Cantilever Rack Systems in Chicago, IL

Cantilever rack exists because long material doesn't care about pallets. Chicago's metal fabrication and steel service sector - concentrated through Cicero, Bedford Park, and the older industrial corridors of Franklin Park, Bensenville, and Addison - moves pipe, tube, bar stock, and sheet that simply cannot sit on a beam level. Arms extend from a column with nothing across the front, so bundles load from the side and come off the same way.

Choose cantilever whenever product length, not weight or SKU count, is driving the storage problem. The alternative is leaning bundles against a wall or floor-stacking them where forklifts work around them all day. Arm length, capacity, and column spacing get set by the bundles you actually handle, not a generic length.

We quote single-sided runs for a wall and double-sided runs for open floor, both with the layout attached so arm count and levels are settled before steel is ordered.

Metal fabrication and steel service have anchored the southwest side for generations. Cicero, Bedford Park, and the Clearing district - with the Belt Railway's Clearing Yard moving raw material in and finished product out - hold the region's heaviest concentration of long-load storage. The O'Hare submarket adds a second cluster: Franklin Park, Bensenville, and Elk Grove Village machine shops and service centers working out of older multi-tenant buildings.

Those older buildings shape the design. Clear heights of 18 to 24 ft and tighter column grids mean runs are planned around the building, and arm levels are set to use every foot of height available. Central DuPage - Addison, Carol Stream, Itasca, Wood Dale - adds plastics, packaging, and building-products distributors storing long extrusions and sheet. Bundle weight, arm projection, and the room your handling equipment needs decide column spacing and aisle width together.

Cantilever specification starts and ends with the load. We collect bundle dimensions, weight per bundle, and how material is handled - forklift forks, a side loader, or by hand off a cart - because that determines arm length, arm capacity, and how much clearance each level needs.

From there we set column height and spacing, choose straight or inclined arms, and decide whether lips are needed to keep round stock from rolling. Single-sided runs get positioned along a wall; double-sided runs get aisle dimensions matched to whatever's moving material in and out.

The quote itemizes columns, bases, arms, bracing, and anchors, with a CAD drawing showing the run, arm levels, and rated capacities per arm. Our installation crews anchor bases, plumb columns, brace the run, and set arm elevations to the drawing.

The result is arms you can reposition as inventory changes, capacity ratings for every level, and the floor space that long material used to occupy.

Recent Installations

A sample of racking projects completed across the region.

Cantilever Rack Questions From Chicago Buyers

Where We Work

Located in Chicago, we serve the entire Chicagoland area with industrial pallet racks and warehouse storage solutions.