How to Identify Your Pallet Rack Style: A Guide for Atlanta Warehouse Managers

Most warehouse managers only discover they do not know their rack style after ordering beams that will not fit. The pallet arrives, the connectors do not seat, and the expansion stalls for two weeks.

Rack style is determined by how the beam connects to the upright, and most styles do not interchange. Getting it right before you order saves money, and getting it wrong creates a genuine safety problem. Here is how to identify what you already have.

Why Rack Style Matters More Than Most Managers Think

Three reasons, in order of cost.

Compatibility. Beams designed for one connector type will not seat correctly in another. Forcing them creates a connection that carries load through a fraction of its intended contact area.

Safety and compliance. ANSI MH16.1, the standard OSHA references when citing storage rack hazards, assumes components are used as engineered. Mixed-style bays are one of the most common findings in a pallet racking inspection, and they usually mean unloading the bay until it is corrected.

Resale value. Teardrop systems hold the strongest resale value because the buyer market is largest. Proprietary and obsolete styles sell for meaningfully less, which matters when you are removing or liquidating racking.

Start With the Upright, Not the Beam

The upright column tells you the style. Look at the punched holes on the face of the column where the beam connects. Shape first, spacing second.

Take a clear photo straight on, close enough to see three or four holes, with something for scale beside it. That single photo is usually enough for identification.

The Seven Styles You Will See in Atlanta Warehouses

Teardrop (Interlake Old Style)
The most common system in the United States. Holes are shaped like an inverted teardrop, a circle with a narrowing slot below it. Beams use pin or hook connectors that drop into the wide part and lock into the narrow part. Widely produced by multiple manufacturers, which makes it the easiest style to expand and the best to own.

Keystone (Republic)
Trapezoidal holes centered on the column face, spaced 3 inches vertically center to center. Hook and slot beam connection, secured with J-hooks or a removable steel clip. Common in older Southeast warehouses.

Structural
Hot rolled steel rather than roll-formed. Beams bolt directly into the upright instead of hooking or pinning. Heaviest capacity and the most impact resistant option, which is why it shows up in cold storage and high-traffic forklift zones. Available in single column or closed post configurations.

T-Bolt
Rectangular slots on both the column and the beam end, joined with large bolts that must be properly torqued. Frequently blue uprights with yellow beams. Extended connection clips of 6 to 12 inches are used in higher seismic design areas.

Speedrack
Round holes roughly half an inch across, spaced 4 inches center to center, positioned on both edges of the column face. Beams have no pins or hooks. Instead, U-shaped brackets pass through the holes and are secured with a J-hook. Distinctive and easy to confirm once you know to look for the bracket.

Ridg-U-Rak
Rectangular slots at 4 inch vertical centers, with a characteristic outward bend on each interior side of the column. Beams have hooked flanges that rest against that ridge, plus a spring lock with two pins mounted inside the column.

Penco
Paired slanted slots sitting side by side on the upright face. Beams have matching slanted hooks and a tapered cross section, with a sliding lock built into the beam.

If your holes look like teardrops but the vertical spacing measures 4 inches rather than 2, you may be looking at a Sammons system, which uses mushroom-shaped connecting pins and is not interchangeable with standard teardrop despite the visual similarity. This is the single most common misidentification, and it is worth measuring rather than assuming.

How to Measure Hole Spacing Correctly

Measure center to center between the same point on two adjacent holes, not edge to edge. Do it across three or four holes and divide, since a single measurement compounds any error.

Standard teardrop runs 2 inch centers. Keystone runs 3 inch. Speedrack and Ridg-U-Rak run 4 inch. That measurement alone eliminates most of the field.

Also check the base of the upright for a manufacturer stamp or label. Many systems carry one, and it settles the question immediately.

What Happens When You Mix Styles

The failure is rarely dramatic and rarely immediate. A beam seated in the wrong connector carries load, sits level, and looks fine. What has actually happened is that the engineered contact area has been reduced, sometimes by more than half, and the safety clip that prevents accidental dislodgement no longer seats properly.

The bay holds until a forklift makes contact with it. Then it does not.

This is why every reputable supplier confirms style before selling components, and why used pallet racking should always be matched to your existing system rather than bought on price alone.

Still Not Sure

Send us a photo. We identify rack styles from photographs across the Atlanta metro every week, confirm compatibility before anything ships, and tell you plainly when your existing system cannot be expanded and needs replacement instead.

Based in Atlanta, we supply, install, inspect, and remove racking of every style. Call (404) 793-8487 or request a quote.