A cantilever racking system provides an efficient solution to organizing and storing long, bulky, or odd-shaped items. These racks increase space utilization by eliminating vertical obstructions in the inventory storage area.
Twinlode Automation can design and install cantilever racking to solve storage problems, delivering a fast, convenient solution to handling heavy, long unwieldy materials. They are available single-sided or double-sided and are customizable in a variety of capacities and sizes to meet specific storage needs.
Types of Warehouse Cantilever Racking Systems
Warehouses have many options to choose from when selecting a cantilevered beam and rack. Cantilever racks are available in these types of steel:
- Roll-formed: Roll-formed steel is cost-effective and easily adjustable, making it ideal for light- and medium-duty applications.
- Structural: Structural steel cantilever is made from hot-rolled C-channel or I-beam structural steel. This material is durable, so it is used for heavy-duty, high-capacity loads. Structural steel is more impact resistant and stronger than roll-formed racks and requires hardware for assembly.
Cantilever racking can be designed to meet the requirements for warehouses in seismic areas.
How a Cantilever Storage System Works
A cantilever rack has these components:
- Base: The steel baseplate extends from the bottom of the rack, anchoring the racking to the floor. The uprights connect to the base, which counterbalances the stored inventory’s weight and supports the structure.
- Uprights: The uprights are vertical columns that support the rack beams. They connect to the base and have holes for the arms and supports. The upright can be single-sided to store products on the front or double-sided to store products on both the front and back sides.
- Arms: The arms — or beams — extend from the upright and hold the products for storage. The cantilever beam is anchored at one end only, meaning the load is held by the arm, which transfers the load to the supporting rack structure.
- Supports: The braces between the uprights keep the rack stable and supported horizontally and diagonally. Supports are essential for product and employee safety.
The arms and bases make for easy loading and unloading by forklifts and instant accessibility to either one piece or an entire load. For longer materials, braces and uprights can be added to fit any requirements.
Cantilever storage systems can be outfitted with safety accessories such as guide rails and entrance guards.
Benefits of Cantilever Racking
Cantilever racking allows easy loading and removal of items with a variety of heights, widths, depths and weights. The advantages of a cantilever racking system include:
- Expand valuable floor space: Cantilever racks reposition products off the ground and onto racks. Tubes, bars, structurals, and other long, heavy items can be stored raised off the floor.
- Increased storage capacity: Cantilever racking offers greater storage capacity and efficiency in storing long items. Storage capacity is increased when double-sided storage is used. Bases can provide extra storage.
- Customizable: Cantilever arms can be adjusted to fit the stored product, so cantilever racking can hold virtually any product. The height, capacity, and width combinations cantilever racks can create are nearly endless.
- Stores any size or shape item: Cantilever racks are excellent for storing items of nonuniform size and length. It protects and prevents damage to long items.
- Open storage area: The cantilever rack’s linear storage area is open and spacious since it has no vertical obstructions.
- Easier retrieval: Cantilever racks allow operators to retrieve bulky items more easily due to the obstruction-free storage area.