Ultimate Tips for Excellent Pallet Racking Maintenance

Racking and warehouse shelving systems are highly functional storage and inventory facilities that are also potentially dangerous to your commodities and workers. This is especially true for stored electronic items and chemical products that might cause widespread damages to your business. If high quality is not ensured, safety is also left compromised.

Buying high quality pallet rack systems doesn’t automatically translate to long lasting quality. The lifespan of warehouse facilities still depends on maintenance and everyday use. So how can you ensure excellent pallet racking maintenance?

Here are the ultimate tips to help you with your warehouse operations.

1. Monitor weight of commodities

Racks and shelves have their weight limits. Not sticking with specifications will lead to accidents.

The common footplates used for storage facilities measure 5”x8”. They can accommodate up to 36 warehouse shelving spaces. That is approximately 20,000 lbs. of commodities or less than a ton. Regardless the sizes of items, you should be aware of the weights you are putting on your racks.

If you utilize add-on pallets, the weight of the additional racks should be added to the weight capacity of the base racks. Remember that adding new racks only multiplies the surface area and not double their weight capacities (unless additional base cross supports and frames are added as well).

Bolted pallets also work differently from snapped-on ones. The former are stronger. Normally, a leeway of 20% of their weight capacities is left unused for snapped-on ones.

2. Use a grid inventory labelling system

By placing label tags of your commodities directly to the frames or braces, transportations and manual movements are controlled; hence, limiting rooms for human errors, abating the possibility of accidents and preventing unnecessary weights and forces, which are the primary causes of weakening cross supports.

Inventory is more convenient and faster through this labelling system, so you are hitting two birds in one stone.

3. Use safety accessories for your racking system

Damage the base and the whole vertical stack will go tumbling down. Accidents do happen in warehouses, commonly involving forklifts and human errors. By placing barrier shields on every corner, you are adding buffers for unwanted forces and strengthens the structure at the same time.

Column guards are best for posts that are exposed to constant movements, such as those along ways and entrances/exits. They are also recommended for commodities that have corrosive effect, such as acids and chemicals.

A type of post guard/protector

To expand your rack’s functionality, wire decking and flow racks can be added on top without adding much burden to the braces.  For long span shelving, row spacers can be attached should they be more appropriate to your commodities. Also, make sure that you only use specialized pallet rack ladders to keep your workers safe.

A type of post guard

4. Pass regular inspections and certifications

Be proactive. Although inspections are stressful and pricey at times, they are great way to maintain high standards inside your warehouse. Inspections can be done by legal authorities (for locations with legal requirements) or by warehousing experts. They can pinpoint damages, vulnerabilities and recommend repairing/servicing should it be necessary.

Some warehousing experts also provide training for your workers, so it is a must to seek their advice on pallet racking.