Compatibility
Perhaps the biggest consideration for expansion and growth is the style of racking components you choose. Today’s standard is the Teardrop Rack, which represents the shape of the front hole on the upright posts. A lot of manufacturers make a version of Teardrop Rack and most of those are compatible with each other.
Interlake is a major manufacturer of racking and there is a lot of used Interlake material in the marketplace. They offer a Teardrop Rack that is compatible with most similar rack styles. A brief shift in marketing – Beginning in the late 1990’s, Interlake tried to isolate their business share by creating a “New Style” teardrop rack to force customers to only buy from them when expanding their rack system. The new style had a slightly different hole shape and connector pins on the beams. These new style components could fit onto the old style, but not vice versa, therefore, their customers were forced to buy from them going forward.
Well, that was the intent, but as is common with competition for market share, their competitors developed a “shaved pin” connector that allowed their beams to fit on Interlake’s new style also, vastly changing the purchase options all around.
Interlake is no longer manufacturing the new style racking, however, that brief period created a higher complexity to shopping for used material for expansions to existing systems. Now there’s a large supply of new and old style rack from multiple makers and a buyer must know what they’re looking at when shopping. That’s where the Integrity Team can help ease that burden.