Benefits Of Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking

In the world of pallet racking, there’s a lot to choose from. A lot of people think that “racking is racking” and, while there may be a difference in quality between brands, all pallet racking can be used the same way. In actual fact though, pallet racking can be designed to be used in different ways depending on the storage needs of a business.

At Colby Dandenong, we sell a variety of different types of pallet racking, and each one has specific benefits for its specific use. Today we’re going to be talking about narrow aisle and very narrow aisle pallet racking and what it’s good for.

What Is Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking

Narrow aisle pallet racking is similar to standard selective pallet racking, but the aisles between the rows of pallet racking is reduced by almost half. Since the aisles between pallet racking rows is diminished, the density of storage on those racks is increased substantially. However, because of the narrower aisles, standard materials handling equipment, namely forklifts, can’t be used to retrieve pallets.

Instead of using forklifts, a turret truck is typically used to access the pallets stored on the racking. A turret trucks is like a tall forklift, but instead of turning the whole forklift to move the pallet, a turret truck is able to rotate without rotating the entire truck, thereby moving a pallet without having to move itself.

While narrow aisle and very narrow aisle pallet racking needs specialised equipment like this, it has a number of benefits that may make it worthwhile in certain storage situations.

Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking Is Still Highly Selective

Since narrow aisle pallet racking is essentially just selective pallet racking with narrower aisles, it still has the high selectivity of selective pallet racking. Pallets aren’t stored with any depth like drive in pallet racking, so every pallet is easy to access. While high density pallet racking has its benefits, one of the drawbacks of it is that it requires many pallets of the same SKU in order to be worthwhile because pallets are often stored multiple pallets deep and blocked in.

Narrow aisle pallet racking, on the other hand, allows all pallets to be accessible while still achieving a good amount of storage density.

Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking Is Efficient With Space

As already mentioned, thanks to narrow aisle pallet racking cutting down on aisle with, it’s very efficient with space.

When storing anything on pallet racking, it’s often a balance between selectivity, density, and even whether you require first in, first out style storage. Narrow and very narrow aisle pallet racking balances well between the very high storage density that you may get with something like drive in pallet racking and the ability to access any pallet like with selective pallet racking. Narrow aisle pallet racking may not be quite as dense as the former or not quite as selective as the latter, but it strikes a good balance for a number of situations.

Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking Is Customisable

Since it’s based on selective pallet racking, there are a lot of ways to customise it suit the specific storage needs of a warehouse. Although most pallets come in uniform shapes and sizes, this standardised sizing may not be appropriate for what a business is trying to store.

Because of this, narrow aisle pallet racking can be adapted to suite the client’s needs whether that means bigger bays, more height in bays, or something else.

Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking Has A Few Drawbacks

Like all types of pallet racking, narrow aisle pallet racking performs best in the situations it’s designed for.

One drawback of narrow aisle pallet racking is that it can have a higher initial cost than other types of pallet racking, especially because it needs specialised materials handling equipment. The increased storage density may be worthwhile, but if you don’t need the selectivity afforded by narrow aisle and very narrow aisle pallet racking, it may be more cost effective to use something like double deep pallet racking instead.

Get Expert Advice

If you’re unsure what kind of pallet racking is best for your storage needs, we can help. Narrow aisle pallet racking is only one type of pallet racking and, as stressed, there’s a pallet racking solution to suit every storage situation. We can help determine the best kind of pallet racking to use for your warehouse as well as find out the best layout to further optimise pallet storage.