An adjustable shelf is a shelf that can be adjusted according to needs. The most common variant is that the height intervals can be adjusted to accommodate various items. This allows more flexible use to hold items of value for storage, display or sale. Like fixed shelves, the horizontal planes are normally made of strong materials such as

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

(and occasionally

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

or other materials), but their vertical positioning can be varied – usually through small, exact holes into which the supporting

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

have been inserted, or in an older method, slots which are an integral part of the cabinet itself into which the shelves are inserted. Adjustable shelves are available in many variants.

Pallet racks A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. Many pallets can handle a load o ...

as found in modern warehouses are some of the toughest and most durable adjustable shelves, being designed to bear extremely heavy industrial loads on

pallets A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. Many pallets can handle a load o ...

History

Seeking a more flexible and reusable alternative to wooden shelving to store paper and other consumables in his London-based printing business,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Demetrius Comino Demetrius Comino (4 September 1902 – 27 September 1988)Darbyshire, Anthony, and Duckworth, Eric (2011), ''Demetrius Comino: A life and legacy of achievement'', Comino Foundation. – (accessed: 22 February 2012) was an Australian engineer, in ...

invented the slotted angle steel construction system,

Dexion Dexion is a company name and brand particularly associated with the development of the "Dexion" slotted angle steel strip construction system, widely used since the 1950s for domestic and commercial Shelf (storage), shelving, warehouse, storage ...

, and began production in 1947. This quickly became popular internationally for domestic and commercial shelving,

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

pallet racking Pallet rack is a material handling storage aid system designed to store materials on pallets (or “skids”). Although there are many varieties of pallet racking, all types allow for the storage of palletized materials in horizontal rows with mult ...

and other purposes.Demetrius Comino: A life and legacy of achievement
Darbyshire, Anthony, and Duckworth (2011) Dexion and other shelving and racking brands are still marketed by the Norwegian Constructor Group. The Dexion-style slotted angle or angle iron was also widely copied by other

manufacturers Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

using different configurations of slots, different metal thicknesses, and different metals (e.g.:

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

Application

Purpose-built adjustable shelving systems can be fixed from a wall and/or be floor-standing. * Common wall-fixed systems comprise parallel metal strips (attached to the wall by screws) which have slots into which brackets can be fitted to hold shelves. * Free-standing shelf frames are also usually manufactured from metal (usually steel), though the shelves may be made of wood. The metal frames may be formed of

slotted angle Slotted angle (also sometimes referred to as slotted angle iron) is a system of reusable metal strips used to construct shelving, frames, work benches, equipment stands and other structures. The name derives, first, from the use of elongated slots ...

- steel strips longitudinally pressed into a right-angle or L-shaped section (C- and box-section systems are also used where structures have to carry particularly heavy loads); these sections are perforated with circular holes or elongated slots to allow shelves to be mounted directly or fixed using nuts and bolts. The most heavy duty form of adjustable shelving is

References

{{reflist Furniture Warehouses Cabinets (furniture)

History

Application

See also

References