Warehouse Blog

Welcome To The Warehouse Blog

Greetings! Introducing WarehouseBlog.com a new blog from Warehouse Rack & Shelf LLC; I hope you enjoy it. We're going to try to have fun with this. Just some quick takes on the wide-world-of-warehousing. It’s intended to be thought provoking, educational and fun.  

WarehouseBlog.com is designed for individuals in the warehousing business to discuss topics that pertain to warehousing, material handling and distribution. I encourage you to visit often and share your ideas.

Brad McNamee
President, Warehouse Rack & Shelf LLC
800-763-9020 x222
www.rackandshelf.com

Amazing New Protect-It Rack Protectors Can Save Money & Lives

Protect-it^TM offers exceptional performance in pallet rack protection. Warehouse rack damage is a major occupational health and safety issue. Pallet racking is not designed to be struck by fork-lifts. Even low speed collisions can lead to structural damage that is costly to repair and places workers at risk.

With Protect-it^TM column guards you decrease that risk tremendously. Its innovative design allows each unit to compress when struck absorbing the impact and preventing costly upright damage.

• Improves safety and protects your investment
• Easy to install
• Low purchase and installation costs
• Lowest replacement cost in the market
• Securely grips the column (no hardware)
• Recommend 3-4 per column
• Effective in cold stores as low as -40 degrees

Please call 800-763-9020 to discuss your rack protection requirements. Warehouse Rack & Shelf LLC is your one stop shop for all of your rack accessory needs.

Domestic Wire Decking Industry Files Antidumping Case Against Chinese Wire Decks

U.S. Sets Preliminary Penalties on Chinese Wire Decking

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday that it has set preliminary countervailing duties (CVD) on imports of steel wire decking from China, a move that might escalate trade disputes between the two countries.

The department said it "preliminarily determined that Chinese producers/exporters have received net countervailable subsidies ranging from 2.02 to 437.73 percent."

As a result of this preliminary determination, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect a cash deposit or bond based on these preliminary rates.

The product covered by this investigation is welded-wire rack decking produced from carbon or alloy steel wire that has been welded into a mesh pattern. The wire mesh is reinforced with structural supports and designed to be load bearing.

Wire decking reinforced with structural supports is designed generally for industrial and other commercial storage rack systems.

Considerations for the Purchase of Wire Decking

When you purchase pallet rack from Warehouse Rack & Shelf LLC you have five decking options: No decking, Crossbar pallet supports, solid corrugated steel decking, smooth metal decking and wire mesh decking.

Warehouse safety and liability is vulnerable to the structural integrity of the pallet when pallets are loaded directly on the beams. Wire decks are the ultimate safety solution.  

Other safety liabilties that you incur include: pallets are too small or improperly placed or installed to fit the rack system. Pallet supports allow smaller items to fall through to the floor. When using pallet supports pallet loads should be shrink wrapped and you should be very concerned with pallet load containment and confinement.

Wire decking provides the solution for safer support of pallets in a selective rack system. Wire decking is the ultimate safety solution.

Wire decking can reduce insurance rates and meet many fire codes including: National Fire Protection Association: Code 13 (2007), 3.9.38, A.3.0.3.6, A.3.0.3.7, FM Global & Factory Mutual 2.2.

Considerations for the Purchase of Pallet Racks

The Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) has specific testing requirements for pallet rack and wire decking. Most of the larger pallet rack & wire decking manufacturer's are members of RMI. If you are buying a product and it has the "R-Mark" it tells you that the product has been quality tested. The pallet rack and wire decking that my company sells have been manufactured to RMI specifications.

There are some things to consider when you select, install, use and maintain your pallet rack system:

Before buying rack you should analyze the volume of activity and number of SKU's in your warehouse to determine the appropriate amount of rack.

Choose a rack layout that best suits your building and requirements. Try to design the rack layout to reduce steps and increase efficiency.   

Develop a rack elevation which shows number of beam levels and spacing of beam levels.

Develop a bill of material (B.O.M) with quantity and sizes of upright frames and beams.

RackandShelf.com In The House At SantaCon NYC 2009

Warehouse Rack & Shelf LLC is represented at SantaCon 2009.

I call this video "180 degree's of Santa's". I hope it doesn't make you dizzy. These Santa's are off the hook! Merry Christmas to all!

Gimme A Funny Holiday Picture

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

 

LED Bulbs Save Substantial Energy, A Study Finds

A version of this article by Eric A Taub appeared in print on Nov. 30 on page B6 of the New York edition of the New York Times:

Does the latest generation of energy-saving light bulbs save energy? A comprehensive study conducted by Osram, the German lighting company, provides evidence that they do.

Rick Friedman for The New York Times

A standard incandescent bulb over its life will use almost five times the energy of an LED bulb, a German study concluded.

A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line.

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While that may seem self-evident, until the release of the report on Monday the answer remained unclear.

That is because no one knew if the production of LED lamps required more energy than needed for standard incandescent bulbs.

Happy Thanksgiving To All Of Our Customers!

A Rockwell Thanksgiving

Versus Our Thanksgiving  

May I propose a VC, HC, VLM or ASRS for Your Maintenance Area

When a company moves into a new facility they dedicate lots of floor space to their maintenance department. As the company grows they tend to cannabalize the space they need from their maintenance department. What was once a large space for storing all of the required items that makes a company run has now become a small space. Quite often a company feels that their only option is to move to a larger facility. A solution is a Vertical Carousel (VC), Horzontal Carousel (HC), Vertical Lift Module (VLM) or an Automated Storage Retrieval System (AS/RS).

These days it's all about "Revenue Per Square Foot".

Lithonia Lighting...This Isn't Your Grandfathers Warehouse Lighting

Warehouse Lighting...You've come a long way baby. From Sodium to Metal Halide to Fluorescent. Over the years, industrial lighting has made some great advancements. I don't claim to be an expert at industrial lighting but I've done some research for this blog post and these are some of the things I've learned: 

Sodium Lighting is an older lighting technology and its illumination can be considered more yellow than white. Sodium lighting gives the appearance of less light when compared to halide or fluorescent lights. 

Metal Halide lighting is also considered "Old School" but is still the preferred choice in demanding environments where dirt, vibration and high temperatures are imminent. Metal Halide lamps offer high intensity pure white light but also offer less energy efficiency than fluorescent lights.

The biggest trend today in warehouse lighting is the retrofit of existing Metal Halide lights to T5HO or T8 fluorescent high bay lighting.  By going to fluorescent you can achieve more than you can ever imagine.