Businesses with vast inventory storage inordinately acknowledge the importance of having an organized warehouse space. The neatly organized storage spaces are a visual treat and help organizations carry out a successful business. With over one billion square feet of warehouses built over the last decade, organizations are now adept with various smart solutions to store and access their materials. The minimal warehouse floor spaces and tons of materials to the store have made it imperative for the organizations to devise smarter ways to accommodate every inventory. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming requirements have necessitated the organizations to invest in customized storage solutions that can accommodate the inventory, highly organized.
Shelving and Racking are two storage options that are now widely used across the companies to hold the goods properly. Despite the similarities in the storage modes, these two solutions differ immensely from each other, and there are chances of storage solutions not meeting the expectations if chosen in haste. To better understand ‘what suits what’, it is essential to differentiate these two types and then decide the best for you. Here is a brief guide through industry shelving, & industrial Racking and the major differences between them.

What are industrial shelving and industrial Racking?

• Industrial Shelving
  An industrial shelving storage solution is lighter storage systems that are customizable, holding items storing items over the shelves and enabling the workers to grab these items from them, rather than holding the materials inside the cartons or boxes. The shelves are mostly light-duty systems that can hold lighter materials than a racking system. Storage rack manufacturers typically accessorize these shelves for special applications.
  Height adjusting features and the capability to accommodate any number of shelves you require make industrial shelving a highly compatible storage system. The shelves are mostly designed with a solid back or are open designs that can facilitate easy access to the stored items. They can also be customized with additional bins, dividers, or drawers according to the individual requirements. Following are the four major types of commercial and industrial shelves that help companies with their storage concerns.
• Steel shelving: The multipurpose adjustable shelves are customized to attain the desired height and accommodate the required number of shelves. These stable and durable storage shelves guarantee a long life with their rust protective paint coating and the amazing strength.
• Wire shelving: The modular and the durable nature of the wire shelves, provide the storages with extra space and the best one to be used in the cold storage systems.
• Revit shelving: The highly customizable Revit shelving is the best solution for storage needs that requires a frequent change in the storage infrastructure.
• Wide-span shelving: Strong, affordable and versatile wide span storages are used to store different items that are comparatively heavy duty in nature.
• Industrial Racking
  Racking is a heavy-duty storage system than industrial shelving and is primarily used in the warehouses with towering heights that accommodate more items. Most of the leading storage rack manufacturers in Bangalore typically produce these solutions for heavy industries that store items like pallets for small products and large items. Machinery like forklift is required to access the items stored on the racks. They are normally deeper than the industrial shelving and can store pallets in an organized and accessible way. Following are the three main pallet-racking systems.
• Pallet racking
• Cantilever racking
• Drive-in or drive through Racking

Major differences between industrial Racking and industrial shelving

• Deep stacking
  Racking requires wide space and is normally stacked higher than the industrial shelves. The Racking accommodates large boxes and pallets of goods easily accessible to pieces of machinery like forklifts, cherry pickers and other mechanized systems to move around the goods. The storage racking manufacturers build the Racking vertically high to accommodate more cubed space. Many warehouses like home furnishings make use of cantilevered Racking so that bulks of lumbers can be stored unobstructed, whereas shelves are typically shorter and store lighter goods.
• Strength
  Strength is a major factor that makes industrial racking a better choice for heavy industry storages. The multiple racking systems that store heavy pallets have adequate strength to hold numerous tiers without the fear of crashing down. Industrial shelves are mostly utilized to store free goods and are lightweight.
• Storage spaces
  Deep racks are mostly found in large warehouses that accommodate tall tiers of racks and are accessible by types of machinery; whereas, the industrial shelves can be accommodated in small storages. The comparatively larger size of racking storage solutions is what makes them the perfect choice for large warehouses.
• Durability
  Apart from the indomitable strength, the industrial racks are built of bar structures that can hold specific loads. In contrast, the shelves are built of lighter materials that cannot withstand impact damages. The materials stored in the shelves are materials like books, medicines, or auto accessories.
• Shelf models
  In contrast to the tall tired and scaffold-like Racking, the industrial shelving has counter like surfaces where items are organized. However, the shelves are typically mechanized to move the racks together and apart easily.
  Thus the industrial racks are the best choice for industries that have palletized materials to store and those that are susceptible to frequent accidental impacts of forklifts and other pieces of machinery. Shelves are also built tough and have a better-finished look of laminated materials, glass or wood.

Conclusion
Purchasing suitable shelves or racks in a warehouse is imperative to make an efficient storage space. Shelves are adequate for a small business; however, the businesses that depend upon large warehouses require the mixed storage of both racks and shelves. For the businesses who are not sure about making the right choice, our professional team is ready to help you with your various needs. Our team of designers also ensure that your warehouse storage needs are properly assessed and provide an optimized storage solution. We take pride in providing splendid solutions for our customers and retaining about 90% of them for repeated business.