Pallet Rack Accessories

a. Load Stops

i. Horizontal Load Stop Beams – Beams mounted off the back of the column that span the full width of the bay. These beams have a set-back distance from the rear column that is equal to or slightly greater than the rear pallet overhang distance.

ii. Vertical Column Load Stops – Vertical members that attach to the rear beams to provide a vertical continuous load stop. These stops have a set- back distance that is equal to or slightly greater than the rear pallet overhang distance.

iii. Load Position Stops – Stops for each individual load position. These stops may be bolted or welded. An example of this stop style is a Z-stop that is welded to the rear beam at each pallet position.

b. Crossbars

i. Drop-In, Roll-In or Snap-In crossbars – These crossbars rest on the beam ledge and are secured by tabs for left-to-right positioning.

ii. Overlap crossbars – Overlap crossbars rest on the ledge and have overlap tabs that extend over the top of the beams a and waterfall to the face of the beam for optional tek screws.

iii. Bolted or welded crossbars – These crossbars are bolted or welded in place.

iv. Double-Deep Crossbars – Double deep crossbars extend two positions deep to accommodate two unit loads.

v. Wood crossbars or crossbars fabricated from other materials.

c. Wire Decks – Wire Decks may be one of the three types listed below or combinations of the main types listed below. Wire decks ends that do not waterfall over the beams must be tek screwed in place to ensure that the decks cannot fall through the beams..

i. Waterfall Wire Decks – Waterfall wire decks have channel supports that support the wire mesh decks. The wire mesh decks extend over the front and rear beams and waterfall over the faces of the beams.

ii. Non-waterfall Wire Decks – These are similar to waterfall decks but the wire mesh does not waterfall over the tops of the beams but merely rests on top of the beams.

iii. Inside Waterfall Wire Decks – The mesh for these decks covers the channels but does not extend over the top of the beams.
Other accessory features associated with wire decks are available.

d. Solid Decks – Solid-type decks made from wood or steel. Also some punch-deck products are available that allow sprinkler water to pass through the deck surface.

e. Fork Spacers – Front-to-back members that rest on top of the beams to profile fork space. These are required so plywood slab style pallets can be handled.

f. Skid Channels – Front-to-back members that consist of upside-down channels (legs up) to support load containers that may have legs or runners.

g. Drum Cradles – Front-to-back members that consist of angles set a specific distance apart for the purpose of supporting barrels or drums.

h. Coil Cradles – Front-to-back members that consist of a pair of angles or tapered hat sections that are set apart a specific distance for the purpose of supporting coils of a pre-determined diameter or range of diameters.

i. Entry Guides

i. Single Entry Guides – Tapered side guides that are often fastened to the frame just above the shelf elevations to ensure proper left-to-right pallet placement at the start of a pallet flow lane.

ii. Double Entry Guides – Similar to single entry guides but these are placed on the beams between two lanes to ensure proper left-to-right placement of the pallets at the start of two adjacent pallet flow lanes.

j. Carton Flow Lanes (or shelves) – Flow tracks that are installed to flow small, hand-loaded packages from the front to the back of a rack bay. These may be track assemblies that mount to the beams or a fabricated shelf assembly that is used for the same purpose. The tracks may consist of wheels or rollers.

k. Pallet Flow Lanes – Pallet flow lanes consist of two or more pallet flow track assemblies that are mounted to rack beams for the purpose of flowing complete pallets from the charge side to the discharge side of a pallet flow system. The flow tracks generally consist of side channels and wheels or rollers and may also have load stops, anti-backup devices and brakes.

l. Push-Back Lanes – Push-back lanes are mounted to beams to allow for pallets to be placed on carts that can be pushed back by the fork truck. The drivers aligns the next pallet into the load position and then uses the pallet that is on his forks to push the pallet and the cart that it rests on to a deeper position in the racks. The driver can then set the next pallet down into the position that was occupied by the pallet that was pushed back. Push-back systems are used for higher density storage because fewer aisles are required.

m. Guide Angles – Guide angles provide left-to-right positioning of a pallet within a load opening or can be used to provide support for legs or runners.

n. Deep Lane Rails – Deep lane rails provide support for pallets that are loaded in a multiple deep system by means of a deep lane storage vehicle. The vehicle generally travels within the section of the rails vertically and shuttles the load to rest on the top of the deep lane rail when it reaches the correct pallet position.

o. Beam Bumpers – Protective devices mounted to the aisle side beam that are intended to reduce or eliminate damage to the beam.

p. Heavy Duty Connectors – Connectors that have increased load carrying strength and/or increased moment capacity over standard connectors. These are often required for long beams, heavy applications, added stability or for seismic design reasons.

q. Heavy Duty Welds – Extra weld on beam ends that may be needed for the same reasons that are mentioned above. See heavy duty connectors.

r. Hold Down Devices (Beam Locks) – Beam locks are required by the RMI Specifications to prevent beams from accidental dislodgement caused by fork truck activity in the rack position or the position below. These can be bolts or pins, hooks or other devices that satisfy the RMI Specification 1000# uplift requirement.

s. Catwalk Bars – Members that attach to beams for the purpose of supporting a rack-supported work platform .

t. Safety Grating (Decks) – Flooring material that is placed between the beams that allows an order picker to step out into a module pallet flow position to dislodge a pallet that may be stuck and not flowing to its intended discharge location.

u. Beam Labels – Optional stickers or labels that indicate shelf capacity. These are optional and not required by the RMI Specification.

v. Dividers – Shelf dividers can be vertical or horizontal style that will allow loads to be stored on end and prevented from leaning on each other. Vertical dividers usually hang down from the beams above the opening and horizontal dividers usually attach from a rear beam and extend into the rack opening. Doors and windows are often stored in a retail environment using shelves with dividers.

w. Pipe Holders – Brackets that attach to beams for storage of pipes.

x. Reel Holders – Arms that attach to the frame to support reels of wire or other products that are supported by a mandrel.

y. Vertical Post Dividers – Fixed or adjustable posts that extend vertically from beam to beam to divide a storage bay.

z. Tool holders – Cantilever arms that attach to a single rear beam for the purpose of hanging tools in a retail storage environment.

aa. Horizontal Shelf Bracing – Diagonal bracing installed in the plane of the shelf that for transfer of horizontal load to the rear of the racks.

a. Straddle (Outrigger) Guard – A bolted or welded column protective device that is specifically intended to prevent damage to the bottom 0-6 inches of the truck aisle rack column that is caused by the outrigger of the fork truck. This is the most vulnerable area of the column for those applications where a lift truck with outriggers is used.

b. Column Protectors

i. Independent Protectors – Column protectors that are fastened only to the floor and are not connected to the rack column.

ii. Attached Protectors – Column protectors that are fastened to the column and the floor or just to the column.

iii. Welded Protectors – Protectors that are welded to the columns.

c. Column Doublers – Column sections that are welded to the truck aisle columns to reinforce the column and provide added capacity so columns have additional reserve strength for extra safety should they become damaged. (Note that per the RMI Specification, damaged columns should be unloaded and repaired or replaced before they are re-loaded.)

d. Heavy Duty Base Plates – Larger and thicker base plates can provide added base fixity, allow for additional anchors and provide improved distribution of column loading to the floor slab. Heavy duty base plates are recommended to improve the seismic resistance of a rack, provide resistance to uplift and improve a rack structure’s resistance to progressive collapse. Heavy duty base plates may also help a column remain in place if contacted by a fork truck.

e. Column Inserts – Column inserts are often provided to help prevent column section collapse from fork truck impact. These can be made from steel sections or other materials.

f. Setback Legs Designs – Frames that have the front legs setback or sloped back from the truck aisle. These designs are offered in an attempt to remove the column from the standard location where it is exposed to out-rigger damage. These designs may also make it easier for the operator to maneuver the pallet into the floor locations. These designs will have a detrimental effect on the overturning stability and should not be used without the approval of a qualified engineer. In many cases the engineer will not allow their use for single rows.

g. Row End (Corner) Guards – Structures that are mounted to the end of the row or to the floor at the end of the rack row to prevent damage to the end rack frames from transverse aisle traffic or en-of-row pallet staging. These may be fabricated assemblies, highway-type guarding or bollards

h. Guide Rail & Aisle Entries – Some fork trucks require down-aisle guide rails to be installed down the aisles to provide guidance for the vehicle. These guide rail systems usually require tapered entry assemblies.

i. Base isolators – Dampening device that can be installed at the base of the rack column to dampen seismic ground velocity.

j. Base Assemblies – Heavier duty fabricated base assembly that is intended to be stronger and more resistant to damage. These assemblies are fastened to the floor and the rack frame rests on top of the assembly.

k. Outrigger Bridge – Heavy duty bridge assembly that the aisle column rests upon that is designed so the outrigger can pass directly into the rack under the aisle column.

l. Frame Repair Kits – Manufactured parts that are used to repair damaged frames. The can be of four general categories.

i. Cuffs or blemish repair sections

ii. Single post repairs

iii. Front post plus bracing repairs

iv. Full frame repair sections consisting of both posts and bracing.
Frame repairs should be designed by a qualified engineer and installed by qualified installers. Repairs should result in a rack that is as strong or stronger than the original frame and compliant with the RMI Specification. Repairs can be of bolted or welded design.

m. Bracing Repairs – Bracing sections that can be installed to repair a frame that has missing or damaged bracing.

n. Frame Extensions – Frame sections that can be added to the top of existing frames to extend their height. Before installing frame extensions the existing and the new application should be reviewed by a qualified engineer.

o. Conveyor Windows – Frames may be specially designed to have openings in the bracing for conveyor or other style of accessories such as sprinklers to pass through the frame.

p. Heavy Duty Bottom Horizontal (or diagonals) – Special heavy duty bottom bracing that is often used to help resist damage.

q. Row Spacers – Ties used to maintain space between frames that are installed back-to-back to form double rows.

r. Flue Shear Ties – Heavy duty frame ties that are sometimes used transfer shear so the double frame becomes a more rigid assembly.

s. Cross-aisle Ties – Ties that tie two frames together at the top which extend across the truck aisle. These are often needed if the height-to-depth ratio of a single row is excessive or for top aisle guides and support of electrical equipment. Frame heights are normally extended where cross-aisle ties are needed so they cannot be hit by a load that is removed from the top pallet position of the rack.

t. Hangers and Standoff Brackets – Brackets that attach to the frames to support other accessories such as netting, lighting or sprinkles. For rack buildings the standoff bracket supports the wall girts.

u. Netting – Vertical or horizontal barrier material that is attached to the rack to provide protection from products that could fall from the racks.

v. Post Caps (sanitary features) – Some applications require the columns to be capped or require additional sanitary features to ease cleaning or prevent debris build-up on the frame components.

w. Shims – Thin plates that are usually the same size and shape as the column base plates that are installed under the base plates as needed to maintain a plumb frame installation.

x. Anchor bolts – Hardware used to anchor the rack columns to the floor. The RMI Specification requires that all rack columns be anchored.

y. Back Bracing – Rear vertical bracing that transfers horizontal loads to the floor so the rack sway is minimized.

a. Load Plaques – Load plaques are signs that post the load limits for a load shelf and in some cases the rack bay. Refer to the RMI Specification for more information. It is the rack user’s responsibility to obtain and display the load plaque.

b. Galvanized Finish – An alternate to paint that may be chosen for certain storage environments. For some rack components the rack supplier may supply pre-galvanized material rather than painted parts as standard.