Putting boxes straight onto rack beams is attractive: it removes the cost of pallets, removes a handling step and gains a little height in every bay. It also changes the load case completely, from a support under the whole base to two narrow lines. That is a solvable problem and it needs solving deliberately.
What changes when there is no pallet
A pallet spreads the load across the base and adds stiffness underneath it. Without one, the base spans between two beams, and everything above is carried on the beam spacing. A box designed for a floor and a pallet will often work on a tight beam but fail on a wide one, and the difference between the two can be a factor of several in deflection. The same span logic decides whether corrugated boxes sit safely on beams, and whether a pallet sleeve can be racked at all.
Beam centres versus base design
The number to ask for is the maximum unsupported span at the rated load, not a general capacity figure. Then compare it with the actual beam centres in the store. If the store has a mix of racking types, the rating that matters is the worst one, and it is worth writing the maximum beam centre on the racking bay so nobody puts the box in the wrong place.
Fork entry and beam contact
Putting a box on racking still requires a fork entry, and the fork pocket is often close to where the beam contact lands. On a beam, the load arrives at two lines and the tunnels sit between them, which is actually a reasonable arrangement if the base is designed to transfer the load outwards from the tunnels to the beams. If the tunnels line up with the beams, the load path gets short and the deck does the work.
Deck protection and point loads
Some racks have mesh decks rather than beams, which spreads the load nicely and catches dirt. Others have bare beams, which concentrate it. Bearer pads or a small steel cross member, permanently located on the beam, are a cheap way to make a mixed rack work with a box that is rated for a wider span.
Racking with dunnage and mixed weights
Where a bay holds different part numbers with different weights, the rack rating has to reflect the heaviest. This sounds obvious and is regularly missed, because the box rating is quoted per box and the bay holds six of them. The number that matters for the rack is the bay load, and for the box used in the bottom position it is the stack load. That distinction is the same one that decides how a stack behaves.
Access, picking and the cost of saving a pallet
No pallet means no ability to pull a unit out with a pallet truck, and it means every pick is a manual lift unless the box has its own lifting points. In a high-pick store that cost is real and easily exceeds the pallet saving. In a store where units move in and out on a forklift anyway, the saving is genuine.
A test that costs one beam
Set a bay of scrap racking to the widest beam centre in the store, load the box to its rated weight and leave it for a week, then measure the base deflection. It is the only reliable way to know whether your box belongs on your racking, and it removes the guesswork from a decision that is otherwise made on appearance.
What the racking inspector needs to know
If boxes are racked directly on beams, the racking inspection should include the beam condition where the box lands, because a deformed beam changes the span and the load path. It is a small addition to an existing inspection routine and it catches the failure that a box-only inspection would miss.
Tell the inspection team the maximum beam span the box is rated for and mark it on the bay. A box moved to wider racking, even for an afternoon, is a box outside its specification, and the mark is what prevents it happening by accident.
What we can do
We build PP honeycomb board boxes and will quote a maximum beam span at rated load as part of the specification, along with a pallet-free option where the base is designed for it. Tell us the racking type and the beam centres.