Herochu Heavy-Duty Panel Metal Storage Racks
From USD 4,299 – Built for Steel, Aluminium, Titanium and Time
If you still move sheet metal like it’s 1995—forklift shuffle, wood dunnage, three guys yelling “left a bit”—you’re bleeding money on every laser bed cycle. Herochu’s Heavy-Duty Panel Metal Storage Racks turn that chaos into a quiet drawer that glides out in 8 seconds, reveals the exact 3 × 1.5 m plate you need, and rolls back in while your coffee is still hot. Starting at $4,299, CE/UE/ISO 9001 certified, and configurable down to the last millimetre, this is the rack that pays for itself before the first quarterly report.
Why Horizontal Beats Vertical (and Every Other Angle)
Vertical sheet racks look tidy on Instagram, but they force you to lift 2 t plates above shoulder height, risk vacuum-lift slip, and chew up 6 m of aisle for swing-room. Horizontal drawers keep the load at knee-to-waist height, let a single operator use a magnetic lifter, and compress 20 plates into the footprint of one pallet. The maths is brutal: 80 % floor-space reduction, 50 % labour cut, zero recordable lifting injuries since we introduced the design in 2019.
Three Models, One Philosophy – Over-Engineer Everything
Model HC-B3015-61 – 1 t per layer, 6 t total
Model HC-B3015-62 – 2 t per layer, 12 t total
Model HC-B3015-63 – 3 t per layer, 18 t total
Same 3 × 1.5 m drawer size, same 220 mm storey height, same laser-cut Q235B steel that laughs at 4.5 t point loads. The only thing we change is the beam section and bearing count—because safety factors should scale, not shrink.
The Drawer That Thinks
Each drawer rides on sealed, grease-free polymer bearings rated for 100 km of travel at full load. That equates to 18 years of 20 cycles per day. A captive cam lock auto-engages when the drawer hits 85 % extension, preventing the “oops-it’s-falling” moment that haunts lighter systems. Release the lock and a gas-assist strut cuts pull force to 18 kg—your smallest technician can glide out 3 t of armour plate without breaking a nail.
Crank, Motor, or Forklift—Your Workflow, Your Choice
Manual pull-out: standard on 61-series, handle folds flush so aisles stay clear.
Hand-crank: 62-series ships with 1:25 worm-gear reducer; one turn moves the drawer 28 mm—precision placement for CNC sheet loaders.
Full motorisation: 63-series can be ordered with 24 V brushless drive, 1 200 N thrust, wireless pendant. Retrofit kit bolts on in 15 min if you upgrade later.
All three mechanisms share the same rail geometry, so you can mix and match in the same bay as budgets allow.
The Skeleton Under the Skin
Columns are cold-formed 450 × 90 mm “C” sections, 6 mm web, 18 mm return lip—30 % stronger than the industry-typical 400 mm box. Base frames are welded, not bolted, creating a closed torsion box that keeps rails parallel to 0.3 mm over 6 m. Anchor bolts are M20 × 180 mm wedge type, grade 8.8, supplied DIN-tested; pull-out tested to 85 kN in 25 MPa concrete. Translation: when an 8 t forklift bumps the frame, the rack barely notices.
Modular Math—Main + Add-On = Infinite Run
Start with a 1.5 m wide starter bay, then clip on 1.2 m add-ons until you hit the wall. No special tools, no re-anchoring. Each add-on shares the neighbour’s column, saving one post every 1.2 m—roughly $212 saved per metre run. Expansion joints every 12 m keep thermal growth under 1 mm, so you can run a 100 m bank down the side of your building without stress.
Galvanised, Painted, or Hybrid
Indoor climate-controlled plant? Powder-coated RAL 5017 traffic blue, 80 µm thick, chemical-resistant to pH 3–11.
Outdoor stockyard? Send the same rack through our 12-stage zinc bath to EN ISO 1461, 85 µm zinc, then top-coat with UV-stable polyester—25-year warranty against red rust.
Mixed environment? We galvanise the frames and paint the drawers, giving you cathodic protection where it matters and colour-coded drawers for SKU segregation.
Fire Code Friendly
Drawer fronts close flush, so sprinkler water flows unimpeded—no lips, no ledges. NFPA 13 classifies the system as “open rack,” cutting required sprinkler density from 12 mm/min to 6 mm/min. On a 5 000 m² warehouse that’s a $38 000 sprinkler cost saving, plus lower insurance premiums with some carriers.
ROI in Real Numbers (Because Finance Hates Adjectives)
Assume a typical job shop running one 6 kW laser, two shifts, 250 days/year.
Before: operator + helper spend 18 min per sheet retrieval, 30 sheets/day = 9 labour-hours daily.
After: one operator retrieves a sheet in 2 min = 1 labour-hour daily.
Labour saved: 8 h × $28 fully-loaded = $224/day.
Rack cost (HC-B3015-62, 12 t, 6 drawers): $5 149 delivered.
Payback: 23 working days—less than one month.
Over 5 years the rack saves $268 800 in labour and frees 210 m² floor space worth $18/m²/year = another $18 900. Total benefit $287 700 on a $5 k asset—an ROI that would make Warren Buffett blink.
Certifications That Cross Borders
CE Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, declaration HC-2024-412
UE Type-Examination certificate 0477/24/HC
ISO 9001:2015 (TÜV Rheinland) 441001-Q
AS 4084-2012 compliant design upon request
Seismic calculations to IBC 2018, Sds 2.0 g, importance factor Ip=1.5
Fire resistance: column integrity 60 min, no additional cladding required
Real Customers, Real Quiet
“We stacked 6 mm aluminium tread plate six high in the old A-frame. Every pickup scratched the sheet below. With Herochu drawers our scratch rate dropped to zero and the laser uptime jumped 11 %.”
— Carlos M., fabrication manager, Phoenix AZ
“Hot-rolled pickled sheet at 2.5 t each. Outdoor yard, 45 °C summer, 90 % humidity. Twenty-eight months, zero corrosion, bearings still feel like silk.”
— Amal K., procurement director, Jebel Ali Free Zone
Options You Didn’t Know You Needed (But Will)
Drawer dividers – laser-cut slots every 100 mm, accept 3 mm steel partitions for mixed thickness storage.
Rubber armour – 6 mm SBR mat bonded to the drawer floor, stops surface scratching on polished stainless.
RFID pockets – Moulded into the front profile, scan a drawer and your ERP knows which remnant is inside, down to the gram.
LED strip – 24 V, IP54, magnetically clips under the drawer front—no more flashlight in the mouth while you hunt for 316 L.
Lock-out tag-out hasp – fits on the crank handle, keeps maintenance from accidentally rolling out 3 t while you’re under the laser head.
Shipping & Install
Racks ship KD (knock-down) in 40 ft HC containers, 22 t payload. All drawers are pre-assembled; you only bolt columns to bases and rails to columns. A two-person crew erects 12 m run in 3 h using one M18 impact wrench. Anchor template and laser-level are included—no guesswork, no on-site drilling jigs. If you can assemble IKEA, you can install Herochu; if you’d rather bill out laser time, we have certified crews in DE, US, UAE, and AU.
Spare Parts for Life
We laser-etch the part number and QR code on every component. Scan it at 3 a.m., hit “order,” and the spare is on a DHL plane before your shift ends. Bearings, locks, crank handles, motor kits—stocked in Hamburg, Chicago, and Dubai. Lifetime means the life of the rack, not the life of your purchaser’s career.
Sustainability You Can Audit
Steel 37 % post-consumer recycled, 100 % recyclable at end-of-life.
Powder-coat overspray 92 % reclaimed, zero VOC.
Zinc kettle runs on 45 % renewable biomass since 2023.
Modular design cuts transport volume 28 %, saving 210 kg CO₂ per rack.
End-of-life buy-back: we credit 20 % of invoice value for uprights returned to our melt shop.
Order Today, Laser Tomorrow
- Download the “Panel Load Calculator” Excel—enter sheet size, weight, daily usage.
- Receive a 3-D proposal, static report, and firm quote within 12 h.
- Approve drawings, pay 50 % deposit, production starts day 0.
- 25 days later your rack is in the port, cleared, anchored, and loaded with the first 18 t of sheet—while your competitor is still hunting for pallets.
Stop feeding money into the floor. Slide it out on a Herochu drawer instead—Heavy-Duty Panel Metal Storage Racks, built for metal that matters and schedules that don’t wait.
