A vertical carousel or vertical storage lift normally comes with empty carriers and trays. In order to create locations; fittings, boxes or separator sets are often used. Fittings and boxes are not only an easy way of creating locations, but it can also generate better ergonomics and fill rates. In this guide you will find some of our advice when it comes to fittings and boxes for you vertical carousels or vertical storage lifts.
Fittings and boxes for vertical storage lifts
Virtually all vertical storage lifts will have empty trays when they are sold second hand, or straight from the factory for that matter. Listed below are a few solutions to equip the trays of your vertical storage lift, together with some pros and cons.
Carton boxes
One option that almost all vendors of vertical storage lifts offer is to by carton boxes. Carton boxes are available in a wide range of predefined sizes, more often than not sufficient to suit your needs. Customized carton boxes are available to order, but at a higher cost.
+ Low cost
+ Can be customized
– not appropriate for greasy products
– Not flexible, fixed sizes once ordered
Reused plastic boxes
If you are moving from using conventional shelves to a vertical storage lift it is highly likely that you already have plastic boxes available for us. Obviously, reusing your plastic boxes is a simple solution, but not necessarily the best option.
+ Low / no cost
+ Easy to transfer the goods
– The boxes are generally not customized for the trays (low fill rate)
– The boxes might not be customized for the goods (low fill rate)
Sumobox
Sumobox is a subsidiary of Kardex Remstar and the only well established producer of boxes specifically designer for vertical storage lifts. Sumoboxes are flexible, modular plastic boxes customized to the tray sizes of Kardex vertical storage lifts.
+ Customized as a standard for vertical storage lifts
+ Flexible in height
+ Flexible in dimensions using separators
+ Light
– Higher price
– Only available for Kardex units
– Time consuming to assemble
Metal fittings
A solution offered by most vendors of vertical storage lifts is to buy customized and flexible metal fittings. The construction of this type of equipment usually enables you to move separators, enabling flexibility in the location sizes.
+ Durable
+ Flexible
+ ESD secure
+ Dirt and oil resistant
– Higher price
– Not flexible in height
– Relatively heavy
Tape
As easy as it sounds tape can, and is in fact, used to divide trays into locations. Tape can be a particularly useful solution if you wish to store larger boxes or bulk goods and don’t need that many locations per tray.
+ Low cost
+ Space efficient
– Won’t prevent goods from moving
– Not very distinct separation between locations
ESD equipment
Some products need to be stored in so-called “ESD secure” zones. ESD stands for Electro Static Discharge and means that the material is sensitive towards static electricity that can occur because of the friction between certain materials. To cope with this problem, most vendors will offer ESD approved fittings or boxes, some examples are:
• Sumoboxes with ESD configuration
• Filter boxes
• Plastic boxes with ESD configuration
• Metal fittings
