SR collaborates on load testing

Many companies use theoretical estimates to determine how much you can pile on their shelving and rack. Engineering formulas are used to determine how various steel configurations will react under load.

In December, 2004, Scotland Rack decided that wasn't good enough. We wanted to confirm our load ratings in the real world to make absolutely certain that our products would perform as advertised. So we went about finding out.

With funding assistance in the form of a $10,000 grant from Ben Franklin Tech Partners, tests were conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, Mechanical Testing Central Facility under the supervision of Dr. Alex Radin, Facility Director in cooperation with our Plant Manager, Ron Schneeweis and Product Engineer, Douglas Grubbs.

All Scotland Rack beams were tested by U Penn, as well as our MDF, Deck Supports and Corrugated Steel Decking.

Armed with those results, we went back to our Bensalem plant and continued with further "equally distributed load" tests on our MDF with perimeter support, our Rivet Lock shelves and our corrugated steel shelving.

All our testing was conducted to comply with American National Standards Institute's ANSI MH28.1-1997 specifications.

Results
What did we find out? In many cases, we found our load ratings to be very conservative. So as a result of our testing, we can confidently increase the load ratings for some of our products, knowing that they will perform as we expect - because they have performed that way under the extreme stress of brutally structured test conditions.

Oh, and while we were at it - we also asked U Penn to test the mid-profile rivet lock shelving of one of our competitors. Unfortunately, their load ratings weren't as conservative as ours. The tests showed that if loaded to their advertised load rating, the beams would be permanently damaged. (Maybe they should also do some real life testing.)

Were we happy with our results? Certainly. Better yet, you will be too.