by: Eric Crossley

In 2005, the P.R. Skate, LLC introduced its "Pallet Rack Moving System" to the Material Handling industry. The P.R. Skate's pallet rack moving system is a pallet rack accessory that changes the way pallet rack can be relocated saving facility down time and labor expenses.

In the past moving pallet rack from one location to another location was overwhelming and time consuming. The process of relocating pallet rack first begins with unloading all of the stored material from the storage system (pallet rack) and finding a temporary home for it until the new location is ready. After the storage system has been unloaded, the tear down or demo of the rack would begin. The tear down process seems to be less time consuming than the rebuilding of the storage system but equipment such as forklifts and scissor lifts are need for both the tear down and rebuilding of the storage system adding another cost to the project. After the pallet rack is torn down or disassembled, the components would be stacked and organized for stable movement to the new location. Upon arrival at the new location, re-assembly of the pallet rack would proceed. After the storage system is re-assembled and anchored to the floor, the pallet rack is ready to store material. Sounds easy and it is but very time consuming and considerable downtime of the facility has to be expected.

By using a pallet rack moving systems, pallet rack can be moved and relocated in 1/3rd of the time. The system is designed to move the pallet rack intact with material still on the storage system. Down time, labor costs, and equipment costs are saved due to minimal product displaced, no rack demolition, and no re-assembly of the pallet rack.

When using a pallet rack moving system the process is simple. First you would raise the pallet rack using the lifting assembly and place the rack on the skates. This process could be done literally by one person. When all of the storage system (pallet rack) is on the skates, the pallet rack is now ready to move to the new location. At this point it would be necessary for more people to help in the process to help push and steer the moving rack. After the rack has been moved to the new location, the rack would be lifted off the skates and lowered to the floor. Again just one person could do this part of the process. The last step is to anchor the racking. Once anchored the process is complete and there is minimal to no product or materials to stock in the storage system.

By using a pallet rack moving system, you can now lift your pallet rack up, put it on wheels (skates) and move it to its new location with minimal product displacement. The moving system is simplistic in design and easy to use saving up to 2/3rds of the normal project costs.

The moving system contains ‘skates' and a lifting assembly. The ‘skates' come in both HD (heavy duty) and LD (lite duty) models that have capacities ranging from 5,000 lbs. to 12,000 lbs. More information can be found at www.palletrackskate.com.