It’s Critical: Pallet Rack Load and Application Drawings
Ensuring that your rack is correctly loaded and utilized
It’s a fact of life: companies need to adapt to new business, and that means the warehouse.
Your customer base might change. Your company’s inventory strategy could differ from year to year, which means new loads and shifting layouts. You may need to move racks from one place to another or supplement them with new components or replace damaged ones. To be sure your warehouse is safe, you should have load and application drawings.
What are load application and rack configuration drawings?
Every warehouse should have LARCs (load and application drawings) on file. These drawings give you detailed schematics that define the maximum load capacity for your rack system. When you have these drawings, you can check to see if any new loads or suggested changes will work on your rack. These drawings should provide you with the maximum allowable loads and beam elevations for your rack system.
What should a LARC drawing include?
- Your LARC drawings should list the maximum permissible load, which includes the weight of the loads and their containers, pallets or packaging. Remember that beam capacities are calculated for evenly distributed loads in pairs.
- You will need to know the average unit load. This is the maximum weight of loads you will store on all beam levels on any row, divided by the number of beam levels in that row.
- What is the expected maximum total load on each bay.
- Your drawings should include statements that your company’s supervising engineer should evaluate any changes to the system, and that deviation in load size, weight or configuration may impact the safety of the rack system.
- Any notes on the configuration that should be known to others in the future who may need to evaluate or change the system.
- Ideally, your drawings should indicate where you sourced the racks, so you can ask questions and work with that provider.
Dimensional data
- Upright height: the distance between floor and top of upright.
- Overall height: from the floor to the top of your tallest load on the top beam.
- Top of beam heights: what is the distance from the floor to the top of each beam on the rack?
- Load heights, widths and weights, including the weight and height of the pallet.
- Gaps: between stored pallets, between tops of pallets and bottoms of beams. Also, include lift-off space (the space between the tops of loads and the bottom of the next beam).
When you purchase a rack system, your racking provider should provide accurate LARC drawings. Remember that if you alter the rack, you can easily change the load capacity of the system, which means you cannot be certain of your rack’s capacity – and its safety.
Load plaques are critical safety information
RMI (The Rack Manufacturers Institute) has extensive information on load plaques. Various rack manufacturers provide these plaques to help companies illustrate safe loads, dimensions and limitations of a pallet rack. They should be affixed to the rack on installation, and should be no smaller than 50 square inches.
While plaques aren’t required by ANSI MH16.1., they are recommended for many rack installations.
What if the drawings for your facility don’t exist?
People change companies, warehouses change layouts and companies are consolidated, including warehouse functions. In some places, old records were purged or lost. If you take a new job managing a warehouse, or in the safety division, what do you do if you cannot find your LARC drawings?
If you didn’t specify and procure the rack in your warehouse, you may not have the drawings at all.
- Drawings might be lost, misfiled, or not kept in the first place
- Older warehouses, which may have been sold or ownership transferred, can lose their drawings files
- When previous warehouse management or safety compliance has departed, drawings may be hard to find
- Warehouses outfitted with used racks may not have any drawings – particularly when that rack is a mix of different types and brands
- If your warehouse has undergone revisions over the years, it’s hard to keep the correct drawings on file.
- Drawings may have never existed in the first place
Adjustability is a two-edged sword
Teardrop selective racks are great for changing loads because you can adjust beam heights. But that adjustability can be a problem if done incorrectly.
While beam capacities are straightforward, overall rack capacity relies on the vertical space between beam levels. If you increase that space, the overall load capacity of the rack is reduced. Also, the rack’s capacity is calculated by the gap of its tallest vertical beam spacing. One 72″ space sets the capacity for a rack when every other level is 48″.
In the case of load beams, always check if you need to buy new ones. Be sure their capacity is equal to or greater than the original beams. Beams rely on evenly distributed loads and are per pair, not per beam. If your loads are unbalanced or oddly shaped, consult a racking professional to get the capacity right.
Read more: How to Safely Modify Your Pallet Racks
What to do if you don’t have drawings
To be sure your system is safe, you’ll need to generate drawings. This helps you today and in the future. If you know the company that provided the racks, the best first step is to contact them. However, if you cannot find the rack supplier, try to identify the brand and models of your rack system. This helps you get started with the manufacturer so they can trace the origins of the rack system. Taking stock of all components and dimensions is time-consuming, but can help ensure safe, long-term operation. ‘
When rack systems are redesigned, you risk overloading, spacing issues, code compliance or collapse. Be sure you understand exactly what the rack is designed to hold, and if your new layout will affect that capacity. Do you have drawings? Do you have the expertise to update them? Are your capacities different for various areas of the warehouse? Do you have proper safety signage and labeling? Â
Download our Pallet Rack Guide
Pallet rack enhances your warehouse and improves overall facility performance when correctly specified, laid out and installed for the right load in the right positions. Check out our guide to specifications, styles, accessories and applications with expert tips from our employee-owners.
You’ll find quick, useful information on racks and how you can use them more effectively.
Download the guide today
Tags: facility safety, warehouse design
Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.