If your business uses pallets to store or transport materials, you should consider investing in a pallet racking system. Pallets are commonly used for material handling applications in the workplace. Also known as skids, you can lift and move them using equipment such as a pallet jack or forklift.
Pallets feature wooden planks. Most of them feature a row of wooden planks on the bottom, followed by a few separating wooden planks in the middle, and then another row of wooden planks on the top. You can slide the arms of a pallet jack or forklift in the middle of a pallet to lift it. Rather than storing pallets on the floor, however, you may want to store them on a pallet racking system.
#1) Uprights
Most pallet racking systems consist of three parts: uprights, beams and wire deck. Uprights are the vertical supporting structures on the sides of a pallet racking system. Pallet racking systems are essentially heavy-duty freestanding shelves that are designed for pallets. They are completely adjustable, so they will accommodate pallets in different sizes (when the pallets are loaded).
Uprights are simply the vertical supporting structures. Pallet racking systems have uprights on their sides. The uprights provide the vertical structural support.
#2) Beams
Beams are the horizontal supporting structures. Pallet racking systems have shelves. The shelves are held in place with beams. Each shelf is supported by a set of beams.
Beams sit horizontally across the uprights. Uprights run vertically along the sides of a pallet racking system. Beams, in comparison, run horizontally across the uprights. There are different types of pallet racking systems, but most of them feature uprights for vertical support and beams for horizontal support.
#3) Wire Deck
Wire deck refers to the flat, wire-based surface of a pallet racking system. Wire decks are shelves. They are made of a heavy-duty wire material. The wire material is typically galvanized so that it doesn’t rust or corrode.
You can use a pallet racking system by storing pallets on the wire decks. Each wire deck is a shelf. When connected to beams and uprights, wire decks offer a uniform platform on which to store pallets.
You can also adjust the height of a wire deck by raising or lowering it. Wire decks are used in conjunction with uprights and beams. If a pallet is too tall to fit on a wire deck, you can lower the wire deck so that it fits.
