So, you have a storage dilemma. You need to be able to store and stack awkwardly shaped products that don’t fit neatly onto standard pallets or into standard pallet racking.
Stillages could be the answer to your warehouse storage dilemma!
Wooden Pallets versus Steel Stillages
Wooden Pallets
Wooden pallets are a standard size flat transport and storage structure, which supports goods while being lifted by a lifting device such as a forklift. Wooden pallets can be stacked in standard sized shelving and are a cheap way to manage and store warehouse and factory products. However, if your products are not a standard size or shape, they may not fit nicely into your wooden pallet racking.
The downside of pallet racking in warehouse space is that the frames are fixed in position and bolted to the concrete floor. Should your production or warehouse storage flows change, then the fixtures need to be moved, which consumes times and costs you money.
Steel Stillages
Steel stillages are steel frames that can be custom manufactured and welded to specifically suit your products, unlike standard wooden pallets where you are confined to a standard dimension. Stillages come with stacking cup feet or spigots on the top or bottom of the posts which also allows you to stack the frames to a certain specified height.
How Steel Stillages Work
Stillages allow you to better utilise your floor space by having the stillage manufactured to suit the dimensions of your awkward or oversized products.
- Calculate your dimensions
Calculate your required stillage dimensions: length x width x height. - Calculate your load capacity (or WLL: working load limit).
Once you have determined size and load capacity, you can start stacking stillages on top of each other, maximising warehouse storage space.
Unlike pallet racking, stillages can simply be re-stacked into another configuration within your floor space if your product storage needs change. This is done easily using a forklift to move and stack the stillages to suit your workflows and storage needs.
Benefits of Steel Stillages
As well as providing an opportunity for customisable storage, steel stillages also deliver other benefits.
1. Return on storage space
In most situations, owners of business talk about return per square metre of factory space, but with stillages you can start to see rate of return on cubic metre capacity of your factory.
2. Design load capacity
Another advantage of steel stillages is the design load can be massive – accommodating working loads up to 20,000Kgs – and still be moved to suit large fork trucks. This is rare but achievable, whereas pallet racking loads generally max out at approximately 3,000Kgs.
3. Steel stillages for tyre management and storage
The tyre industry is a great example of the storage benefits of steel stillages and steel pallet cages.
Bulk containers hand-packed full of new tyres arrive at a warehouse directly from a shipping container. By using stillages, a worker can take the unit to the rear of the container and decant directly into the stillage.
Once fully loaded, this stillage can be taken into the warehouse for bulk storage and stacked into the stock area required. The operator can then take another empty Stillage back to the container and repeat the process.
Need a Stillage Solution for your Warehouse or Factory?
All our products are Australian designed and made to the highest quality standards, and we can provide fully customisable metal fabrication solutions to suit your specific needs.
Contact the friendly Bremco team today to get your stillages job started!