Two Ways You’ve Never Considered Using Cantilever Rack That Support E-Commerce Storage

Cantilever rack is known for storing long or bulky items such as piping, sheet metal, and lumber. It’s certainly not known for a fast-paced, high-throughput operation such as found in e-commerce storage and distribution.

It’s time to look at cantilever rack in a different way. The two cantilever rack storage solutions described below are very innovative spins on this product and allows it to excel as a storage solution for e-commerce distribution centers.

Add Wire Deck to Cantilever Rack for High-Density Storage

If you’re storing light-duty items such as clothing, shoes, or small cartons (among many others), this solution is a huge space-saver.

Outfitting cantilever rack with wire decking is as simple as placing the wire deck onto the arm supports. The uprights are flipped 90 degrees, so they go down aisle instead of cross-aisle. The addition of the wire decking creates a continuous shelf with no frontal obstructions that allow for items varying in weight to be placed anywhere onto the system.

Cantilever rack with wire decking differs from selective rack because there are no vertical obstructions from frames, resulting in higher selectivity, density, and space utilization. With no vertical obstructions from the uprights, the wire decking spans the entire length of the row. This means extra space for you to store on and higher visibility for pickers.

Typical applications support wire decking that is 20” to 24” deep but designs can go up to 34 inches. For these applications, length cannot exceed more than 5 feet. The wire deck can be turned up at the back end to prevent inventory from falling off the system. Another available option that assists in the picking process is to add a ‘bull nose’ to the front of the wire deck to allow for labels or barcodes to be added.

Add Rails and Hangers to Cantilever Rack for Garment Storage

An alternative to wire decking is to add rails across the cantilever arms to support garment hangers. This can be a high-density, heavier-duty solution for hanging apparel in industrial type environments such as found in e-commerce storage and distribution.

In this solution, the cantilever arms are set up the same way as with the wire deck. The rails are secured to the arms for the secure storage of apparel.

Design A Cantilever System to Support Your Inventory

There are four characteristics to consider ensuring a cantilever system can accommodate your inventory:

• Depth
• Height
• Length
• Width

These four inventory characteristics determine the correct number, length, and spacing of cantilever arms needed in a system. For example, if the cantilever arms are spaced too far apart, the wire deck or rails will deflect. This deflection may lead to damage to your inventory as well as the system. Adding more arms into the system can avoid any deflection from occurring.

Once the number of arms is determined, you can then calculate the capacity of the system. Each arm will support an equal amount of weight in a properly designed system. The arm capacity can be calculated by dividing the load weight by the number of arms required.

Learn More

To read more e-commerce storage solutions visit REB’s e-commerce industry page.

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REB has been providing material handling systems to the warehousing and distribution industry since 1962. We understand that your storage system should maximize efficiency. Our team of engineers specializes in evaluating and designing a storage system based on your specific inventory characteristics, giving you a system that optimizes your operation.

Fill out the ‘Submit Your Inquiry’ form to get in touch with one of our industry experts who can answer any questions you may have regarding cantilever rack wire decking applications.