Considered an accessory to industrial steel storage rack, welded wire rack decking rests on pallet rack beams. The decking spans the distance between the beams. This provides additional support for items stored a pallet. Decking also prevents items from falling through the racking, and helps forklift operators as they realign a pallet so it rests on the rack beams.
Fabricated of welded wire mesh with a supporting structure of reinforcing channels or support wires, load calculations for wire decking are different than those used to design and engineer a storage rack structure. To confirm that welded wire rack decking is properly engineered for each unique application RMI publishes the ANSI MH26.2: Design, Fabrication, Testing and Utilization of Rack Decking. The standard recommends that wire deck manufacturers require a buyer to submit the dimensional specifications and load capacity rating of the rack prior to production. This ensures that the decking will fit the system, and that the deck capacity matches the application.
Wire Decking Best Practices
For safety, fundamental best practices in the use of welded wire rack decking include:
Uniform Distributed Load
Evenly distribute any static load over the entire surface on the rack deck, independent of the support system (pallet rack beams).
Deck Fasteners
The three most common types of welded wire rack decking include:
- A waterfall edge that overlaps the outer edge of the beams.
- An instep deck that fits inside a step-ledge in the beams.
- A non-waterfall deck that spans the distance of the beams.
To keep the decking from slipping side-to-side or falling off the beams while an operator places or removes a load, self-tapping screws should secure each decking panel to the beam.
Only Use For Loads
Don’t use wire decking for anything other than uniformly distributed load storage. Its engineering and construction cannot support standing or walking upon it. If there is a unique application, like hand stacking or point loading, a wire deck manufacturer can help design a deck to fit that particular use.
Want to learn more about the safe application of wire mesh rack decking? RMI offers a list of answers to frequently asked questions, here.
