Stillages are commonly used for a range of metal pallet or skid style frames, often with SHS corner posts and even for cages with mesh and access gates. Traditionally, stillage was utilized in manufacturing to store and transport material from a vendor to an assembly plant, move materials through a plant, and even deliver finished products to customers.
Stillages are now used in a massive range of applications. They can be found on construction sites, warehouses, workshops, transport depots, manufacturing plants, mine sites, Defence bases, shipyards, treatment plants, food plants, council depots, power stations, farms, supermarkets, 3PL facilities, hospitals, universities, and more!
Benefits of stillages
- Reduction of single-use plastics- With companies looking at ways to reduce their environmental impact becoming increasingly important, the removal of single-use plastics by responsible companies have seen a greater usage of metal pallet cages, which is driving down single-use stretch wrap and strapping. As more companies take this initiative, there will be a hugely positive compounding effect across the Australian and global markets.
- Efficiency- Reducing the need to strap items to pallets when loading them into pallet racking using stillage cages has helped save organizations thousands of dollars in labor time and even higher cost benefits through increased operational throughput.
- Safety- Increased safety in storage and transport applications is one of the significant benefits of stillage cage and pallet units. Prevention of items falling off pallet racking in warehouses from using pallet cages and assisting in safe transport to assist in the chain of responsibility compliance are areas that end users have found hugely beneficial.
- Organization- Various stillage systems have improved organization within industrial applications such as warehouses and workshops. Ranging from general stillage cages to logistics cages and cages with dividers, end-users have been able to enhance storage of their warehouses to not only be neater but ensure that tools and parts are easier to find, materials are simpler to get to the production line, and that employees see their tasks to be generally easier as a result.
Applications for stillages
- Pallet racking- Cages and stillage units with positive locking bases can be used to store equipment and materials in standard Australia pallet racking. Particularly for items stored over 1500mm pallet systems for safe storage of items in pallet racking is becoming increasingly popular to prevent possible accidents from objects falling from height.
- Transport- Transporting items such as cartons, steel components, replacements parts, engines, gearboxes, and spare parts is a considerable concern to transport regulators. Operators take shortcuts resulting in near misses, tragically fatalities, and life-changing injuries. The legislation introduced in 2017 about Chain of Responsibility Compliance (COR) has been hugely beneficial in helping companies across the supply chain work together more proactively to reduce the change of devastating situations occurring. Heavy-duty rated pallets and cages have allowed to take away guesswork for operators, which has also contributed to improvements and reduced companies using unrated and engineered pallets, skids, and cages.
- Stacking- The stacking of cages on top of each other has provided a game-changer in transport and storage applications. For example, stacking four fully loaded cages in a static warehouse application has been advantageous for too large cages for pallet racking. It has also reduced the need to purchase pallet racking and the association installation costs.
- Construction sites storing items such as scaffolding, shoring or star posts, transport depots for shipping of post parcels,
- Supply chain- With greater stress on supply chains throughout Australia and across the globe, efficiency in the supply chain is becoming increasingly critical. Pallet and stillage systems allow faster picking times, faster truck and container loading and unloading times, and when purchased in specific quantities, allow faster fulfillment of order times with the stillage cage able to go from vendor to customer fully loaded before being sent back collapsed. Every hour and day is crucial in supply chains stretched to capacity.
- Hire- Some companies allow short-term hire of stillages for applications where they aren’t required long-term making it more affordable for small companies to be efficient, safe, and environmentally responsible.
- Long-term storage- Long-term storage of critical items in an efficient, safe and organized manner is becoming more important foraging plants. Condensing this large volume of essential spares is made easier through innovative pallet systems, allowing increased preservation and ensuring that the systems are rated.
- Lean manufacturing is becoming more recognized as companies seek to edge in an ever-competitive market. Not only are pallet and logistics cages used for assisting in 5S rollouts they are also assisting in comprehensive lean programs such as improving throughput.
Stillage sizes
Stillages come in various heights, widths, and lengths but are most commonly found in Australia in a standard Australian pallet size footprint of 1165 x 1165mm. Double width units are commonly around 2200mm in length, and heights are commonly about 600mm or 100mm in height and for more specific applications can even come in 1800 or 2000mm height units.
Importance of engineered products
When purchasing stillages, stillages cages, metal pallets, pallet cages, logistics cages, site boxes, etc., they must be engineered to relevant Australian standards, including appropriate safety factors. It is also essential that the units are supplied with a rating plate to ensure that operators are aware of the particular pallet system’s capabilities.
It is essential to go on ratings and not standard industry terms when considering ratings of products. For example, a broad industry consensus is that hardwood pallets are rated at 2000kg SWL. However, providers cannot provide engineering certificates to show the ability to achieve this rating. In addition to the lack of apparent engineered factor in this industry term, it’s also important to note that being a natural product, timber can be affected by a range of factors, including being eaten by termites in specific geographic locations, assuming a load rating dangerous.
What are stillages manufactured from?
Stillages are generally manufactured from steel, although occasionally plastic or rubber components. Due to the industrial applications, stillage pallet systems are usually used in steel is usually the best material to ensure longevity.
A range of finishes is used for stillages, including bare metal, painting, powder coating, galvanizing, and zinc plating. Zinc plating is generally considered the best coating for stillage and pallet cage units to be used in a range of environments. Zinc plating, although reasonably economical, is also very durable. While in outdoor applications it will get rust points sooner than galvanized finish, the benefit of zinc plating is that it’s a sacrificial coating so that white spots firstly appear before red corrosion, meaning that as you see any issue appearing, it can be treated by wire brushing and coating with rust convertor or penatrol before recoating with a galvanized spray. Like any equipment, it’s essential to have a maintenance program in place for your stillage or pallet cage units to ensure that your asset is long-lasting as it should be.
Cost of stillages
The cost of a stillage is dependent on a range of factors, including the features it includes, the size of the stillage, the materials the stillage is made from, the weight capacity of the stillage, the volume of stillages being purchased, amongst other variables. The cost of a stillage could be as little as $300 or up to thousands of dollars for a specialized stillage.
Where can I buy stillages?
Stillages are for sale for a range of applications. Most stillages are best to be purchased from a large importer and manufacturer of pallet cages, and stillages due to their extensive range of standard and quality stillage cages or if you require a small run of specialized stillages to specific specifications for your application, a custom metal fabricator nearby may be the best source to purchase your customized stillages from.
Knowing all such information and details would be helpful and useful for you to say the least.
