Transform your facility's footprint and workflow. Our roll out rack systems are engineered to maximize your vertical space, streamline material handling with overhead cranes, and create a safer, more productive environment. Eliminate wasted aisle space and unlock your plant's true capacity.
In any steel service center or metal fabrication shop, the area dedicated to storing pipes, tubes, and bar stock often contains hidden operational drains. Traditional storage methods, like floor stacking or static cantilever racks, create inefficiencies that are so common they become accepted as the cost of doing business. These are not just minor inconveniences; they are active drains on profitability, safety, and productivity.
The most significant hidden cost is secondary handling. When the specific bundle of steel tubing or bar stock you need is buried under five others, your team is forced to become excavators. This process involves:
This "excavation" can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. During this time, your high-value laser cutter, CNC machine, or saw is sitting idle, waiting for material. This isn't just wasted labor time; it's a direct loss of production capacity from your most valuable assets.
For operations handling high-purity stainless steel, polished aluminum, or other sensitive materials, surface integrity is paramount. A single deep scratch from a forklift tine or from dragging a pipe across a static rack arm can render a multi-thousand-dollar piece of material useless scrap. Traditional forklift handling inherently involves sliding, scraping, and potential impacts. This constant risk of damage directly translates to financial loss and compromises quality control, especially for industries with strict standards like ASME BPE.
Static racking systems are slaves to the forklift. To accommodate a forklift carrying a 20-foot load, aisles must be extremely wide—often 12 to 20 feet. This vast expanse of concrete is a sunk cost. It is heated, lit, and maintained, yet it produces nothing. This "aisle penalty" consumes a massive portion of your facility's footprint, preventing the addition of new machinery or production lines and artificially limiting your growth potential.
The solution to these hidden costs is a fundamental change in material handling philosophy: instead of driving a machine into a storage system, the storage system should present the material directly to your primary handling equipment. This is the core principle of the space saving roll out racks. By allowing each storage level to extend 100% into the aisle, these systems unlock the full potential of your overhead cranes.
Once a level is fully extended, the material is completely clear of the rack structure above it. This provides an unobstructed, vertical path for an Electric Overhead Traveling (EOT) crane. Your crane operator can lower slings, a vacuum lifter, or a magnet directly onto the bundle. This design forges a seamless link between your existing crane infrastructure and your raw material inventory, eliminating the forklift from the retrieval process entirely.
This transition changes the physics of material handling. The damaging, high-friction horizontal "slide" of a forklift is replaced by a gentle, zero-friction vertical lift from a crane. There is no metal-on-metal contact with the rack arms during retrieval. This non-contact approach preserves the pristine surface finish of high-value materials, effectively eliminating handling-related scrap and ensuring the quality of your inventory from receiving to production.
Adopting an overhead crane accessible racking system delivers concrete, measurable improvements to your operation's core metrics. It's not an incremental change; it's a strategic upgrade that pays dividends in recovered space, accelerated workflow, and a fundamentally safer environment.
By eliminating the need for wide forklift aisles, you immediately reclaim a significant portion of your floor space. The access aisle for a roll out rack only needs to be as wide as the material itself, not the turning radius of a vehicle. This space recovery—often up to 50% of the area previously dedicated to storage—can be repurposed for revenue-generating activities. It creates room for a new welding station, an additional CNC machine, or an expanded assembly area, allowing you to increase capacity without the massive capital expense of a building expansion.
Because every level of a roll out rack is 100% independently accessible, the "excavation" process is completely eliminated. Retrieval time becomes predictable and fast. An operator can walk up to the rack, extend the correct level, and have the crane lift the material in under three minutes. This consistency transforms production scheduling, reduces machine downtime, and allows for a true just-in-time flow of materials to your processing equipment.
Safety is improved by removing the primary hazard: the interaction between long, heavy loads and forklifts in confined aisles. Crane operators typically have a much better vantage point, standing away from the load and controlling it with precision. The ergonomic crank mechanism allows a single person to move several tons of material with minimal physical effort, reducing the risk of strains and musculoskeletal injuries. By creating a more controlled, predictable, and ergonomic material handling process, you build a safer workplace from the ground up.
A true heavy-duty roll out system is more than just a shelf that moves. It's an engineered solution built to withstand the rigors of an industrial environment. The foundation is a robust frame constructed from structural steel H-beams, not lighter roll-formed steel, providing superior resistance to the inevitable impacts of a busy facility. The roll out mechanism itself relies on industrial-grade bearings and a precisely geared crank to ensure smooth, controlled movement of loads weighing thousands of pounds, ensuring long-term reliability and operator safety.
By integrating space saving roll out racks into your facility, you are not just buying a storage product; you are investing in a more efficient, dense, and safe operational workflow. It's a strategic tool that turns your storage area from a static cost center into a dynamic asset that actively supports your production goals.
Capacities are highly customizable based on application. A typical arm can be engineered to hold anywhere from 1,000 lbs to over 10,000 lbs. The total capacity per level depends on the number of arms and their spacing, designed specifically to handle your material's weight and length safely.
Yes. While manual crank-out systems are very common and ergonomic, fully electric motorized systems are available. These are ideal for extremely heavy loads or high-frequency applications where push-button operation can further increase speed and reduce operator fatigue.
Any standard EOT (Electric Overhead Traveling) bridge crane is suitable. The key requirement is that the crane's coverage area includes the storage racks. The system is compatible with various lifting attachments, including nylon slings, magnets, and vacuum lifters.
The crank mechanism is designed with a gear ratio that provides significant mechanical advantage. A single operator can extend a level loaded with several tons of material using a force comparable to turning a large valve, making the process safe and not physically strenuous.
The rack's base is constructed from heavy structural steel, providing a very low and stable center of gravity. For seismic zones or based on load calculations, the columns are securely anchored to the concrete floor using heavy-duty expansion bolts to ensure absolute stability, even when a level is fully extended.
