design increases light penetration and visibility for easier inventory identification and retrieval.
The wire mesh also allows air to circulate between the shelves and products, keeping perishable items fresh and free from condensation. This is especially useful in refrigerated warehouses where frozen goods are kept. This design also provides fewer hiding spaces for pests, such as insects and rodents, and is easy to clean in restaurant kitchens.
If you need garage shelves or basement shelving for storing clothes, seasonal decorations, tools, gardening supplies, or sports equipment, wire shelving is a practical solution.
Modular wire shelving
One of the most versatile types of wire shelving is the heavy-duty modular variety, manufactured by Quantum Storage Solutions. Using split-sleeve connectors attached to numbered posts with locking grooves, these shelving units are simple to assemble. Quantum combines welded wire mats and architectural trusses to create a robust and rigid shelving unit. The result is an 800 lb. per-shelf weight capacity.
While available in a stationary configuration, you can also add mobility to wire shelving units through the use of polyurethane casters. These wheel assemblies let you move the unit to different locations as needed without having to remove products. When you’ve found a position for the unit, lock the casters to secure the system in place.
As part of its modularity, you can expand the unit by purchasing an add-on kit, including two posts, four shelves, and eight S-Hooks.
This type of wire shelving is available with a chrome finish, which is cosmetically attractive and protects the unit against corrosion. It’s also easy to clean. Alternatively, you can also choose a green, gray, or black epoxy finish for a change of color.
Find the Shelving That’s Right for You
At Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc., we carry shelving units manufactured by several companies to meet your residential, industrial, and retail needs. Whether closed, open or based on a wire-mesh design, shelving can protect your goods and keep them organized for timely retrieval.
Give us a call at (800) 589-7225, and we’ll help you find the right kind of shelving for your specific requirements.
