Safeguard Your Drive-In Rack with Rack Protection Design Tips

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Apex Warehouse Systems Drive-In Pallet Racking

Drive-In pallet rack is a high-density solution for high volume storage of low rotation or limited individual SKU products.  Drive-in is unique because it uses left and right-side rails on which to rest the pallets without under-mounted beam support.  The rails run the full depth of the rack system which can be designed to be 10 or more pallets deep.

The forklift drives into the system to load or retrieve pallets then backs out.  Requiring only one entrance and exit point saves valuable footprint space but leaves the rack and components vulnerable to repeated forklift strikes over the lifetime of the system.  Damage to the system can be mitigated with pallet rack protection features and accessories that can be designed into the initial system layout.

Effective Drive-In Rack Protection Features:

The rack frame itself for a drive-in system can be modified in several ways to provide inherent safeguards against abuse.  Designing the system with a recessed frame is one such modification. There are two types of cantilever frame designs; the slope-leg and the cant leg.  Both designs allow a broader turning radius and easier visual for forklift drivers to gauge clearance for forks thus minimizing strikes as the truck enters and exits the system.  The slope leg frame gently angles the bottom of the front column back toward to the rear column (pictured right) whereas the cant leg frame is a sharper 90° angle of the front column to the rear.  Either system can be implemented in drive-in pallet rack.

Box Columns are another design modification that can provide additional strength and capacity.  As you can see from the top photo, Apex engineers can design extended front boxed columns that end just above the first pallet rail for the greatest protection.

The Load Rails are often constructed of durable structural steel and they are angled at the entry point to ease access to the bay for the forklift driver.  They can be constructed from a 2-piece assembly of rail + arm attachment or can be a single formed unit as in the picture to the right.  The Z-rail is a roll-formed arm/rail combination where the rail has an extra lip that angles back toward the upright hence making the rail appear to have a “Z” formation.  It is a strong support that is also cost-effective.

Effective Drive-In Rack Protection Accessories:

Row End and Column Protectors are must-have safety features for a straight leg frame drive-in design.  Row end protectors should also be used in a cantilever frame design along the outside aisle.  Apex row-end protectors are heavy-duty steel, single-piece structural guardrails for the bottom of the frame.  The protector wraps around the front or rear column and continues the length of the frame.

Single column protectors are installed at the base of each front upright column in the system.  Both types of protectors are bolted to the floor and not to the rack so as to absorb impact directly and not distribute it to the rack.  They are also painted Safety Yellow to make them easily visible for warehouse employees.

Heavy-duty bottom horizontals and Rub Rails bolted onto the upright are an added measure of protection for the rack system that keeps it from twisting if struck by a forklift.

Angle stops are bolted to the floor at the end of the lane to provide guidance for placing floor position pallets and ensure they remain in the lane and do not protrude into the aisle.  In higher positions, Pallet Stops are placed at the end of rails to protect pallets from sliding off the end of the rail.

Floor Channels are bolted between the uprights and the floor and run down the frame line to help guide the forklift driver and protect the frame line from truck damage.

The Apex team has many years of experience designing, building, and maintaining drive-in rack systems.  A drive-in pallet racking system can save up to 35% in square footage while storing up to 75% more pallets than traditional rack.  The design protections and safety accessories outlined above are built into the planning phase of each drive-in system we do.  Contact our rack specialists today to discuss your storage needs and to learn more about the benefits of drive-in and other deep-lane storage systems.