Heavy duty sheet metal storage racks by Herochu – roll-out cradle towers starting at USD 5,120, CE/ISO certified, engineered for 5,000 lb drawers that turn loose plates into a traceable, forklift-ready library.
A laser table that nests a 4 m skeleton in ninety seconds is pointless if the operator spends ten minutes hunting for the right remnant behind a stack of full-size sheets. Herochu’s heavy duty sheet metal storage racks solve the bottleneck by storing plate, aluminium, stainless or copper vertically in individual roll-out cradles. Each drawer extends 100 % on sealed bearings, presents the sheet at waist height and supports 5,000 lb without a second operator or a sling. The result is a 70 % reduction in retrieval time, a 60 % cut in floor footprint and a measurable drop in edge damage that otherwise becomes expensive scrap.
Start with the load path. The cradle is fabricated from 6 mm Q355B plate, brake-pressed into a 200 mm deep channel with twin 40 mm return lips that prevent 25 mm plate from sliding when the unit is accelerated open. Four 30 mm diameter induction-hardened shafts ride in sealed linear bearings, giving a coefficient of friction below 0.015 so a 120 kg operator can pull 2,300 kg of mild-steel without strain. The bearings are spaced at 1/3 span centres to limit deflection to 1/250 under full load, keeping the sheet flat for vacuum lifters or magnetic hooks. A spring-loaded detent engages automatically at 520 mm extension, signalling the crane driver that the cradle is locked; push again and the drawer glides home with a positive stop that removes the human temptation to slam steel.
The frame is welded, not bolted, from 200 × 100 × 6 mm RHS uprights and 250 × 100 × 8 mm horizontal beams. Moment connections are full-penetration MIG welded then ultrasonically tested to EN 1090-2 EXC2, the same class used for motorway gantry signs. Baseplates are 20 mm thick with slotted holes for M24 chemical anchors rated 55 kN shear each. For seismic zone 4 we add rear k-bracing and increase steel grade to Q390B; the upgrade adds 62 kg to tower weight and USD 180 to cost, less than one day’s downtime caused by a collapsed rack. Every weld is numbered, mapped and traceable to a mill certificate that ships with the rack.
Capacity is stated the way insurers audit it: 5,000 lb per drawer, 75,000 lb per fifteen-drawer tower, 1.5 safety factor on yield with all drawers open. Third-party finite-element reports are available from TÜV or SGS; most customers file them alongside the CE declaration and the five-year structural warranty. If your under-hook clearance is restricted, we supply a low-profile 150 mm high cradle that still accepts 25 mm plate because the lip is tapered 5° inward, not square.
Vertical pitch is modular. Drawers are supported on welded lugs at 250 mm increments; if you store formed parts with 120 mm return flanges, we simply delete every second lug and gain 500 mm internal height without cutting steel. Towers can be placed back-to-back on a shared 300 mm base to create a thirty-drawer island, or butted against a firewall for single-sided access. A 50 mm plinth is optional to clear sloping production floors or epoxy drainage falls; the plinth is pre-drilled so anchors still engage the slab at 110 mm embedment.
Safety is engineered, not added later. The 3° backward tilt keeps sheets against the rear stop even when a drawer is hammered closed in a hurry. Each cradle is supplied with two removable dividing pins so mixed remnants cannot slide sideways and trap fingers. Wire-mesh backing is available if you store near pedestrian gangways; the 50 × 50 × 4 mm grid stops a 2 m × 4 m sheet from toppling through while preserving visibility for plant fire regulations. Removable holding arms bolt to the top beam to support floppy aluminium composite panels that otherwise sag like wet cardboard. If you cut copper or brass, specify the conductive rubber mat kit to prevent galvanic staining when dissimilar metals touch.
Forklift interface is standard, not optional. The top beam is set at 1,650 mm so the plate centre of gravity sits below the knee of a 4 m sheet, eliminating the seesaw effect that causes edge cracks. A 200 mm clear gap between towers allows a 1,600 mm wide fork frame to enter from the rear and deposit a full pack without turning. If you use a side-loader, we delete the rear cross-brace and add a 6 mm wear strip so fork shoes can slide under the pack without gouging paint. The same strip is reversible; when one side is worn after five years, flip it and keep cutting.
Inventory control is built-in. Every cradle is laser-marked with a unique QR code that links to a cloud folder: DXF outline, heat number, certificate of conformity and real-time weight if you add the optional load-cell base. A handheld scanner updates your ERP in 0.8 seconds, removing the clipboard walk that usually follows every nest. If you run SAP, Oracle or SigmaNEST, the API script is supplied free; most customers achieve full traceability in a single weekend.
Installation follows a Saturday timetable. The tower ships knock-down: drawers stacked on plywood stillages, frames bolted into lift-able modules, hardware bagged and tagged. Two technicians and a 3 t fork-truck can assemble a fifteen-drawer unit in five hours, including anchor setting with Hilti HIT-HY 200 adhesive. No on-site welding, no hot-work permit, no burn-through risk on your new epoxy floor. A laser level and a 24 mm torque wrench are the only special tools required; both are supplied in the ship-with kit. Once the last bolt is tightened to 420 Nm, the installers load the first 5,000 lb drawer and sign the hand-over certificate that activates the warranty.
Maintenance is limited to a thirty-second visual check: are the bearings free of swarf, is the detent spring positive, are the anchor nuts still painted with the witness mark? Beyond that, the sealed bearings are filled for life with lithium complex grease rated −30 °C to +120 °C. Drawer fronts are coated with anti-fingerprint clear lacquer so aluminium dust wipes off with a dry cloth, no solvents needed. Should a rail ever be damaged by a crane hook, the bolt-on design allows replacement in minutes without unloading the remaining drawers.
Industries already using Herochu heavy duty sheet metal storage racks include:
- Laser job shops storing 1 mm to 50 mm mild-steel and stainless remnants for repeat automotive fixtures
- HVAC contractors segregating galvanised duct blanks by diameter and insulation thickness
- Architectural metal-workers protecting brushed #4 finish sheets from forklift tyre scratches
- Aerospace tool-rooms isolating titanium and aluminium-lithium plate by heat number and batch
- Ship-repair yards positioning 6 mm chequer plate close to plasma tables inside dock walls
- Distribution centres feeding same-day cut-to-size programmes for 200 SKU cladding contractors
Each tower arrives with a hard-copy folder: mill certificates for Q355B steel, powder-coating salt-spray test 500 h report, welding procedure specification (WPS) and radiograph for critical joints, CE declaration per EN 1090-2 EXC2, assembly manual with torque values and anchor layout drawing, and a five-year structural warranty backed by USD 2 million product liability cover underwritten by PICC.
Price is published, not hidden behind a sales rep. A fifteen-drawer, 8 ft × 4 ft tower, manual operation, orange paint, ex-works Qingdao is USD 5,120. Add 8 % for hot-dip galvanising, USD 220 for wire-mesh backing, USD 90 per removable dividing pin set. Container-load quantities of ten or more qualify for a 5 % discount and free installation supervision anywhere within 50 km of a capital city port. Lead time is fifteen days for standard models, twenty-two days for custom pitch or colour.
To order, email a simple sketch: maximum sheet size, maximum weight per pack, number of different alloys or thicknesses you want to separate, and the clear height under your crane hook. Within twelve hours we return a scaled drawing, aisle-width requirement, floor-loading check and firm quotation. Start at USD 5,120, reclaim hundreds of square metres, and stop converting expensive workshop rent into a graveyard of bent leftovers—because when heavy duty sheet metal stands vertical, accessible and protected, profit lies flat on the cutting bed.
