The Space-Saving Revolution: Your Guide to Herochu Vertical Sheet Metal Storage Systems
(Customizable to your workshop, starting at $3,660 – CE, UE, ISO 9001 certified)
A floor swallowed by sheet-metal stacks is more than an eyesore; it is a silent vacuum that inhales space, time and profit. Every extra square metre you give to leaning towers of steel is a square metre you cannot bill. Every minute an operator spends hunting for “the 3 mm brushed stainless that was here yesterday” is a minute your laser sits cold, your press brake waits and your customer deadline creeps closer. Herochu’s vertical sheet-metal storage systems reverse that vacuum. Instead of asking you to build an extension or lease the bay next door, we help you mine the air above the mess. The result is up to 50 % floor-space reclamation, 70 % faster retrieval and a safety record your insurer will notice—without forcing you to buy a single robot or hire a automation integrator.
Traditional ground stacking is the original “efficiency black hole.” A six-high block of 4 m × 2 m plates needs a 4 m aisle on three sides so a forklift can pirouette. That is 36 m² of prime real estate for 4 t of material. Slide the same stock into a Herochu HC-B4020-65 vertical rack and the footprint shrinks to 2.9 m × 1.35 m—3.9 m² including the single access aisle. At average US industrial rent of $65/m² you just rescued $2,095 a year per bay, every year, for a rack that costs less than a second-hand pendant crane. The maths gets sweeter if you own the building: that freed space can host a second laser, a deburring cell or simply more high-margin inventory.
The transformation begins with a drawer, not a shelf. Each layer is an independent, full-extension cassette riding on sealed steel bearings rated for 8 t dynamic load. A 1:65 planetary hand-crank means a 60 kg operator can glide a 200 kg plate out as smoothly as opening a kitchen cabinet. Because only one sheet moves, you eliminate the domino effect of scratching, denting or dropping neighbouring material. The crank folds flat when not in use, so aisles stay clear and OSHA inspectors stay happy. If you prefer push-button convenience, the same frame accepts a 24 V servo motor that extends the drawer in 15 seconds—retrofit takes 30 minutes and four bolts, so you don’t discard your first investment when volumes grow.
Instant access changes the rhythm of the entire shop. At Southern Fabricators in Austin, laser operator Maria used to radio the fork-truck driver up to six times per shift. Now she spins the Herochu handle, pulls the exact 5 mm hot-rolled sheet she needs, loads it onto an adjacent scissor table and is back at the nest before the previous part finishes cutting. Average retrieval time dropped from 22 minutes to 3.5 minutes. In the first quarter the company added 18 extra laser hours per month without overtime, a 14 % output bump that paid for the rack before the invoice was 90 days old. Maria’s comment: “It feels like the laser is never waiting for me anymore.”
Safety is engineered into the ratio of the gears, not bolted on as an afterthought. A spring-loaded anti-reverse pawl locks the drawer the instant the operator releases the handle; even a 10 t stack cannot drift. Edge guards and 125 mm side rails stop sheets from skateboarding onto steel-toe boots. The whole structure is FEM-modelled for a 2.5× safety factor, then proof-loaded to 1.2 × rated capacity in our own plant—CE machinery directive 2006/42/EC paperwork rides in the same folder as the user manual. When your insurance auditor sees organised drawers instead of leaning stacks, workers-comp quotes tend to shrink.
Flexibility is baked into every upright. Because joints are bolted, not welded, you can add levels, change drawer pitch or even split one 6-layer tower into two 3-layer benches if you relocate. Standard vertical pitch is 600 mm, yet we can mill custom spacers for 450 mm if you handle mostly thin gauge. Need 10 t per shelf? We swap in 40 Cr rollers and bump the rail profile—no MOQ, no NRE. Want laser-etched part numbers, RFID pockets or a built-in scale that talks to your MES? Done, usually for less than the cost of one scrapped sheet.
Colour matters more than you think. RAL 5010 gentian blue is our default, but we’ll spray corporate orange, John-Deere green or millennial pink at no extra charge. A uniform colour scheme across multiple bays turns storage into a visual management tool: blue for mild steel, grey for stainless, black for aluminium—mistakes drop and 5-S audits become a photo opportunity instead of a headache.
Shipping and assembly were designed for the real world, not the ideal world. Racks arrive knock-down in plywood crates that fit through a standard 900 mm personnel door. One pallet per bay, 250 kg total, so even a mezzanine shop with a freight lift can take delivery. An M16 socket wrench and a 4 mm Allen key are the only tools required; two technicians assemble a six-level unit in 90 minutes, and we time-stamp the build video for your QC file. Prefer turnkey? Our fly-in crew can be on your floor 72 hours after PO anywhere in the continental US or EU, and we carry spare bearings in the van just in case.
Sustainability is not a slide in the sales deck; it is metallurgy. Uprights are Q355B structural steel—87 % post-consumer scrap melted in an electric arc furnace powered by hydro. Bolts are grade 10.9, zinc-nickel plated for 1,000-hour salt-spray resistance. At end-of-life every component is magnetic, so it goes back to the furnace, not the landfill. Even the shipping crates are reusable: return them empty and we credit $50 each, because circular economy should be standard, not marketing.
Price starts at $3,660 for an HC-B3015-63 hand-crank model, including bearings, handles and CE documentation. Electric servo retrofits begin at $890 per drawer and can be added later without welding or programming. Compare that to the $12,000–$18,000 price tag of an automated tower system that needs a 380 V three-phase drop, safety fencing and a service contract thicker than the operator manual. Herochu gives you 80 % of the speed at 30 % of the cost, and you can still operate if the power goes out—just grab the crank.
The next step is simple: outline an HC-B4020-65 on your floor with masking tape. Walk your team through a mock retrieval, time it, then multiply the minutes saved by your hourly burn rate. When you see four-digit savings per month, email us the dimensions, the heaviest sheet you handle and the colour you want. We will return a 3-D PDF, a formal quote and a ship date within six hours. If you are one of the first three orders this month, we will laser-engrave your part-number template on each drawer face for free—because the only thing better than reclaimed floor space is reclaimed calendar days.
Herochu: turn your air into an asset, your idle laser into a profit engine, and your cluttered aisle into a runway for growth—starting at $3,660, shipping this week.
