Pallet flow racks are the ultimate in efficiency for the right warehouse

Pallet flow, sometimes called a gravity flow rack, is designed for you to load the pallets on one side of the rack, and retrieve them from the other.

Here’s how it works:

High Density Storage with Pallet Flow Racking

There are many advantages to using these kinds of gravity flow racks.

FIFO and Storage Density

First in, first out inventory control is especially important when warehousing items with an expiration date. It’s vital that inventory like food and beverage, commercial liquids and medical supplies be rotated out on a FIFO basis.

Pallet-flow by it’s nature allows the oldest inventory to glide down the rack into the next available spot. That frees up space for newer inventory to be loaded from the back and slide down into the next open space.

This prevents the warehouse team from pulling newer inventory first.

Inventory Control is Better with a Pallet Flow Rack System

Pallet flow racking can help improve inventory control, as it ensures that products are stored and retrieved in the correct order.

The easiest comparison to illustrate the advantage to pallet-flow is drive in racking. When using drive in racking you are adding the newest inventory to the front of your warehouse storage system.

That system works fine for industries that don’t have inventory that expires. But those companies still run a greater risk of having dated inventory sitting on the shelf.

Picking and Packing Efficiency

Using pallet flow racks makes restocking fast and efficient. Without it, when a new order of inventory comes in the old stock must be removed and THEN the new stock shelved behind it.

And even the most conscientious warehouse team may sometimes put incoming boxes in front of older stock.

A gravity flow rack is loaded from the back, which means your oldest stock remains up front for picking. No matter what.

Imagine a warehouse team being physically unable to pick older inventory off the shelf by mistake. And never having to stop and reach back for the next available pallet or carton.

Carton Flow Racking

There are off the shelf pallet-flow racks that come in a variety of sizes, though by far the most popular is built to handle the standard 48″ x 40″ wood or plastic pallet.

Carton flow racking, on the other hand, is a system that is designed to store and move individual items or cartons. It works on the same principal as pallet flow, but it’s designed for smaller or wider variety of sizes.

Carton flow racks are especially useful for companies that pick and ship smaller quantities of packages or cartons.

For example, a manufacturer of electronics or car parts will likely pack and ship full pallets of those materials to distributors. A big box sore would break those pallets down to the carton in order to send smaller quantities to its customers.

So carton flow is a kind of gravity flow rack, just like pallet-flow is, but for different packages.

Gravity Flow Racking Advantages:

•   Produces an almost solid volume of usable storage space
•   Ideal for material with expiration dates
•   Ideal choice for freezer applications
•   Provides savings in space, manpower and utilities

Custom Design and Engineering

Not every business is the same, and not every product line or inventory system uses the same standard materials.

For example, Got-Racks design team recently engineered a custom pallet flow solution for a client using their own pallet design. That design had pieces on the bottom that were preventing them from rolling forward in a typical gravity flow system.

The design team created a roller system that worked specifically with those pallets.

And in another case, a client needed a carton flow rack, but the cartons were so heavy the standard rollers couldn’t move the packages forward.

Got-Racks team found a solution with higher density rollers that could handle the additional weight.

If you have a specific need, Got-Rack can custom engineer a solution for you too!

Used Pallet Racks

Got-Rack offers New, Used AND commercially refurbished pallet racks.

Commercial warehouse racking is simply constructed of long-lasting materials, and that includes pallet flow racking.

Got-rack.com is the leader in buying used pallet flow racks. And we have an in-house commercial refurbishing operation that includes robotic welders and a powder coating facility. [Powder coating process explained here]

That make us unique in the warehouse storage industry in customizing a solution just for you.

Choose used for the lowest price or refurbished for that like-brand-new look and save thousands on your storage project.

If you’re ready to learn more about Got-Rack and how we can help design, source and provide the warehouse storage you need, complete the form here or call 1-800-647-2257

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