Storing high-purity stainless steel tubes and ASME BPE fittings requires more than just strength; it demands preservation. When a single scratch on an electropolished surface drops a tube's value to scrap, traditional floor stacking and forklift maneuvering become liabilities. Our Zero Aisle Space Cantilever Racking allows you to reclaim 50% of your service center floor while ensuring 100% crane accessibility—eliminating the contact damage inherent to forklift operations.
In the high-stakes world of stainless steel distribution and OEM component manufacturing, square footage is a premium asset. Whether you are stocking 20ft sanitary tubing, heat exchanger shells, or solid bar stock, the traditional method of static cantilever racking forces you to pay for "air"—specifically, the wide aisles required for forklifts to turn and maneuver.
For a facility managing thousands of SKUs of tubes and components, these aisles can consume up to 60% of your available floor space. This is space that should be generating revenue through additional processing equipment like laser cutters or saws, not sitting empty waiting for a forklift.
By implementing a Telescopic Cantilever Rack system, you eliminate the need for maneuvering aisles entirely. Because the rack arms extend 100% into a single open workspace, you can condense your storage footprint significantly. This "Zero Aisle" approach allows service centers to double their storage capacity within the existing building shell, delaying or cancelling the need for costly facility expansions.
Figure 1: High-density red cantilever racks utilizing vertical space without wide forklift aisles.
For industries serving food, dairy, and pharmaceutical sectors, surface finish (Ra) is everything. The most common cause of inventory shrinkage in this sector isn't theft—it's damage during handling. When a forklift operator attempts to extract a bundle of high-purity stainless steel tubes from a static rack, the forks often scrape against adjacent bundles, or the bundle itself drags across the arm, ruining the polished finish.
Our overhead crane accessible racking changes the physics of retrieval. By cranking or electrically rolling the drawer out completely, the material is exposed to the overhead crane (or vacuum lifter) from directly above.
Figure 2: Manual operation of a crank-out arm allows for controlled, smooth exposure of delicate inventory.
Sanitary stainless steel components are dense. A single bundle of solid bar stock or thick-wall heat exchanger tubes can weigh thousands of pounds. Standard light-duty racks will deflect over time, causing safety hazards and making the "roll-out" mechanism bind.
Our crank out cantilever rack systems are built with structural I-beam steel bases and heavy-duty bearings designed to handle these specific loads. Whether you are storing 20ft raw lengths or processed components waiting for dispatch, the structural integrity ensures smooth operation even at full capacity (up to 6,600 lbs per arm level).
The system allows for specific organization by alloy type (304L, 316L), size, or project, facilitating strict FIFO (First-In, First-Out) inventory management which is critical for traceability in ASME BPE compliant supply chains.
Figure 3: High-capacity drawers fully extended, supporting heavy pipe bundles without deflection.
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Extension Capability | 100% Full Extension for clear overhead access |
| Load Capacity | Up to 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg) per arm/drawer |
| Drive Mechanism | Manual Crank or Electric Motorized Drive |
| Material Lengths | Optimized for 10ft to 40ft stock (customizable) |
| Surface Protection | Optional UHMW liners for delicate/polished surfaces |
We offer optional UHMW (Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) liners for the cantilever arms. This creates a non-metallic barrier between the rack's structural steel and your stainless inventory, preventing iron contamination and protecting the electropolished surface finish.
Absolutely. Unlike roll-formed steel racks, our systems utilize structural steel components. We engineer the bearing assemblies and arm strength specifically for high-density loads found in metal service centers, ensuring the crank mechanism remains easy to operate even when fully loaded with solid bars.
Yes. Because the arms extend 100% out of the rack structure, the space above the material is completely unobstructed. This makes it the ideal companion for vacuum lifters or magnetic crane hoists, allowing for precise, scratch-free placement.
By switching from a standard forklift-fed cantilever layout (which requires 12-15ft aisles) to a crane-fed roll-out cantilever setup, our clients typically reduce their storage footprint by 50% to 60%. This often frees up enough space to add new processing lines without expanding the building.
Yes. We use a high-quality powder coating finish that is durable and easy to clean. For environments with strict hygiene requirements, the simplified structure minimizes dust collection points compared to complex automated storage systems.
