One of the most common questions posed in the storage equipment industry is ‘What loading will my pallet racking take?’ One of the most common answers to this question is ‘It depends.’ Which is true. The capacity of your racking depends on a range of factors, which makes it impossible to give a ‘standard’ answer.

Some pallet racking systems can be designed bespoke to the requirements of the user. Therefore the components of the system will vary significantly, meaning that no two systems are the same and that giving a definitive answer that covers all racking systems, or any other manufacturer for that matter, can’t be done.

In order to give you the weight limits of your specific racking we need to know a few details about the system:

1 – What is the Bay Clear Entry?

What’s the distance (in millimetres) between the insides of each upright – this must be measured from the front face of the rack i.e right to left along the width, NOT the depth.

2 – What is the racking beam section?

In other words, is it an open beam or a box beam? The box beam is a heavier duty beam than the open beam, so this is crucial to the strength of the entire racking system and the loading it can take.

3 – Do you know the beam depth?

To measure the beam depth measure the distance from the top to the bottom of the front face in millimetres.

4 – What about the face of the beam?

The depth of the beam face is also an important dimension when calculating the loading of your system. Whereas the beam depth is commonly 50mm, the beam face depth can vary significantly from 80 or 90mm to as much as 150mm. The deeper the beam face the heavier duty the beam and the more load it is likely to take.

5 – How big are the racking frames?

It is important to know the dimensions of your racking frames. The measurement required is the Height (H) (mm) x Width (W) (mm) of the frames. For example, a the end frames may be 6000mm high x 900mm Wide. The width (or depth) of the frame can be measured as the front to back dimension of the rack.

6 – What is the vertical beam pitch of your racking system?

The height of each storage level, measured from the floor to the top side of each beam. Beam pitches for Dexion pallet racking are 76.2mm (3 inches) for MK3 Speedlock or 50mm for Dexion P90, therefore beams can only be located at these intervals.

E.g. if you have 3 beam levels we need to know the exact heights of each beam. If the number of beam levels varies across your racking system, then the load criteria will also vary so please bear this in mind.

7 – Frame Section (or upright duty)

The frame section indicates the duty of the upright. Different upright duties offer different strengths, therefore it is important to be clear on the load that your rack uprights can take before loading the racking to capacity. For Dexion P90 or Dexion MK3 the duty is stamped onto the steel all the way up each upright. This makes it easy to identify. For example, a heavy duty Dexion upright will have a ‘H’ stamped onto it, or a standard duty upright will have an ‘S’.

Other manufacturers may use the same method, or they may stamp the side profile of the upright.

If you want more information about weight limits or if you are looking for new or second hand racking

Get in Touch with Advanced Handling & Storage

If you want to maximise your warehouse space through the use of second hand or new pallet racking, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on 0800 345 7088 or send an email to [email protected]

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