Longspan Shelving Singapore: Spans, Levels and Loads

Longspan shelving is hand loaded storage for cartons that are too heavy for a rivet rack and never going anywhere near a pallet. It sits between light shelving and pallet racking, and in most Singapore warehouses it ends up carrying the pick face. This blog walks you through spans, shelf levels, load ratings and where longspan fits, starting with the longspan shelving system itself.

What is longspan shelving and what is it built for?

Longspan shelving is a medium duty system with wide beam spans and a solid shelf deck. You load it by hand with cartons, totes and loose stock that is heavier or bulkier than light shelving will take.

Hand loading sets everything else in the spec. You size the load per level for what a person can lift and place, cap the height at arm’s reach, and run a continuous deck across the beams instead of leaving a gap for a pallet to bridge. Pallet racking is built the other way round, around a forklift and a pallet.

The frame itself is simple. Upright frames carry horizontal beams, the beams support a deck of chipboard, steel or wire mesh, and the levels move up and down the upright at fixed pitches, so you can re-pitch a bay when your stock profile changes.

The deck is what makes it shelving rather than racking. Small items, loose parts and soft cartons sit on a flat surface and stay there instead of dropping between two beams the way they would on a rack designed for pallets. Most builds hold 250kg to 500kg per level, which covers the bulk of mid weight carton and component storage in a Singapore warehouse.

What spans and shelf depths does longspan shelving come in?

Beam spans of 1500mm, 1800mm and 2000mm, with shelf depths of 450mm, 600mm and 900mm, are the common sizes. Span is the clear width of a bay between two uprights. Depth is how far back the shelf runs.

Span trades open width against capacity. A 2000mm span gives you a wide, open shelf and fewer uprights along the run, while a 1500mm span puts more uprights in your way and carries more per level. Mixed carton storage usually lands on 1800mm bays.

Read the depth off your stock before anyone quotes you a frame:

• 450mm suits small cartons, files and binned parts.
• 600mm takes standard archive boxes two deep.
• 900mm holds bulky or long items, and anything you would otherwise stack on the floor.

Deep shelves come with a catch. On a 900mm shelf your picker reaches a full arm’s length past the front row, so back stock disappears unless you keep the same SKU front to back on a level.

Measure your three or four highest volume cartons before you commit. A bay sized to a round number instead of a box leaves a strip of dead shelf in every level of the run. It is the same exercise as working out the bay, depth and height dimensions of any storage system.

How much can a longspan shelf level actually hold?

Most builds hold 250kg to 500kg per level, and heavy duty longspan reaches 800kg. Every figure is per level, not per bay, and it only holds at the span it was quoted against.

Span and load work against each other. A longer beam deflects more under the same weight, so a 2000mm span carries less per level than a 1500mm span on the same beam section. SEMA’s guidance puts the working limit at the beam’s span divided by 200, which is 10mm of deflection across a 2000mm beam.

Ask for the rating in writing against the span, the beam section and the deck. A quote that says “500kg shelving” with none of those three attached is a sales line rather than a rating.

The rating also assumes you spread the weight. Drop a single 300kg drum in the middle of a 300kg shelf and the beam deflects far more than it would under ten cartons across the deck. The MOM circular on the safe use of storage racks expects the safe working load to be displayed on the run and the design reassessed before you change what a bay stores.

Which shelf deck should you choose: chipboard, steel or mesh?

Chipboard for dry cartons and archive, steel for wet, oily or heavy point loaded stock, and wire mesh where sprinklers or visibility matter.

Chipboard is an 18mm to 25mm particleboard panel and the default deck for boxed goods. It is cheap, solid under an even carton load, and sits loose on the beams so you can lift a panel out when you re-pitch a level. It also swells when it gets wet and dents under concentrated point loads. Put a run under a leaking chiller line and you will be buying panels twice a year.

A steel panel deck takes oily parts, wet goods and heavier point loads, and it wipes clean where hygiene gets audited. Wire mesh lets sprinkler water fall through to the stock below and lets your picker see what is sitting on the level above, which is why the SCDF Fire Code ends up shaping the deck choice in a sprinklered warehouse.

Deck thickness matters as much as deck material. A panel rated on a 1500mm span sags on a 2000mm one, so specify the deck against the same span as the beams and expect a centre support under deep or wide shelves.

How high can longspan go, and when do you need a walkway?

Around 2m for pure hand loading. Three to four metres if you accept a step or a ladder for the top levels. Past that you add a raised walkway and turn the run into a two or three tier system.

Your picker works the lower levels from the floor and reaches the top of a 2m bay standing. Every level above that costs a trip up a step ladder with a carton in hand, so a 3m or 4m run only earns its height when the top shelf holds slow moving stock you touch once a month.

Going taller means giving people a floor to stand on. A raised platform built over or into the shelving gives you a second and third picking level, so the height of the unit fills up with levels people can actually reach.

A walkway is a structure in its own right. It carries a load, needs safe access and egress, and has to be designed rather than bolted on, and you give up floor area to the stairs and landing.

Where does longspan fit between boltless shelving and pallet racking?

In the middle. Longspan carries more and spans further than boltless shelving, and it stays hand loaded and lighter than pallet racking, which leaves it covering the medium weight carton and component storage that neither of the other two handles well.

Boltless or rivet shelving takes roughly 100kg to 200kg per level and tops out around 2.4m, which is enough for files, small parts and light cartons. Longspan starts where that stops, at 250kg to 500kg per level over longer beams. Pallet racking is a different job: a forklift, a pallet, and 8m to 10m of height.

Two questions settle it. How heavy is each shelf level, and does the stock move by hand or by forklift? Our shelving versus racking guide works through both in full.

Does tall longspan shelving need anchoring or bracing?

Yes, once the run is tall for its depth. Anchor it into the floor slab or the wall behind it, or bolt it back to back with a second run, because a tall shallow bay can topple when someone drags a carton off an upper level.

The ratio is the trigger. Treat any run taller than about five times its depth as unstable on its own, so a 600mm deep single run at 3m gets bolted to the wall while an 1800mm deep double run at the same height stands safely.

Two runs bolted back to back brace each other and give you a wide base that resists toppling without a wall. Island runs in the middle of a floor get built in pairs for that reason. Put the anchor bolts on your shelving inspection round, because a fixing that has worked loose under years of trolley knocks is doing nothing at all.

What do warehouses actually store on longspan shelving?

Cartons, totes, spare parts, archive boxes and ecommerce pick stock. Anything mid weight that people handle by hand all day.

Retail back of house stock, workshop spare parts, document archives and ecommerce order picking share one handling pattern: varied stock, picked often, moved in cartons and totes by hand. The 250kg to 500kg per level rating covers the weight those goods reach without forcing anyone onto a forklift.

Most operations get the most out of longspan as a pick face. Your picker pulls an order faster from a longspan run at hand height than from a pallet rack built around a forklift, so plenty of Singapore warehouses run longspan along the front and keep pallet racking behind it for bulk reserve. Replenishment then moves one pallet at a time from the rack to the shelf, and the forklift stays out of the picking aisle.

Specifying a longspan run that fits your pick face

Longspan earns its place when your stock moves by hand, in cartons, at mid weight. Measure the cartons before anyone quotes you a span. Ask for the load rating per level at that exact span. Match the deck to what sits on it and what has to fall through it. Keep the top level inside hand reach, or build a walkway and stack picking levels instead.

Send us your carton sizes, weights and floor space and we will spec the spans, levels, decks and loads. Request a shelving layout.

Frequently asked questions

How much weight can a longspan shelf hold per level?

Most builds hold 250kg to 500kg per level, and heavy duty versions reach 800kg. The rating is per level, not per bay, and it only holds at the beam span it was quoted against. A 300kg rating also assumes you spread the load across the deck rather than concentrating it in one spot.

Is longspan shelving hand loaded or does it need a forklift?

You load longspan by hand, which is what separates it from pallet racking. Your team places cartons and totes straight onto the deck, so no forklift and no pallets are involved, and each accessible level stays around 2m so people can reach it. That suits picking operations rather than bulk storage.

Should I choose a chipboard or steel deck for longspan shelving?

Chipboard at 18mm to 25mm is the cheaper standard deck and handles dry boxed and archived goods well. Pay for steel when the stock is oily, wet or heavy enough to dent a panel, or when hygiene gets audited, since steel wipes clean. Wire mesh is the third option where sprinkler water has to fall through.

What is the difference between longspan and boltless shelving?

Both are hand loaded. Boltless or rivet shelving handles roughly 100kg to 200kg per level and suits files and small parts, while longspan takes 250kg to 500kg per level over longer beams. Longspan sits one step up, closer to pallet racking, and holds heavier cartons and components.

Does longspan shelving need to be bolted to the wall?

Only when the run is tall for its depth. Once the height passes about five times the depth, anchor the run to the floor or wall, or bolt it back to back with a second run. A wide double run stands safely freestanding. A tall, shallow single run will topple if you leave it unfixed.