Drive-in Racks and VNA Racking

This article will give a brief introduction to VNA Racking and Drive-in pallet rack system, and summarize the similarities and differences between the two systems, as a reference for everyone.

The drive-in racking, also known as the through racks, is a continuous structure that is not divided by aisles. Because the lanes between the rows of racks are canceled and the racks are merged together, the same layer and the same row of goods are next to each other.

You can use forklifts (or an unmanned vehicle with forks) to enter the aisle of the drive-in racking system to store and pick up goods, which is suitable for the storage of goods with few types and large batches. Since the forklift needs to enter the interior of the shelving construction, it is usually recommended to get goods from one side with no more than 7 bays. Compared with beam racks, the space utilization rate of drive-in racks can be increased by more than 30%. Therefore, this type of racks is widely used in wholesale, cold storage, food and tobacco industries.

As for the channel of the racking system is relatively narrow, VNA rack is called Very Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking. The major rshelving of this racking system are beam racks, but the lanes between those racks are narrower than ones of beam racking system, so it is named after this.

The width of the channel between the shelves is slightly larger than one of the pallet racks, which can meet the high-density storage requirements. At the same time, it inherits all the advantages of the beam racking system, and the forklift can store any pallet of goods at any time. Good storage efficiency, very high storage density.

When picking up the goods, a specific three-way stacking forklift is required. Because the racking aisle is narrow, more space can be used as storage area.

If one warehouse or logistics center has the following characteristics, you can consider choosing a narrow aisle racking system:

1. The volume of goods is large, and the goods come in and out more frequently. Besides, there are high requirements for picking goods; 2. The requirements for logistics efficiency are relatively high. 3. Warehouse is higher, more than 8 metres; 4. Storage forklifts will not to be used to perform other tasks.

The notable feature of the VNA Racking is that the aisle is much narrower than that of the general beam racks, about 1600mm-2000mm. The forklift operation channel generally only needs 1300mm, and the shelf height can reach 15m, which greatly improves the space utilization of the warehouse; These shelves need to be equipped with a special forklifts --- three-way stacker.

Secondly, after installation, the narrow-lane rack has a guide rail with a height of about 200MM, which reduces the danger caused by personnel, and has lower requirements for the driver.

Comparison of drive-in racks and narrow-aisle racks

1. Drive-in racking does not have a dedicated aisle, while the latter has them, and the aisles are narrow.

2. Drive-in racking is difficult to realize the first-in-first-out of goods, and the goods of the same type or batch need to be stored in the same channel, which is suitable for the storage of large quantities and similar type of goods; while the picking rate of the latter is 100%, which can realize First in first out.

3. Drive-in racking has a higher space utilization rate than VNA Racking and it can obtain more storage bits. Except for the top floor, the drive-in rack has no beam structure, so the system’s depth and height are limited to a certain extent, and it is suitable for small-area warehouse applications.

4. Drive-in racking requires forklifts to drive into the shelving construction, which causes low storage efficiency, while narrow-aisle one has a special forklift passage.

5. Drive-in racking has no special requirements for forklifts, while VNA Rackingrequires special three-way forklifts.

6. Drive-in racks demand low investment cost. Its rack channel and forklift operation channel are integrated which is suitable for storing products with a large quantity, few types and Low turnover rate. It is a typical first-in, last-out style. When there are many items and the inventory of each item is not large, it is not suitable to use drive-in racks.