A metal fabrication shop loses more time moving sheets than cutting them. When plates sit flat on the floor, every retrieval means shuffling stacks, repositioning a forklift, and waiting while an operator navigates around scattered inventory. The arithmetic is simple: a single five-minute retrieval repeated thirty times a day consumes over two hours of productive time. Herochu designed its removable arm forklift rack to collapse that number to under a minute per pick.

The core mechanism sits in the detachable arm assembly bolted to each tier. Rather than requiring a forklift to approach from one fixed direction, the removable arms extend the pick-up envelope so operators can slide forks into open channels from either side of the rack. Each arm accepts standard fork tines ranging from Class II to Class IV carriage widths, removing any dependency on a single forklift model. When a specific sheet needs to come out, the operator drives up, aligns, lifts, and pulls—no intermediate handling, no manual adjustment of adjacent stacks. A six-layer rack holding 3,000 kg per level keeps 18 metric tons of steel, aluminum, or copper plate accessible within the same footprint that previously held perhaps four tons laid flat.

The frame itself relies on Q235B structural steel throughout. Welded gusset plates at every column-to-beam junction transfer bending moment from the loaded arms into the uprights without relying on bolt friction alone. Each support column pairs with a protective post at the arm tip, creating a mechanical stop that prevents sheets from sliding forward under vibration or accidental nudge from a backing forklift. Herochu’s engineering team sized the dual-beam crossbar arrangement to carry 5,000 kg on wider models—specifically the HC-F4020-65 and HC-F6020-65—without exceeding L/300 deflection under full rated load. That keeps arm tips aligned so forks engage reliably even when the rack sits on uneven warehouse slabs.

Environmental hardening matters in shops where coolant mist, grinding dust, and humidity cycles accelerate corrosion. Every Herochu removable arm rack undergoes grit-blast surface preparation to SA 2.5 before electrostatic powder coating, forming a continuous 80–120 µm film that seals weld junctions and bolt holes against moisture ingress. The coating passes 1,000-hour neutral salt spray testing without substrate rust, which matters for facilities storing aluminum sheet where cross-contamination from rust particles can mar finished surfaces.

Adjustability runs through the architecture. Pallet clearance—the vertical gap between the top of a stored sheet stack and the underside of the arm above—can be set from 250 mm to 500 mm to match individual forklift mast heights and operator sight lines. Horizontal arm spacing adjusts to fit sheet widths from 1,300 mm to 2,000 mm across five standard models. If a shop processes narrow strips one month and full-width plates the next, arm positions relocate with through-bolted connections on a 50 mm pitch. No welding on site, no cutting.

From a floor-plan perspective, the vertical configuration recovers roughly 70 percent of the square footage that horizontal flat-stacking consumes. A single HC-F6020-65 unit stores six layers of 6,000 × 2,000 mm sheets—72 square meters of plate surface—inside a ground footprint of approximately 14 square meters. Multiply by the number of racks in an aisle layout and the density advantage compounds. Aisle width stays tight at 3.5 to 4 meters because the removable arms allow pick-up without rotating the load; the forklift simply drives straight in, lifts, and reverses out along the same path.

Herochu ships each rack as a bolt-together kit with numbered steel components, torque-spec hardware, and a one-page assembly diagram. Two workers with an overhead hoist can stand a unit in under four hours. The company’s customization workflow covers tier count, arm reach, color matching to facility branding, and optional end-of-arm laser sensors for automated inventory tracking integration. Lead time runs 25 to 35 working days from approved drawing, with containerized sea freight or consolidated LCL options.

For shops handling mixed-material inventory—carbon steel, stainless, aluminum, copper—the rack’s modular arm design allows designated lanes per material type. One aisle holds six HC-F3015-63 units stacked with stainless sheets at three tons per tier; the next aisle runs lighter gauge aluminum on the same frame geometry. Forklift operators learn one motion pattern and repeat it safely regardless of the material under the forks.