Which Type of Industrial Shelving is Right for Me?

A warehouse or industrial facility is constantly changing its inventory as new items are being acquired and stored, and products are being distributed. One of the most important factors in laying out a material handling facility is optimizing your storage density. If you are primarily dealing with loose items not on pallets, then you should consider the wide variety of used industrial shelving that American Surplus carries.

Industrial shelving covers a wide variety of different types and styles, but they are all typically made of either heavy duty welded or roll-formed steel. Another common feature across varieties of shelving is the ability to adjust the shelves, but the increments at which this can be done varies.

One of the first major options you will be faced with when deciding which type of industrial metal shelving is right for your facility is whether you need open or closed style shelving. Open style shelving allows for product to be accessed from all sides, and inventory items can be seen from all sides as well. Closed style shelving features the same frame as open style, but walls are then added to the sides and back. This is great for keeping inventory secure, especially small parts and odd shaped objects that can shift position.

There are also three different methods for securing shelves to the frames. Nut and bolt shelving is the sturdiest of the three but requires the most time and labor to set up. Clip shelving is not as sturdy as nut and bolt shelving, and more sturdy than boltless, and they use clips to lock each shelf into place. Typically the top and bottom shelf are secured with nut and bolts for added sturdiness. This is much quicker to assemble while still being able to hold large amounts of weight. The last style is boltless shelving, which takes the least amount of time to set up but also has the lowest weight capacity.

American Surplus carries specialty types of shelving as well, like wire and record storage. Used wire shelving has become extremely popular as it is easy to assemble, lightweight, and sturdy. The four uprights feature plastic circular clips that each shelf rests on, and these clips can be adjusted in 1’’ increments. This means as many shelves as you need and at whatever spacing you need. There are a variety of shelving options, including baskets, rails, casters, tilted shelves, etc. to customize your unit to suit your needs.

Record storage shelving is a style of open shelving that allows for the storage of letter/legal size document file storage boxes. They can contain a max of two boxes deep per level and two boxes high. These help keep documents organized while maximizing storage density. Taking advantage of vertical space is the easiest method to save space within a facility, and that is exactly what these do.

Stop by American Surplus; we are your one stop shop for all of your industrial shelving and storage needs. Need to store palletized loads? We also have a large amount of used pallet racking on hand in many different styles. Don’t know which is right for you? Give us a call, our sales team will work with you and determine what type of storage equipment is right for your facility.