For the food industry, most need to store the foods in a freezing warehouse, in a very low temperature, usually, minus 20-25 degrees. In such a frozen storage warehouse, certainly, high density cold storage racking systems are more suitable, which can store much more foods and need fewer labors too, thus reducing the cold storage cost per pallet. Here, YuRacking, a reliable cold storage solution company, suggest the below two solutions, which are the best choice for cold storage and warehousing.

The Most Suitable Cold Storage Warehouse Design

In recent years, China's cold chain logistics has grown rapidly and has gradually become one of the fastest-growing areas in the logistics industry. However, the high construction and maintenance costs of cold storage are currently a major factor hindering the development of cold chain logistics.

In cold chain storage, these goods basically have the characteristics of fast turnover, large one-time storage, and high requirements for storage equipment. Only by satisfying these basic needs, each specific cold chain logistics can operate normally and efficiently. The food cold chain is a supply chain system with the purpose of ensuring the quality of perishable food and maintaining a low temperature environment as the core requirement. Therefore, it has higher requirements and more complex requirements than ordinary normal temperature logistics systems, and the construction investment is also much larger.

First of all, understand the basic information that must be understood to design cold storage shelves:

1. Factors to be considered when designing cold storage shelves

2. Choose the right shelf system

3. Choose the right shelf surface treatment method

4. Other considerations:

The design of the cold storage shelf also needs to consider other factors, such as the selection of welding electrodes in the cold storage, corresponding to the welding base material and welding process requirements, and to ensure the welding quality of the welds. The characteristics of frosting in the cold storage should be considered, the weight gain should be appropriately considered when calculating the shelf selection, and the customer's refrigeration and the defrosting process should be considered for the corrosion resistance of the structural spray coating.

The construction cost of cold storage shelves is very high, and it is a huge system project, which is related to the future development of the enterprise, so full attention must be given to the design and construction, and it must be considered from a strategic level. The specific design of cold storage shelves must be operated by professionals with logistics knowledge, construction knowledge, and industry knowledge. Standard design procedures should be adopted, and plans should be compared. Only in this way can the ultimate needs of the enterprise be reached.

Drive-in Racking System

Usually, 6-7 pallets position in a lane, no aisle between the lanes, drive in pallet greatly improves the cubic space, just need one professional driver in the racking area, drive into the depth of the lane, to load and unload the goods in pallets one by one.

Advantages

• The most high-density solution, 85-90% space usage;

• FILO mode mostly;

• Suit different types of cold room racking system;

• Fewest aisle, one row next to the other rows;

• Floor space saving, cost effective solution;

Shuttle Racking System

Usually, we always compare the shuttle racking system with the drive-in racking system, which need the forklift operator goes into the racking area to load/unload the pallets, the pallet shuttle racking, on the contrary, just need the forklift operator send the pallets to the shuttle car, then, the shuttle car will load the pallets into the deep lane one by one automatically. The pallet shuttle racking system, not just save space (the depth of the rail can be 20m-50m, that is around 50 pallets position in the depth lane), and with no aisle between the channels, greatly improved the productivity and efficiency. The highlight advantages of the shuttle racking system make it the best choice for the cold storage warehouse.

Advantages

• FILO or FIFO mode, both are available;

• Less pallet racking for cold storage & warehouse cost;
  

• Fewest aisle, the whole racking area in rows one next to the other;

• Semi-automatic, most work can be finished by shuttle car automatically;

• Space saving, labor saving, warehouse flow speed greatly improved; 

• Minimizes damage to the rack because no need the forklift go into the racking area.

Cold Storage Pallet Size

A pallet is a kind of support or platform used for stacking loads of boards. They are rigid frames on which the goods are placed and distributed in an even manner over the height and the surface of the pallet. Pallets and goods will be transported from one side of the shelf or warehouse to the other by forklifts or pallet trucks.

Pallet Types used for cold storage: Steel Pallets, Wooden Pallets, Plastic Pallets…

According to the different area standards, there are many different sizes:

1) Europe Pallet: usually, the size is L800*W1200 or L1200*W1000;

2) America Pallet: the size is L46” * W42”; L1200*W1000;

3) Other Pallet size: L1100*W1100; L1165*W1165; L1067*W1067….

Load Capacity: usually 500-2000kg/pc

Key points and precautions for cold chain logistics cold storage engineering design:

1. The size of the pallet plus the goods: length (W) * width (D) * height (H)-determine the basic storage size of the shelf;

2. The maximum weight and average weight of a single pallet cargo-determine the carrying size of the shelf location.