Two Tier STS Rack Archive Store

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Established in 1857 Overs of Camberley are an International and domestic removal company based in Surrey.  Recently they have been looking at ways of diversifying and offering their existing customers other services.

One of these idea's was to provide boxed document storage to enable companies to archive their existing documents and rent the space on a cost per box or location basis. Overs were considering the acquisition of another building in Camberley and invited STS Storage Systems to access it's suitability and come up with budget proposals.

The solution put forward by STS Storage Systems was a two-tier shelving system to part of the building based on STS pallet racking offering good storage density combined with good picking access.  Removing the need for any mechanical handling equipment enabled Overs to reduce their costs and give their customers direct access to their own records if required.

STS Storage Systems proposals resulted in a total of 16,000 boxes all readily accessible stored in a floor area of 390M². Overs predictions based on this proposal were for a pay back period of just 11  months and therefore decided to acquire the building.

STS Storage Systems then fine tuned the specification to incorporate the following features:

	Shelves consisted of 22mm particle board supported on a stepped beam to give both a larger aperture and protect the particle board edge.
	The colour scheme chosen was Dark Graphite Grey uprights with contrasting Light Grey beams.
	At first floor level very heavy duty beams were specified to carry out three functions; 1. Provide support for the walkways. 2. Include a step to contain the bottom shelf of the first floor. 3. To act as a skirting board for the walkways.
	These beams were finished in Dark Graphite Grey to match the uprights, supporting angle, staircases and handrail.
	The entire structure was designed to suspend all walkways from the STS rack avoiding any costly structural steelwork.
	The walkways were formed from high density 38mm particle board in sheets 1000mm x 2800mm all joints were tongued and grooved.
	This configuration gave a remarkably strong bounce  free floor with very few joints, ideal for use with  trolleys  and  other wheel handling  equipment.
	All fixings were 'Black Anodised' in order to blend in with the Dark Graphite Grey structure.

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Overs plans are to extend the structure in future so provision was made to make this a straight forward procedure by firstly designing the layout to be extended without altering the existing structure.  Secondly purpose made handrail sections were bolted into position using holes already punched into the upright, these can be moved at a later date leaving no trace of their original position.

In the future there was a possibility of Overs customers wishing to make 'their area' secure by installing mesh partitioning. 

To this end STS Storage Systems designed the structure with the following features;

	The back to back runs were designed without intermediate frame spacers to allow mesh partitioning panels to be installed at a later date.
	At first floor level a narrow 150mm 'walkway' was installed between the back to back runs. This allows mesh partitioning panels to be installed at first floor level independently of any panels that might be fitted on the ground floor.

The above measures give Overs and their customers total flexibility with their security arrangements.

Once Overs had signed the lease STS Storage Systems were awarded the contract and carried out the Building Regulations application to Hart District Council.  The application was handled 'in house' by STS Storage Systems and involved submitting layout details and full structural calculations which were then assessed by the Councils engineers for structural integrity and means of escape.

Full  approval was duly given, so then  STS Storage Systems installed the structure in whole after just 9 days.