When kitting out your warehouse space, learning the ins and outs of the different options available for your specific products is essential. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the specifications and features of carpet racking systems so you can make an informed decision that’s right for your business.
What is carpet racking, and why is it essential for my business?
Carpet racking, a cornerstone of modern warehouses and retail environments, is a game-changer for storing rolled products like textiles, artificial grass, carpets, and vinyl. Its standout features include vertical space optimisation, adaptability to varying product depths and weights, and customisability to match your evolving business needs. By enhancing organization, efficiency, and waste management, carpet racking can revolutionise your operations. Its versatility and cost-effectiveness make it a must-have for businesses in this sector.
What are the benefits of carpet racking?
Carpet racking systems offer many advantages for warehouses. These key features are useful to consider when ensuring the equipment you choose meets your business’s needs and requirements now and in years to come as it expands and evolves.
Optimised storage:
One of the most significant benefits of carpet racking is its ability to make the most of available space. These systems are designed to maximize vertical space in warehouses, significantly reducing the required footprint. This not only increases the capacity of your space but also lowers your warehousing rental costs per product, a tangible financial advantage.
Organisation:
Keeping everything organised, catalogued, and in place is paramount in busy industrial settings. These systems help maintain high levels of alignment and structure, which aids inventory management, finds products efficiently, and reduces the chance of errors.
Safety:
When it comes to safety, carpet racking systems are a game-changer. Health and safety considerations are crucial in potentially hazardous warehouse environments. Having all products up off the floor and stored correctly reduces the risk of slips, trips, injuries, and damage to the products themselves. Reliable and trustworthy carpet racking significantly reduces risks in your storage space, providing a secure environment for your warehouse operations.
Flexibility:
Purchasing any industrial equipment usually involves a significant investment – so it needs to be flexible enough to suit your needs now and in the future. Carpet racking is a popular solution as it’s bespoke to accommodate different size rolls, optimising your available space. With customisable configurations and adjustable heights and depths, they can be tailored to a range of needs to support a diverse variety of products. This also means there’s no need to purchase new racking or reconfigure when new product sizes come in, as your existing racking can easily be adjusted, ensuring that your equipment can grow with you as your business evolves. Whether you need to accommodate different products or even additional accessories and picking tools to improve efficiency, this racking type offers the freedom to modify designs to suit your needs. It’s suitable for a diverse range of weights, lengths and materials, including carpet, vinyl, packaging and fabrics – really anything on a roll.
Economical and cost-efficient:
Carpet racking offers an affordable storage solution that also helps preserve resources by enabling simpler, smoother operations. Implementing this type of racking maximises storage space and enhances organisation and accessibility. This improves handling efficiency and speeds up fulfilment times to produce cost savings in the short and long term. Investing in these systems reduces waste as fewer products are damaged or misplaced.
What should I be looking for when exploring carpet racking options?
With so many different options on the market, it’s important that all boxes are ticked to ensure you’re investing in premium quality, durable equipment that will stand the test of time and daily wear and tear.
Loading capacity:
This is a key factor when choosing specific carpet racking solutions. Ensuring the maximum weight capacity is suitable for the intended storage use is essential – both for individual products stored and the maximum combined weight of the products.
Adaptable systems:
When choosing your equipment, it’s important to be clear on your exact operational needs and required capacity and functionality. Bespoke and adjustable mechanisms can be a fantastic added feature within your shelving, giving you the flexibility to customise your space’s uniqueness. They also allow you to change structures to fit new-sized products while still taking advantage of the space available. Beam levels can have MDF or chipboard applied to them to hold smaller-size rolls or cut-offs.
Durability:
It’s crucial to ensure that the racking you select is robust enough to withstand constant use for years to come, including the more significant wear and tear it can be subjected to in a busy workspace. Look for racking engineered with high-quality materials, including steel, aluminium or composites. They should be rigorously tested for stability and durability and designed to maintain structural integrity in highly demanding conditions. Ensuring this is a priority from the get-go will provide long-term security and reduce the need for regular repairs when combined with correct maintenance routines.
Compatibility:
Any storage solution you select will need to deliver long-term, so it has to be versatile enough to evolve and adapt alongside the needs of your business. You’ll need to consider how each system works with your existing machine equipment, such as forklifts and high-loaders, as well as considerations for technological advancements with equipment, such as picking-arm tools. You can talk through this with experts to keep up to date with what’s on the market and how it can support your business to stay as operationally efficient as possible and scale with new developments. You’ll also need to ensure the system’s layouts work with your warehouse’s requirements, which is where custom-built racking can be crucial to ensure a seamless fit.
Installation and maintenance:
When purchasing racking, the practicality and costs of ongoing upkeep must be considered. The equipment will need to be simple to configure and easy to maintain. Installations need to be carefully planned and carried out in a timely manner to reduce disruptions to warehouse operations and lost operational time and cost. For ease of training new employees, choosing a low maintenance and straightforward system is essential, reducing employee workload and maximising productivity.
Who can I talk to if I want to learn more about carpet racking?
We’re renowned at West Pennine for our innovative carpet racking configurations, specifically designed for heavy-duty, high-density rack specifications. We’ve developed unique solutions for all kinds of rolled fabrics and materials; it’s why our customers come to us as UK market leading experts.
We offer off-the-shelf and bespoke solutions for everything – from fine materials to wide-diameter carpets, vinyl rolls and everything in between. Our carpet and textile racking is safe and accessible, ensuring your materials are organised and easy to manage and pick – and you can further enhance warehouse operations with our dedicated design service, developed over 30 years of serving the carpet industry.
If you’d like to learn more about carpet racking and if it’s the right thing for your business, please get in touch with our friendly team.
UK Market Leading Solutions
West Pennine Storage Equipment are proud to be a Tier One design and installation partner for Link 51 and Apex Linvar. Our relationship with Link 51 and Apex allows us to design, deliver and install the highest quality, UK-manufactured racking at competitive prices. As we are a highly recognised distributor of all storage facilities, we are also able to supply all other major brands of Pallet Racking, Industrial Shelving and other Storage Systems.
