pallet stillages steel

Your bagged goods, such as flour or animal feeds, are limited by their own strength, forcing you into inefficient floor stacking that wastes space and risks product damage. Steel pallet stillages create a load-bearing frame around your products, allowing you to stack 4-5 levels high, instantly multiplying your warehouse capacity and protecting your inventory from compression and contamination.

Talk With An Expert

The Fundamental Shift in Bagged Goods Storage: From Product-Load to Structure-Load

In industries like food production and animal feed milling, the primary storage challenge for bagged goods—be it sacks of swan flour, layer mash for chickens, or cracked wheat flour—is that the product itself must bear the weight of everything stacked above it. This leads to two unavoidable problems: product damage from compression and severe limitations on vertical storage height. The introduction of pallet stillages steel systems fundamentally changes this dynamic by transferring the load-bearing responsibility from the product to a rigid, external steel frame.

This system, also known as a metal post pallet or portable stack rack, creates an independent, modular storage unit. A standard pallet of bagged goods is placed inside the stillage base, and the four steel corner posts support the weight of subsequent layers. The goods on the bottom layer experience zero compression, completely eliminating crush damage and the associated financial losses from unsaleable inventory.

Comparing Storage Methods for Bagged Goods

Unlock True Warehouse Capacity by Thinking in Cubic Meters, Not Square Meters

The most significant and immediate value of adopting heavy duty stack racks is the transformation of warehouse space utilization. A warehouse is a three-dimensional asset, yet floor stacking treats it as a two-dimensional one. By enabling safe vertical stacking up to 6-8 meters, these systems can increase storage density by over 60%, effectively doubling or tripling the capacity of an existing facility without any new construction. This allows businesses like feed mills to accommodate seasonal inventory peaks, store a wider variety of SKUs (e.g., chick booster, hog starter feeds) in the same footprint, and delay costly expansions.

Preserve Product Integrity and Hygiene Standards

For food and feed products, integrity is paramount. Bagged goods are vulnerable to moisture from concrete floors, contamination from pests, and damage from handling equipment. Placing palletized goods inside a steel stillage elevates them off the floor, protecting them from ground-level contaminants. The open framework design also promotes better air circulation, which is critical in preventing moisture buildup and spoilage. Furthermore, since each unit is moved by forklift, manual handling of individual bags is drastically reduced, minimizing the risk of tears, spills, and contamination during internal logistics.

Streamline Operations from Production Line to Dispatch

The concept of a "unit load"—a single, manageable block of inventory—is key to efficient warehouse operations. A pallet stillage transforms a wobbly stack of bags into a solid, stable unit load. This standardization has a cascading effect on efficiency:

• Faster Put-Away: A forklift can move an entire unit load of 1-2 tons from the production line into its storage location in a single trip.
• Improved Inventory Management: With distinct SKUs in separate, accessible stillages, cycle counting and stocktaking become faster and more accurate. There is no need to dismantle large floor stacks to find a specific batch.
• Quicker Order Picking: When an order comes in, a forklift can retrieve the exact required stillage without disturbing other inventory, dramatically reducing order fulfillment time.
• Reduced Handling Costs: Less manual labor is required for stacking, re-stacking, and moving goods, leading to lower labor costs and a safer work environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the main difference between a pallet stillage and a standard pallet rack?

A standard pallet rack is a static, bolted-to-the-floor structure that creates fixed aisles and storage bays. A pallet stillage is a portable, modular rack that acts as both a storage unit and a transport container. It offers flexibility to change the warehouse layout at any time, which fixed racking does not allow.

2. How high can you safely stack these steel stillages?

The safe stacking height depends on the rack's load capacity, the stability of the load, the condition of the floor, and the capability of the forklift. However, most industrial steel stillages are engineered to be safely stacked 4 to 5 levels high, with each level holding 1,000 to 2,000 kg.

3. Are these systems suitable for food-grade environments like a flour mill?

Yes. Steel is non-porous and easy to clean. For environments with high humidity or frequent wash-downs, a hot-dip galvanized finish is recommended. This provides superior rust and corrosion protection, ensuring a long, hygienic service life without the risk of paint chips or rust flakes contaminating products.

4. What happens when the stillages are empty? Do they take up a lot of space?

Most pallet stillages are designed with demountable posts. The corner posts can be removed, and the empty bases can be nested or stacked together compactly. This feature is crucial for saving space during seasonal lulls or for reducing return shipping costs in a closed-loop logistics system.

5. Can these stillages be used to transport goods between our production plant and a distribution center?

Absolutely. They are designed for this purpose and are often referred to as Returnable Transport Packaging (RTP). The rigid steel frame protects goods during transit far more effectively than stretch wrap alone, significantly reducing shipping damage. Their stackability also maximizes space utilization within a truck or shipping container.