Racks & Shelves
Our shelving units are easy to build, easy to clean and will last a lifetime! Due to the inherant benefits of our aluminum extrusion, custom shelving is simple to design and easily expanded upon. Whether you need surfaces to stock items in a warehouse, or a part drying rack, we can help design a shelving unit specific to your needs. The T-slots assist in various mounting positions as well as provide a channel to hide unsightly cables for lighting. Shelf material, powder coat options, and accessories are dependant on your personal needs and taste. Do you have your own shelf design, or need help creating a custom design? Contact us today to speak with our team!
The Advantage of Framing Tech Aluminum Shelves
As soon as Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, proud owners of freshly printed volumes faced a problem that has plagued them ever since: where to store these valuable yet fragile books. The bigger the collection, the bigger the problem. Fortunately, a solution to this problem had already been invented: the bookshelf.
Of course, before the invention of the printing press, they weren’t called bookshelves, though they served a similar purpose. For example, the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, located near Mosul in northern Iraq and named after the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, consisted of more than 30,000 clay tablets and writing tablets containing texts of all kinds and in various languages. While excavating the ruins of this palace, archaeologists discovered a number of these artifacts inserted inside shelf-like clay wall nooks in various rooms throughout the ruins of the palace.
In Roman times, written works were laboriously preserved on papyrus scrolls, which had to be carefully rolled up and stored on special shelf-like nooks that they called nidi, or “nests”—which in this instance can best be translated as “pigeon-holes.” The designs of these pigeon-holes were described using the word pegma (“contrivances of wood”), which we would translate as “shelving.” The legendary Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt reputedly contained anywhere from 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls. That’s a lot of shelving!
The Middle Ages saw the creation of hand-crafted vellum or parchment codices with bound pages, very nearly resembling our modern-day books. Medieval scribes (typically monks) would store their sacred writings and writing materials in little shelf-like cupboards called aumbries built into the backs of Christian churches and monasteries.
And then came the golden age of libraries, which continues to the present day. In the meantime, human society has found countless other uses for the resilient shelf. With just a few tweaks, it can be used to store anything, from the most light and fragile museum artifacts to heavy machinery and equipment, or from shiny trophies for display to containers of corrosive industrial solvents.
Framing Tech T-slot aluminum shelves are up to the task for any of these uses. Whether free-standing or wall-mounted, the extruded aluminum profiles can be assembled to exactly the dimensions and layout desired. The shelves (or panels) should be selected as the need dictates:
- Transparent glass for optimum display visibility
- Rigid yet lightweight Sintra board
- Extra-strength Valuebond
- 12-gauge steel wire mesh
- Shatterproof Polycarb
- Stainless steel
Powder coat options, access doors, LED lighting, and other accessories are dependent on your personal needs and taste. Custom shelving units can also be designed for mobile use in trailers, vans, and RVs.
