What is the difference between the mezzanine and the mezzanine. House with a mezzanine: differences from the attic and an overview of comfortable layout options. Technical characteristics of warehouse mezzanines

Manufacturing companies have to allocate significant areas to store their goods. But there is a certain limit to the expansion. In this case, the warehouse is ready to come to the rescue. It makes more efficient use of the available space. With the help of such a device, it becomes possible to create several levels in one warehouse. In this case, it is possible to place tens of times more units than before.

What are warehouse mezzanines

To put it simply, the mezzanine is an ordinary rack for storage. But it has several levels. In some cases, the space can also be used to organize office or office space. In some cases, the racks are assembled in such a way that they can be loaded manually or with the help of additional equipment.

Pros of using

The advantages of mezzanines have already been appreciated by many owners of transport and other companies. The pluses include:

simplicity of configuration change;
ease of assembly;
access from different sides;
the ability to automate sorting;
the ability to install elevators for staff;
long service life;
ease of moving cargo at height;
good appearance.

Mezzanine systems can be designed specifically for a specific area. In form, they can be made exactly the way the customer wants to see them. The levels do not have to be the same. Some of them may be higher or lower. For a higher speed of movement of personnel, staircases or elevators are installed. At various levels of the racks, transport belts and sorting units can be installed, which greatly speed up the storage process. Typically, high quality steel is chosen as the material for the manufacture of shelving. It is she who can provide the required endurance and rigidity of the frame.

Application area

Mezzanines are widespread today. This applies not only to production warehouses, where the storage of products manufactured by a specific plant is carried out. These racks are suitable for storing food, cosmetics and medicine. Such racks are an excellent solution for repair shops where it is necessary to ensure the orderly storage of components. Mezzanine systems are used in large libraries and archives. They make it possible to create the required climate for better preservation of documents. You can store any products open or in special containers. Owners of large stores, for example, Amazon, have ensured that robots can freely service racks by using special tags and barcodes.

note! Today, many designers have a project for a house with a mezzanine. Shelving is often used to organize an additional level in a small space. For example, a sleeping place can be located on it, and under it is a study.

Varieties

Mezzanines come in several varieties. They concern both the assembly method and the mezzanine fixing method. Among them are:

mezzanines on columns;
pallet;
combined.

Mezzanines with column structures are also called free-standing. These are often used in open warehouses. This mezzanine is made up of steel components that form several floors. The design turns out to be quite strong so that it is possible to organize storage of the necessary goods, as well as office premises. The mezzanine frame is covered with decking, which is also made of steel. In order to ensure the safety of personnel, a railing is additionally provided. Most often, racks of this type are made for a specific order, therefore, they will require certain investments.

The second type of shelving is also called hinged. They got this name due to the fact that they are most often supplemented by existing pallet racks. At the same time, they are installed from above, as if hung. They do not require an individual approach to manufacturing, so such mezzanines can be purchased in specialized stores and you can start assembling them yourself. On such mezzanines there is no way to organize an automated storage and sorting system, so they are more often processed manually. If necessary, you can always increase the height of the shelving when additional space is required.

note! Combined types of mezzanines imply the installation of suspended shelving structures of mezzanines on top of the columns. A separate type of mezzanine is a shelf. Such mezzanines are used for storing small-sized products.

To make the right choice of mezzanines for your warehouse, you need to know exactly the height and area of the room. This will allow for how many levels the shelving will have and which particular design is best suited. The volume of stored units is also taken into account. Such a calculation will determine what specific territory can be forced by mezzanines. It is best to have custom racks. You should only contact trusted companies that have already managed to acquire a reliable reputation. They will be able to provide all required certificates and other documentation. In addition, they are responsible for the quality of the raw materials from which the structure will be made. Warranty obligations are also an important component.

If possible, it is better to visit the production lines yourself to make sure the quality of the products. You need to know how long the equipment on which the racks are produced has been in use. Is it the first hands or it was acquired after long-term use. If the machines have been in operation for a long time, then their full service should be carried out no longer than five years ago. This is an important factor, because due to small mistakes that will be made in each link, the entire mezzanine structure can simply collapse under load.

The desire to save money should not affect the quality of the material from which the mezzanines are made. Better to place an order out of season, for example, in winter. It is during this period that the lines are least loaded and the manufacturer will be ready to provide a discount. Some firms provide an additional discount if the mezzanines are ordered long before the assembly is required and are paid in full. When ordering mezzanines, a contract must be concluded. It specifies the rights and obligations of the parties, as well as the responsibility and warranty obligations of the manufacturer. The exact date and amount of the payment made, as well as the date when the finished mezzanines can be picked up or seen assembled at the warehouse, are noted. The assembly process of such racks can be seen in the video.

What are mezzanines for?

Types of rack mezzanines and their design features

L. Zakharchenko, General Director of Rack Systems LLC, D. Nikiforov, Development Director of Rack Systems LLC

Shelving mezzanines have been used in developed countries for a long time. In Russia, they began to become widespread in 2002-2003, with the emergence of large distributors and retail chains, although before that, warehouses used similar simple structures with the same purpose, the so-called mezzanines. This article tells about where mezzanines are used, what types of them are used in warehouses and what design features must be taken into account in order to choose the right option correctly.

Usually mezzanines are located closer to the picking area. This is optimal from the point of view of warehouse logistics, since it allows you to minimize the distance over which pallets move around the warehouse. Most often they are installed above dock shelters, although this is not necessary - earlier warehouses were built without them.

Mezzanines can be of various designs and have a wide variety of sizes, in particular, there are structures with a height of 28 m. Today, there are three main types of mezzanines and several subtypes.

One of the main types is mezzanine racks, or so-called platforms. Their floor is supported by columns, which are installed with as large a pitch as possible so that the space under the mezzanine can be used as fully as possible to accommodate a production or warehouse. Column platforms are equipped for the organization of picking goods, storing oversized cargo or storing seasonal goods, placing offices or changing rooms for workers. Such a mezzanine can be made 2-, 3-, 4- and even 5-storey, its arrangement is very beneficial for the warehouse tenant, since the payment is taken only for the area it occupies - the so-called zero floor, and the rest is not charged. Thus, the cost of 1 m 2 for him decreases. It is easy to calculate that if the mezzanine occupies the entire area of the warehouse, then the rental price for the tenant is reduced by two or more times, depending on the number of mezzanine floors. Shelving Systems is the first and only company in Russia that has introduced the production of mezzanines on columns with the so-called sigma profile and is a monopolist in this area. How does it differ from mezzanines on channels, which are widely offered on the market by all other manufacturers and which we can do too? Firstly, in the speed of production - to make a mezzanine with large spans from columns on a sigma profile as quickly as to produce a regular rolling rack, since this profile is a rolling element and does not require additional jobs for its production. The second advantage is the high speed of installation - the sigma profile weighs an order of magnitude less than the ceiling channels. The third important difference is the ability to construct a mezzanine with a height of more than one floor. When installing such structures from channels, big problems arise. And finally, the fourth feature, one of the most important, is that the mezzanine from the sigma profile, if it is necessary to transfer a warehouse or production to another place, can be very easily expanded or narrowed, simply by cutting off or increasing the profiles and without altering anything in their fasteners. ... We also drew attention to the fact that not all companies offering mezzanine structures fully realize that their supporting columns must be reliably protected from mechanical stress, and above all from accidental impact of the forklift forks on the lower part of the column. This protection is very important, as inaccurate driving occurs among drivers working in warehouses of any category. To prevent the loader from piercing the metal of the column, its thickness must be at least 5 mm, but now there are companies that offer columns made of metal even 2 mm thick. Such racks usually withstand vertical loads, but it is imperative to take into account the possibility of collisions with loading equipment. It is clear that if such a situation arises, the driver of the forklift will be found guilty, but in addition to costs, it will also entail at least a simple warehouse. Therefore, it is necessary to provide in advance that the column thickness is not less than the specified value. If we add perforated floors to these mezzanines, it turns out that our company produces a very good range of shelving components that can be multifunctionally used both in production and in warehouses.

In our floors, 50% of the surface is perforated, which fully complies with fire requirements. The presence of a zinc coating on them is a very great advantage, since, unlike paint, it practically does not wear off even after 5-10 years. The flooring itself is sanded over time, and so that people and equipment feel absolutely safe even in the presence of water on the floor, the form of perforation on the floorboards is specially made anti-slip. The thickness of the strip from which the flooring is made is only 1.5 mm; nevertheless, on such a floor, you can use a manual forklift tricycle trolley "roklu" with a floorboard load of up to 350 kg / m 2. If the thickness of the strip is increased to 2.0 mm, then it will be possible to transport a pallet on the floor with a load of up to 600 kg / m2 and more without any visible deformations. Such a high load is ensured by a special technology: on our rolling line, a floorboard with a height of 58 mm and a width of 250 mm is formed in an initial roll of galvanized metal 400 mm wide, in which perforations with curved edges are cut. The result is floorboards with multiple stiffeners. For those warehouses where perforated decking is not required, we offer the same galvanized floor, but without through holes, and a sprinkler fire extinguishing system is installed on each level of the mezzanine. In addition, our machines allow us to make decking up to 8-13 m long and even higher ... The length of the floorboard is practically limited only by the length of the vehicle body on which it is transported. This important fact makes it possible to reduce the number of crossbeams under the flooring and, as a result, significantly reduce the cost of the mezzanine. There are no competitors on the domestic market for our products - no one in Russia, except us, produces such equipment and floors with full galvanization. The rest of Russian manufacturers make light mezzanines from ordinary shelf or pallet racks, try to repeat, make an open flooring similar to ours, and make it by hand, which increases the production time, so their cost is obviously higher. Alternative imported flooring comes only from Germany or Poland, due to which it is also more expensive.

The second type - the classic shelf mezzanine of the lightweight series - is used to complete small-piece products, most often in pharmaceuticals, for storing books offered for retail sale, small auto parts, cosmetic products, that is, where it is necessary to store and handle a very large range of goods and to it requires the same number of picking channels. The same production line, which produces perforated floors, produces all the components of light and medium mezzanines, designed for a load of up to 500 kg per linear meter of shelf. The products it manufactures is unique in its segment, since no one else has such a line in Russia. The structure of the shelf is designed in such a way that it is attached directly to the uprights by means of an in-rack holder without the use of longitudinal beams, that is, it is self-supporting. The shelf itself consists of stacked box-section lamellas - this gives it additional load-bearing capacity, and due to varying metal thickness, it can withstand a wide range of weight loads. Due to this method of fastening, we were able to reduce the height of the shelf to 30 mm, which made it possible to fully use the height of the room, without spending it on placing the longitudinal beams. With a significant number of levels (shelves), it becomes possible to install an additional shelf, which cannot be done when using structures from other manufacturers that use longitudinal beams for fastening flooring with a thickness of 50 mm and more.

The same type includes a mezzanine on the basis of frontal pallet racks, which have 4–5 shelves for unit storage with heavier beams and are used for storing heavier and larger products. They have larger dimensions and loads, but the basic design is the same. They can store oversized cargo - boxes for archives, larger auto parts, food. Such mezzanines also have floors.

The third type of shelving is combined. They are based on frontal racks. At the bottom there is a pallet storage area to separate cargo flows and separate retail from wholesale. At a height of 6-9 meters, an overlap is made, a platform, and light shelving racks for retail goods are installed on it. As a result, in one warehouse it becomes possible to divide the directions of activity, which does not interfere with shipments. Recently, mezzanines with printed shelving have become quite widely used. Overlap is also made on them from above and a light shelf rack is installed.

Now let's summarize what has been said and see what problems a mezzanine customer may have. As a rule, suppliers offer to make continuous floors on mezzanines-mezzanines (sites), which entails the cost of installing additional sprinkler fire extinguishing systems. This problem can be eliminated if the surface of the floors will be able to pass water, that is, it is made perforated, and the perforation fraction should occupy at least 50% of the entire floor surface. The second problem is related to the safety of the structure itself, which we advise you to pay special attention to. Some manufacturers save money and use columns with a minimum profile thickness, justifying this by the fact that the mezzanine, according to calculations, can withstand vertical load. And if there is a collision with a column of a loader or a stacker, it is no longer their fault. But the warehouse owner is obliged to foresee such situations as well. In particular, in Western countries, columns with a profile thickness of at least 5 mm are used, and more often even 8 mm - where there is an intense movement of loaders and equipment, so as not to damage the column and not fill up the entire rack structure. The third and, in our opinion, one of the primary problems is when the customer does not understand what he wants, and the supplier (manufacturer) represented by the manager of his sales department cannot offer the right solution and advise one or another mezzanine structure for a particular case. Therefore, it is very important to start cooperation with a supplier of rack equipment, making sure of the consistency and professional competence of its employees.

Mezzanine racks (mezzanines on front pallet racks, shelving mezzanines) are racks with a flooring with several tiers (levels) of storage in aisles where there are one or more floor levels at different heights.

Staff can usually access the pedestrian levels using stairs.

The goods are loaded through sliding, swing or revolving gates. In warehouses, rather frequent storage mezzanines are built in (assembled) into the system of racks installed earlier.

But although the racks, mezzanines on the racks have, in fact, the same design, they are not the same in terms of functionality, since employees are constantly on the tiers, as well as at the 0th level of the rack mezzanine.

The key difference between a mezzanine on racks and a mezzanine on columns is that the load-bearing elements of a mezzanine rack are parts and assemblies of the rack itself.

As a rule, these are cold-rolled frame posts, beam profiles, which are made of low-carbon steel, from galvanized strip.

Mezzanine racks have the following advantages:

fast production time;
the ability to integrate the structure into the shelving systems that are already in stock;
low production metal consumption;
low production costs;
ease of installation due to the low weight of the parts;
the ability to quickly fit parts in place, etc.

The disadvantages of mezzanine shelving are:

low fire resistance, shock resistance to the actions of loading equipment;
restrictions regarding the width of the aisles, the pitch of the racks (as a rule, no more than three to four meters);
lack of design techniques and standards that are adapted to domestic conditions;
complex maintainability for components;
exactingness to the quality of floors and timely maintenance.

It should be noted that it is possible to combine the structures of a mezzanine platform on columns and a mezzanine on racks.

The presence on the market of different design options for a warehouse mezzanine is, of course, a big plus, because makes it possible to obtain an effective solution for planning and organizing a warehouse.

The installation of platform mezzanines in the warehouse allows not so much filling the room in height (this can be done thanks to high-rise racks), but expanding the range of stored goods, providing the ability to store in combination.

Organizing different types of storage on different tiers of the mezzanine is a widespread solution today.

The maximum height of the floors, up to 5 meters, will make it easy to install any type of low cargo rack system or provide floor storage. But at the same time, questions arise regarding the types of shelving that can be installed on other floors of the mezzanine, and whether there are any restrictions.

The load capacity of the mezzanine can be distinguished from the limitations. In principle, it is realistic to design a mezzanine platform for ultra-high loads, but it can be comparable in cost to renting a space. Accordingly, the question arises of the expediency of such a solution.

Another limitation applies to loading equipment, which is used on the mezzanine tiers. We are not talking about electric stackers, reach trucks, forklifts. The racks of the upper tiers are loaded using conveyor lines, light stackers, various types of trolleys.

Given these limitations, it is easy to identify the types of racks that can be installed on mezzanines: gravity shelves, car racks, shelf racks, 2/3-level pallet frontal systems. Do not install pallet systems with high density (gravity, ramming, push back and "shuttle"), cargo mobile systems.

Taking into account the load capacity of the mezzanine, it is possible to install mobile shelves, car racks and, in fact, without restrictions - archive mobile racks.

It is optimal to install the lightest racking equipment on higher tiers, where also to arrange the zones according to the piece collection of goods.

Rational placement of small-piece products, spare parts, consumables is provided on the mezzanine shelving structures. The Italian word mezzanine literally translates as superstructure, mezzanine, mezzanine. Self-supporting prefabricated metal structures are installed in warehouses, hangars, garages, pavilions.

With the help of warehouse mezzanines, additional pedestrian levels are organized, full-fledged floors where commodity and material values are stored. The presence of flights of stairs allows employees to climb multi-tiered platforms for accounting, inspection, picking, packaging, and moving products.

Floor panels are made from the following materials:

OSB or chipboard;
grating;
profiled sheet;
solid metal platform with notches.

Benefits of using rack add-ons

Warehouse mezzanines multiply the usable area, provide free access to the objects that are in safe custody. Prefabricated mezzanines are suitable for equipping office space, arranging additional retail space, light shelving metal structures. The versatility of the equipment assumes the placement of load-bearing structures in conjunction with ceiling, frontal, cargo complexes. Transportation of products to the required floor is carried out by hydraulic elevators of the mine type, with an open platform.

Mezzanine systems consist of three elements:

vertical supports up to 12 meters high;
horizontal bearing traverses or beams;
diagonal connecting braces.

The bent perforated steel profile is a suitable material for the construction of the base to provide maximum strength, increased stability and stability of technological parameters. Additional perimeter strapping and diagonal braces maintain the geometry of the structure. Depending on the weight of the cargo and dimensions, metal with a thickness of 1.5-3.0 mm is used. The width of the multi-ribbed racks varies between 70-140 mm. Perforation with a pitch of 50 mm allows you to independently choose the height of the floor, the number of tiers.

Floor panels are calculated taking into account the weight of the service personnel, light loading equipment: hand stacker, electric car, hydraulic trolley, transpallet. Equipped with a handrail ensures safe movement along the platform base. The use of mezzanines helps to keep records of products simultaneously at several levels, transform, modify, move the complex depending on the circumstances.

The Storage Company has designed, manufactured and installed a three-level shelf mezzanine Prostor. The vertical frames of this rack structure are load-bearing not only for the mezzanine floors, but also for the shelves of the racks themselves at each level. This allows you to significantly simplify the design and reduce its cost. A multilevel shelving system is installed in a warehouse dedicated to storing auto parts.

Shelving height - 8 500 mm
Number of mezzanine floors - 3
The area of the building site in the warehouse is 440 sq. m
This design does not require approval from the architectural and construction supervision authorities.

The outer rows of racks on the 1st floor of the mezzanine (section No. 1, 6, 8) are intended for storing bulky goods, therefore only 2 storage levels are organized there with a distance of 1400 mm between shelves. For the same reason, on the 2nd floor of the mezzanine, racks are installed with 3 storage levels and a distance of 850 mm between shelves.

All other shelving racks on the 1st and 2nd floors of the mezzanine have 5 storage levels (section No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7) and the distance between all shelves, except for the top ones, is 500 mm. The height of the upper storage level has been increased by 150 mm for easy handling. All racks on the 3rd floor of the mezzanine have 4 shelves. The distance between the storage levels is 700 mm. A differentiated approach in determining the number of shelf storage levels and the distance between them became possible thanks to the information provided by the customer on the dimensions and weight of the stored cargo.

The shelf storage area of this mezzanine racks is about 2,300 square meters. The storage volume on the shelves is about 1,500 cubic meters.

The installation of a mezzanine rack allowed the customer to increase the area and storage volume by 3 times without increasing the warehouse space.

Make an ORDER for the design and calculation of the cost of the warehouse mezzanine