What is Industrial Shelving?

For those involved in the material handling and warehousing industry, industrial shelving is a staple in storing your products and equipment. Industrial shelving is most beneficial utilized in applications that feature products that are lighter and typically can be hand-loaded. Ultimately, shelving can maximize floor space and enable easy access to whatever product may be stored and is a vital part of business operations. 

Here at Shelf-Clips.com, we’re here to make your warehouse safety simple, and that includes ensuring your industrial shelving application is secure. We are the premier online hub for shelving clips, and our goal is to provide as robust a catalog of shelving clips and accessories as possible. We understand that many of you who come to our site may not be familiar with the different shelving styles and their clips, so we’ve put together this guide as a resource to learn more about industrial shelving.

What is Industrial Shelving and What Do Shelving Clips Do? 

The general public has a general idea of what industrial shelving is and its purpose. However, there’s more to this staple of the material handling equipment world than meets the eye. With several styles, brands, and capacities available, there’s more to this style of shelving than your typical shelf. That includes the shelving clips required to maintain capacity and safety within the unit or units. 

Typically, industrial shelving can be found in a warehousing environment and commonly found in residential settings such as garages. In our previous blog post, we outlined pallet racking, which is the heavier-duty alternative to shelving. Pallet racking is used when forklifts or other vehicles are needed to load and unload products and pallets, while shelving is typically hand loaded without the use of pallets or forklifts. Shelving can handle higher-density items as well, and this is where shelf clips come into play. 

Industrial shelving has evolved over the years, as nearly all units are made of metal or steel. What hasn’t changed is the function, as metal shelving has been used to increase visibility and maximize space within warehouses and factories. Durable and sturdy, metal shelving helps you maximize your floor and vertical space while improving visibility and access.

With all that shelving brings to a storage application, safety risks need to be resolved, such as security, preventing damage, and shelf failure. These applications are where the clips come in. Shelving clips secure horizontal shelf supports to vertical, upright posts to avoid collapse, keep your product secure, and keep those working with and around the units safe. 

Shelf Clip Installation

Clip installation varies depending upon the shelving manufacturer and type of shelf clip you own. Some clips are a simple clip-on, some require twisting and locking, while others are two-piece clips that bolt in place. With this in mind, we are starting to build our installation video library on our YouTube channel to help make the installation process quick and easy.  Ultimately, proper installation will prevent headaches in the long run by keeping your units secure. 

In light of this, finding a specific safety clip can be confusing. There is a seemingly endless list of shelving brands and manufacturers who supply and manufacture a range of shelving clips that are used for a variety of applications. Many of the brands produce special clips for their shelving systems to further complicate things, requiring you to purchase a clip that goes with that specific shelving system. We’ve tried to make that complicated process simple.

What Kind of Clip Do I Need (or Have)?

With the many different kinds of shelving styles and models come many other clips. On the pallet racking end of the spectrum, universal options work with several different types of racking. This is not the case with shelving. We talk with people every day that are not sure of the kind of shelving they have and identify what type of shelving clip they have or need.  

Because of this, we have created a shelf clip identifier portal which enables you to accurately identify various shelving and pallet rack clips that are available, and some that are discontinued or hard-to-find. All you need to do is navigate to the page, have your clip with you (or a picture for comparison), and identify what you have based on our clips catalog. 

Edsal shelving clips are a prime example of why we started our identifier. Edsal produces several different types of industrial shelving, resulting in several different types of clips – a few of which are very similar in design. The Edsal N Galvanized Clip (SC007) is one of our more popular shelving clips but looks very similar to the Edsal HD Galvanized Clip (SC008). Similarly, the Edsal U Shelving Clip (SC009) is an even more popular Edsal offering but looks nearly identical to Republic Storage Systems, Tennsco, Tri-Boro Shelving, and Pacific Shelving. With our shelf-clip identifier, you can drill down those tiny differences and make sure you get your clip selection right. 

We at Shelf-Clips.com are proud to be the only place on the web that offers this kind of service. This feature, along with a team of material handling professionals that has decades of knowledge of shelving and racking systems, is designed to give you, the customer, a smooth and seamless experience. Once you have found the right shelving clip, you can purchase and have it shipped within 48 hours.

Again, we house an extensive range of brands and safety clips that are in stock and ready to ship on a national scale, all at an affordable price. If you have any questions or need any help at all, contact us via email, or give us a call at (855) 289-2547. 

We’re here to make your warehouse safety simple.