For many working within the logistics and warehouse industry, you will hold stock that is standard in its shape and size. When looking for storage solutions, there are a wide range of options available that you can incorporate to utilise your space, such as pallet racks for palletised goods or shelving for smaller stock items. But there can also be occasions, such as for builders’ merchants and manufacturing units, where you require a storage solution that can meet specialist needs.
If your business is struggling to safely and securely store long or irregular loads, while minimising damage and ensuring stock is easy to location, you might need to consider an alternative option. We take a look at how heavy-duty cantilever racks can provide the solution you need.
What Is Cantilever Racking?
Cantilever racking is a cost-effective storage system which has been specifically designed to hold long-length, heavy loads or unusually shaped materials. This makes this type of racking ideally suited for holding heavy materials such as steel bars, metal sheets, pipes and mouldings. It's for this reason that cantilever racking is regularly utilised by warehouses, builder’s merchants, manufacturing units and distribution centres that need to maximise space for products that otherwise pose significant challenges.
As the name suggests, it's known for its cantilever form, where the arms act as shelves. The structure consists of vertical upright central columns which then support sets of horizontal arms onto which you store your stock. Due to its design, the structure offers maximum stability even when holding heavy items.
With cantilever racking, you can adapt the arms to accommodate specific product weights and dimensions. The open form of the structure improves airflow and draining which makes them ideal for products which need to avoid extended periods of damp such as timber. You can use this type of racking for internal and external storage although if taking it outside make sure the structure is galvanised to protect it from the weather.
Why Cantilever Racking Is Important?
The trouble with storing long, cumbersome items is the imperative to keep them level and secure. If timber, pipes and mouldings aren’t laid flat, they'll simply warp, crack and split, rendering them useless. This can have a significant impact on your profitability with warped stock typically discarded by tradespeople.
However, there are other gains to be had and that is by increasing health and safety standards. Lengthy loads stacked inappropriately – whether vertically or overhung – can raise serious hazards. It only takes one person to pick a single unit for an entire stack to come crashing down and, if you’re a customer-facing facility, the risks are even higher with both staff and buyer safety to consider. The arms on the cantilever pallet racking structure offers two key benefits. First, your stock sits securely across multiple with end-of-arm pins added to prevent cylindrical loads – such as pipes, rods and coils – from rolling off cantilever racks. Second, the open frame of the structure allows a clear view from all sides with easy access for loading and picking. With no blind spots, forklift operators have a clear view of both the aisle and the load, cutting down on collisions and near-misses.
Different Types of Cantilever Racking
When looking for heavy-duty cantilever racking, you can design the structure up to 10 metres in height with a Uniformly Distributed Weight of approximately 5 tonnes per arm. You can also set the arms at different intervals enabling you to precisely match the depth of the shelves to the type of stock you’re holding with little wastage of space.
If you’re looking to incorporate some heavy-duty cantilever racking into your warehouse, you have two different options available.
Single-Sided Cantilever Rack:
With cantilever arms on one side of the upright and a solid back, single-sided cantilever racking is usually butted up to a wall. You’ll commonly see them used in builders’ merchants and DIY retail back-of-shop settings where they’re placed around the perimeter. In space-constrained environments, they provide high-density, one-face solutions, leaving the rest of the floor free for other uses.
Double-Sided Cantilever Rack:
Essentially, these alternatives offer twice the load capacity of single-sided variants. With cantilever arms on both sides, the double-sided racks allows you to hold materials on either face, offering a 360º solution. You'll frequently find them located in warehouse aisles and industrial yards carrying loads such as steel and pipes. In larger DIY warehouses and builders’ merchants, they’re ideal for wider layouts, maximising aisle-to-aisle density without sacrificing access.
Key Benefits of Cantilever Racking
Alongside the obvious damage-control, health-and-safety and space-optimisation perks that are associated with cantilever pallet racking, there are additional advantages.
These include:
- Compatibility with forklifts
- Speeds up picking and packing for longer loads
- Creates a well-organised, productive environment for your workforce
- Forms a better customer journey for consumer-facing premises
- Makes stock easy to identify
- Configurable layouts allow you to tailor cantilever racking to match your processes
- Single-sided cantilever racking is ideally suited to narrow aisles
- Double-sided cantilever racking is perfect for creating aisles and making the most of both sides.
When to Choose Cantilever Racking
Here, your load characteristics will dictate suitability. Cantilever styles are the best racking solutions for long items. So, if you’re new to holding irregularly shaped materials like timber, pipes or textiles, or if you’re frustrated with stock damage leading to increased shrinkage, with cantilever racks you can rest assured that your inventory is securely stored.
Builders’ Merchants and big DIY names such as B&Q and Wickes have, for a long time, switched on to the benefits of opting for heavy-duty cantilever racking systems to stock longer items. But their applications don’t stop here. Because they fulfil the unique demands of awkwardly elongated objects and deliver the correct protection, cultural establishments are also embracing cantilever storage. For example, take the Postal Museum in London, which uses them to store rolled-up plans.
Why Choose Whittan as Your Cantilever Pallet Racking Manufacturer?
From design and manufacture through to on-site fitting, at Whittan, we provide a full turnkey service. We’ll work with you to tailor your cantilever pallet racking to suit your stock needs, add accessories and even paint, powder coat or galvanise your system – whether to meet environmental conditions or reinforce your brand identity.
To learn how these systems can enhance your operations, get in touch today.
