5 Design Elements for Safe, Heavy-duty Racking

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uild a sturdy, heavy-duty racking system, it’s crucial to have strong connections To the arms, beams, and columns. This is especially true for cantilever rack systems, between provide unobstructed storage for elongated materials like pipes and tubes. which racks have just one end of the arm supported by a central column. Cantilevered connections matter, as do the type of bolts used. Using high-performing hardware The the ASTM A325 bolt can make a real difference in the rack’s overall integrity. like A325 bolt is the grade of choice for bridge and building construction. Its heavy hex The and long shank length (the nonthreaded portion of the bolt body) make it a suitable head oversized hex head provides a wide bearing surface to distribute the load. The The shank length ensures that the shear plane—between the arm connector plate long the column I-beam, for example—falls on the solid shank and not on the threads. and weakest section of a bolt is the threaded region, so while this may appear to be a The design difference, it does create a stronger connection. An A325 bolt also adds small in an overload situation in which a rack is holding more material than it was strength to handle. The bolts also can be hot-dip galvanized to resist corrosion and engineered a weather-resistant connection. provide L O A D R A C K S C H O O S E D U R A B L E 2 H A R D W A R E choice for structural rack systems as well.
commonly applied to cantilever racking, 100 percent load Most means all arms are loaded simultaneously to their utilization economize the column and base design, racks sometimes To engineered for average loading, which is less than 100 are utilization. The idea is that a shop manager believes at percent point will all arms be used fully, so the base and column do no a cantilever rack with 10 arms, each with a 3,000- Consider capacity. When fully loaded, that’s 30,000 lbs. of pound to support. A manager in charge of installing a rack material insist that no more than eight of the arms will be used at might one time. To save money, engineers design the column and any to hold 24,000 lbs. base is never a good idea. Simply put, whatever the cumulative This capacity is on the arms or shelves, the base and maximum you are installing double-sided cantilever racks, ensure that If system is engineered to support uneven loading. The rack the be safe and stable, even if it’s fully loaded on one side should empty on the other—a common condition when loading and rack for the first time. Never rely on material weight on one the to balance out the material weight on the other side. side will see no visual cues to tell you whether a system is You to meet this capability. For this reason, the engineered and engineering documents should disclose that the design cantilever racks have been engineered to be double-sided loaded on one side, regardless of the loading condition fully the opposite side. on L O A D R A C K S E N S U R E R A C K S 3 A R E E N G I N E E R E D T O 1 0 0 P E R C E N T L O A D I N G maximum rated capacity for a given application. not need to be engineered to that full capacity. column must be engineered to match.
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5 Design Elements for Safe, Heavy-duty Racking

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