Above: A customer purchased this custom Crank-Out Sheet Rack model for storing spool valves. The rack
has hinged frames that fold in when not in use.
April, 2024- For the small and medium-sized fabricator that wants a material handling system to store metal sheets and feed a processing center (shear, press brake, laser, plasma cutter or other machine tool) but does not want to blow the budget for automated storage, Patrick McCallin says Steel Storage Systems Inc. has a solution.
“The best way to do that for the lowest amount of money is our Roll-Out Sheet Rack systems,” says McCallin, sales manager/install technician for the Commerce City, Colorado, manufacturer.
The system, in which the drawers are equipped with roller bearings, is easily accessible, consumes a small footprint and, with a jib hoist or overhead crane, is the fastest and most efficient way to keep a metal processing center moving through jobs, according to McCallin. It also helps production workers to organize metal inventory and work in progress by size, gauge and material type. Other methods for retrieving sheet metal, plate and other heavy products from a shelving unit include a vacuum lift er and a magnet “if your bread and butt er is mild steel.”
Loading material into the racks can be performed with a sheet lift or forklift, as well as a vacuum or magnet.
Built to accept material up to 6 ft . by 12 ft ., a sheet rack system can have between four and eight drawers, or levels, of storage, McCallin explains. The clearance diminishes as the number of drawers increases. With eight drawers, the clearance is 4 in., and with four drawers, the spacing is 12 in.
The maximum height of a sheet rack is 8 ft ., McCallin says, to prevent an operator from having to climb a ladder with a sheet lift-ing device to access the top drawers. “We’re trying to keep it at a working height for most individuals.”
The most aff ordable mechanism for accessing a drawer is the manual glide-out design.
SAFETY FIRST
Storing material in SSS’s sheet rack system enhances worker safety by keeping material off the shop floor and in a neat, organized configuration. An alternative approach is not only a safety hazard but also wastes time.
“A lot of shops I go into, I see employees dig into the bottom of the stack of sheets just to get to the one that hasn’t been used that often,” McCallin says. “I’ve seen some shops where that stuff is stacked about 6 ft. high, and some guy is climbing on top of it.”
A vacuum lifter can be used to retrieve sheet metal from a Roll-Out Sheet Rack.
Steel Storage Systems offers several configurations of its Roll-Out Sheet Racks in addition to standard models with a 5,000-lb. capacity per drawer. A rear-load sheet rack model has reinforced side frames that permit loading the drawers from the rear with a forklift, McCallin says. “Then the drawers can roll out to the front for the operator running a machine to keep him and his machine busy without interruption.”
Another model features the swing-frame option for the roll-out extension for when space is the important factor, he notes. The outriggers on the side will fold back in to maintain a compact footprint. To access the material, the swing frames shift out to enable the drawers to be pulled out.
The third configuration is the double-sided sheet rack model, where a drawer can roll out to the front or back of the rack, McCallin adds. “The home position is in the middle.” This configuration allows the drawers to be loaded from the rear with an overhead crane and stored in the middle position before an operator accesses them from the front to
feed a piece to a machine.
The double-sided model works well for serving two adjacent machines or centered between bays to deliver material to either bay, the company reports.
MOVEMENT MECHANISMS
In addition to drawers with a 5,000-lb. capacity, the company’s 10,000-lb. model comes standard with a crank-out reduction drive, enabling a customer to turn a handle that goes into an adapter and access a drawer, McCallin says. For the lower capacity drawers, the manual glideout design is the most affordable mechanism, using either the two
handles welded to a drawer or a hook to access a drawer from a distance. “However, once you load it up to the 5,000-lb. capacity, it does take more effort for an operator to roll those doors in and out.”
According to the company, the crank-out design reduces the effort required to move out a drawer to 20 percent of that of a standard glideout drawer holding the same weight.
Easing operator access and increasing safety further, Steel Storage Systems offers a motorized option that can power one or more 10,000- lb. model drawers as needed, McCallin notes. For example, a system with six drawers can have motorized drawers for the bottom two, in which the heaviest pieces are stored, and the crank-out option for the top four.
He says about a quarter of the sheet rack sales are for specials, such as one that the company outfitted with aluminum track liners so the customer could store large spool valves for power plants. He says the customer noticed, “‘we have these things all over the floor. We need a way to just get these off the ground and store them in a drawer system.”
Each system can be accessorized. Tubing risers are one type of accessory, McCallin says, which consists of a 2 in. by 2 in. structural tube that runs perpendicular to the drawer. When a forklift is loading sheets without a pallet, risers enable the operator to drop the sheets onto a drawer and pull out the forks from underneath the material. Another accessory is ultra-high-molecular-weight (UHMW) polyethylene liners for the drawers to protect material.
The crank-out drawer option is offered for all 5,000-lb. drawer capacity Sheet Rack models to
reduce the effort required to open and close drawers.
Steel Storage Systems provides installation services on request. McCallin estimates that the company’s installers can place three to four systems a day, if needed, while a customer might be able to install one during that time with two of its workers.
Fabricators have a variety of material handling systems to choose from, but McCallin sees a niche for the Roll-Out Sheet Rack. “The best fit for the sheet racks is the fabricator that needs to figure out a way to best keep the machining center busy for an economical price.”
Steel Storage Systems Inc., 800/442-0291, steelstorage.com
