Steel Construction Article on Racking and Shelving

The attached article was published in “Steel Construction – Design and Research: Volume 6, No 2, May 2013.”


Quite soon after the publication of EN 15512 “Steel static storage systems – Adjustable pallet racking systems – Principles for structural design” in March 2009, ERF/FEM R&S initiated a number of “Workshops“ with the subject: “Exchange of experiences and questions concerning test procedures and test evaluation according EN 15512”. This was felt to be necessary, because for the first time test houses were asked by the European racking industry to perform large series of pallet rack component tests based upon the same principles, and different test houses had different approaches and experienced problems. The Workshops were attended by member manufacturers of ERF/FEM R&S and by a number of test houses involved, like TU Barcelona, TU Dortmund, TU Trento, Büro Dr. Möll. The outcome of this is the code FEM 10.2.12, which will be considered when reviewing EN 15512:2009. A Working Group to consider the review of EN 15512 will start work in late 2015.

The contacts with the Technical Universities have resulted in a liaison with a technical committee of the “European Convention for Coal and Steel – ECCS”: ECCS TWG 7.5 “ Cold-formed thin-walled sheet in building – Practical improvements of Design Guidelines”. It appeared that universities were regularly performing research on cold-formed members and their typical connections, relevant to the European racking industry.

At the end of 2012, ECCS TWG 7.5 was asked by the ECCS to contribute to a special edition dealing with design in cold-formed steel of the ECCS/CECM/EKS Journal “Steel Construction – Design and Research”. ERF/FEM R&S was asked to contribute as well, because “Racking & Shelving” is an important application of cold-formed steel and in the past decades substantial developments have taken place. This has resulted in the publication “Those peculiar structures in cold-formed steel: Racking & Shelving” by our Technical Chairman Kees Tilburgs in the Steel Construction Journal.

Edited by “Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin“
www.ernst-und-sohn.de


Back to Bulletins