Warehouses are specifically designed for storage. The right shelving is essential to ensure that they’re meeting this basic goal. Read on to find out about a few different types of specialized warehouse shelving for help with choosing the right one.
Rivet Shelving
When they think about warehouse shelving fort worth tx business owners typically call to mind images of rivet shelves. There are a few advantages to choosing this popular shelving style. Rivet shelves are strong, versatile, and easy to move should the need to restructure storage space arise.
There are two types of rivet shelving. Single rivet shelves can only hold up to 300 pounds, while double rivet shelves are strong and can hold up to 15,000 pounds. Most warehouse owners opt for the latter.
The only real downside of rivet shelving is that it isn’t aesthetically appealing. It provides a bare-bones solution for storing packages and materials, but it doesn’t feature doors or dividers and it’s difficult to customize. Luckily, most warehouses need not prioritize curb appeal.
Wire Shelving
Wire shelving is much more expensive than rivet shelving. In fact, it is the most expensive storage solution found in modern warehouses. It offers a few advantages over rivet shelving, though, so it’s worth considering.
Wire shelving is more attractive. It also weighs less than rivet shelving, which makes it possible to mount these shelves on wheels to make them more portable. Wire shelving can help keep warehouses clean, too, since it prevents dust from collecting on the shelves.
Aside from its higher price tag, wire shelving has a few other disadvantages. It’s not as versatile or as strong as rivet shelving, which makes it impractical for most warehouse applications. Warehouse managers may want to save the wire shelving for applications where business associates or clients are likely to see it and use rivet shelving or steel shelving behind the scenes.
Steel Shelving
Steel shelving is more customizable than rivet shelving and cheaper than wire shelving. Users can add doors and dividers to their steel shelves and adjust their height as needed. Since this type of metal shelving uses solid sheets and beams of steel, it’s also able to hold an incredible amount of weight.
It may seem like this shelving type provides a universal solution to the problems posed by wire and rivet shelving, but that’s not quite true. While steel shelving is cheaper than wire shelving, it can still be prohibitively expensive for large warehouses. It’s also difficult to move once it’s assembled.
The Bottom Line
Each of the shelving types described above offers its own set of unique advantages and disadvantages. Smart warehouse managers won’t just resign themselves to living with a less-than-perfect product. Instead, they’ll choose shelving units based on their intended use and will purchase a combination of all three shelving types.
Use steel or wire shelving in areas where customers or business partners might see them. Use wire shelves to store lighter materials and put them on wheels for added portability. Use rivet shelves behind the scenes to support heavy loads that won’t need to be moved from place to place.
