What’s the Best Way to Store Long, Bulky or Irregular Materials in a Warehouse?
Long materials can be difficult to fit into a conventional warehouse storage layout.
Lumber, pipe, steel bars, metal sheets, and other oversized or irregular products do not always suit storage systems designed around uniform pallets or smaller items. Their length, shape, and weight can affect how much space they require and what type of racking can support them.
Westbow Systems supplies cantilever racking for warehouses and other commercial and industrial environments where long, bulky, heavy, or irregular materials need dedicated storage.
Why Are Long Materials Different to Store?
The challenge with long materials is often their dimensions.
A bundle of pipe, a stack of lumber, and a group of steel bars may require substantial horizontal storage space. Metal sheets and other oversized products can create similar challenges because they do not necessarily fit neatly into standard storage positions.
Cantilever racking addresses this by using horizontal arms that extend from vertical columns rather than relying on a traditional front-post structure.
This creates open access along the front of the rack and allows longer materials to extend across multiple arms.
Westbow Systems identifies lumber, timber, pipe, steel bars, metal sheets, and metal profiles among the materials that can be stored using cantilever systems.
What Makes Cantilever Racking Suitable for Different Materials?
One important feature is the ability to configure the racking around the material being stored.
Westbow Systems offers cantilever systems with adjustable arms. Arm positions can therefore be configured to accommodate different material dimensions and storage requirements.
This becomes useful when a facility handles several types or sizes of long inventory rather than one consistent product.
The appropriate configuration still depends on the materials involved. Their dimensions, weight, quantity, and location within the facility all influence how the system should be planned.
For that reason, cantilever racking should be selected around the actual storage requirement rather than treated as a standard layout that works the same way everywhere.
Should Cantilever Racking Be Single-Sided or Double-Sided?
Westbow Systems offers both single-sided and double-sided cantilever configurations.
Single-sided racking provides storage access from one side and can be positioned against a wall or along the perimeter of a storage area.
Double-sided racking provides storage positions on both sides of the structure. This can make it suitable for areas where the rack is positioned away from the wall and can be accessed from either side.
The choice between the two depends largely on the facility layout and where the storage needs to be located.
Instead of deciding on the rack configuration in isolation, it is useful to consider how it fits with the rest of the storage area and workflow.
Can Cantilever Racking Be Used Outdoors?
Cantilever racking is not limited to indoor warehouse space.
Westbow Systems offers cantilever solutions for both indoor and outdoor applications, including weather-resistant options intended for outdoor storage.
This can be relevant for operations that store materials such as lumber, pipe, steel, or other long products outside the main building.
The location of the system should therefore be considered early in the planning process, along with the type of inventory it needs to hold.
What Should Be Considered Before Choosing a System?
Before selecting a cantilever configuration, start with the materials and space involved.
Consider the types of products being stored, their general dimensions and weights, where the rack needs to be located, and whether access is required from one side or both.
The layout of the surrounding area also matters. A storage system needs to fit within the available space and the way materials move through the operation.
Westbow Systems provides planning and design services based on the available space, storage requirements, and workflow. This allows the cantilever system to be planned around the facility rather than choosing a configuration before the storage requirements are understood.
Finding the Right Storage Approach for Long Materials
Long, bulky, and irregular materials require a storage system that can accommodate their dimensions, weight, and storage location.
Cantilever racking provides an option for storing products such as lumber, pipe, steel bars, metal sheets, and other oversized materials. Adjustable arms and single-sided or double-sided configurations allow the system to be adapted to different applications and facility layouts.
If long materials are taking up too much space or are difficult to accommodate within your current storage layout, Westbow Systems can review the application and help determine whether cantilever racking is an appropriate solution.
