Floor space in a metal workshop is never surplus. Every square meter allocated to storage is a square meter unavailable for a second laser cell, an additional press brake, or a dedicated inspection station. Herochu’s offcut storage solution for metal workshops addresses this constraint through vertical density: converting the air above the floor into usable storage volume while maintaining full accessibility to every stored piece.
The economic argument for vertical storage is difficult to dispute once the numbers are examined. A horizontal stack of remnants occupying five square meters of floor might hold two tons of material, but accessing the bottom of that stack requires moving everything above it. A Herochu vertical rack holding comparable or greater tonnage occupies a footprint as compact as 1.2 meters wide and 2.7 meters long, with tiers stacked upward to ceiling height. The density advantage approaches ten to one in favorable configurations. More importantly, the accessibility advantage is absolute: every piece in the vertical rack is retrievable without disturbing any other piece.
The standard Herochu lineup covers the sheet dimensions most workshops encounter. The HC-V2010-15 accommodates 2000 × 1000 mm sheets across fifteen tiers. The HC-V2513-15 scales to 2500 × 1300 mm, and the HC-V3015-15 handles 3000 × 1500 mm stock. Each tier is rated for 1000 kg, a capacity that exceeds the weight of most remnant pieces while remaining adequate for partial sheets and stacked blanks that approach full-sheet mass. Layer counts are customizable from ten to fifteen tiers depending on available ceiling height, and clear spacing between tiers adjusts from 30 mm to over 100 mm to match the thickness profile of the stored material.
The drawer mechanism is where the design earns its operational value. Full-extension travel means the drawer surface clears the rack frame entirely, exposing the complete sheet face to the operator and to any lifting device—vacuum lifter, overhead crane, or magnetic hoist. The mechanical assistance system calibrates pull force to load, so a drawer carrying several hundred kilograms of plate moves with a consistency that manual handling cannot achieve. Non-skid strips hold the material in position during travel. An auto-latch secures the drawer in the extended position until deliberately released, preventing accidental retraction during loading or retrieval.
Placement strategy amplifies the rack’s utility. Because the footprint is narrow and access is entirely from the front, the rack can be positioned directly beside a laser cutter, a plasma table, or a press brake—locations where horizontal storage cannot fit without obstructing workflow. When the offcut rack sits within arm’s reach of the machine that generates the remnants, sorting becomes part of the unloading routine rather than a separate handling step. The operator removes a cut part, places the usable offcut into the appropriate drawer, and returns to the machine. No secondary transport, no delayed sorting, no pile accumulation.
Herochu configures each offcut storage rack to the customer’s material dimensions, load requirements, and available vertical clearance. The result is a storage system that fits the workshop rather than forcing the workshop to adapt around a standard product. For facilities where floor space is the binding constraint on growth, the vertical offcut rack does not merely solve a storage problem. It releases floor area for productive use, turning a cost center into operational capacity.
