Pallet Rack Dimensions and Sizes: Frames, Beams, Pallets and Clearances

The Short Answer

Standard pallet rack dimensions in North America are a 42 in deep frame under a 48 × 40 in pallet, with 96 in beams for two pallets per level and frames from 8 to 20 ft tall. In Europe the equivalent is an 1100 mm frame under a 1200 × 800 mm Euro pallet and a 2700 mm beam for three, with about 75 mm between loads.

We build RackCity AI, a layout tool that draws racking to these dimensions. Every figure below links to its manufacturer or standard. This is a reference for laying out and quoting, not engineering.

Upright Frame Depths and Heights

A frame's depth is measured across the rack, front post to back post, and it is chosen from the pallet. Lyon's pallet rack sell sheet is a typical North American stock list: frames 36, 42 and 48 in deep, each 96, 120, 144, 192 or 240 in tall, with beams adjustable on 2 in vertical centers. It calls the 42 in frame the most popular, because the most common pallet is 48 in deep and rests on both beams without decking.

Height has a limit set by depth. The Rack Manufacturers Institute measures a single row's height-to-depth ratio from the floor to the top of the top beam, over the frame depth outside to outside. Up to 6 to 1, normal anchoring is usually adequate; past 6 to 1 the anchors and base plates should be designed to resist overturning; past 8 to 1 it recommends overhead ties. For a 42 in frame, 6 to 1 is a top beam at 21 ft; for an 1100 mm frame, 6.6 m. The FAQ writes these limits for single rows of rack.

Beam Lengths and Profiles

Beams come in lengths that fit a whole number of pallets plus the gaps, one pair per level. Three US manufacturers publish these ranges:

Steel King's beam chart also says how many pallets each length is meant for: one on 48 to 78 in beams, two on 84 to 126 in, three on 132 to 174 in and four on 180 to 192 in. A taller face carries more at a given length, and takes more height from every level. Interlake Mecalux rates its beams at the lesser of bending strength and a deflection of the span divided by 180.

Step beams. The usual roll-formed teardrop beam has a ledge along its top inside edge. UNARCO calls the 1-5/8 in step the industry standard, sized for standard wire decking or lumber, on a beam 2-3/4 in deep overall with a 1 in ledge. Lyon's beams have the same integrated 1-5/8 in step and are completely enclosed, a closed box section with the step formed into it.

Structural beams. Hot-rolled C-channel beams are the bolted alternative. Interlake Mecalux describes them as measured by weight rather than gauge and adjustable on 2 in centers.

Standard Pallet Sizes

The rack is sized around the pallet:

The six rows are the ISO 6780 sizes as GS1's pallet code list labels them, with the regions it gives; ISO's own pages could not be read for this guide. Imperial figures for the metric pallets are converted. Two practical notes. The 1200 × 1000 mm pallet has about the same footprint as a GMA pallet. And a Euro pallet is normally racked with its 800 mm face to the aisle: SEMA points out that with the 1200 mm face out, no bottom board spans the beams.

How the Pallet Sets the Frame and the Beam

Frame depth. A pallet should overhang the front and back beams by the same amount, so it sits on both. In North America that is about 3 in a side: Interlake Mecalux puts a 48 in deep GMA pallet on a 42 in frame. SEMA, the UK's Storage Equipment Manufacturers' Association, recommends 50 mm of overhang front and back, which puts a 1000 mm deep pallet on a 900 mm frame, and in another answer it names an 1100 mm frame for a pallet supported in its 1200 mm direction.

Beam length. Add the pallet widths and the gaps. Interlake Mecalux's pallet rack selection guide (a PDF hosted by a distributor) allows 3 to 6 in between loads and pairs beams with pallets like this:

The metric module works the same way with SEMA's 75 mm gaps. Two 1200 mm pallets need 2625 mm (2400 mm of pallet and three gaps), and three 800 mm Euro pallets need exactly 2700 mm, which also takes two 1200 mm pallets with a little room for overhang. Mecalux's standard Euro-pallet beams are 1825, 2700 and 3600 mm, which work out to two, three and four Euro pallets on the same gaps; for GMA pallets it lists 2225 and 3300 mm.

Level pitch. The vertical spacing from one beam to the next is the load height, the clearance above it and the beam face. Interlake Mecalux's guide sizes an upright as the load height plus 4 to 6 in of vertical loading clearance plus the beam height, times the number of levels.

Clearances: Between Loads, Above Loads and in the Flue

Height raises the numbers. SEMA's columns give 75 mm beside and above each load, rising to 100 mm beside it at 9 m, or above a 6 m beam when the driver works from the floor without automatic height selection or a mast camera, and to 100 mm then 125 mm above it at 6 m and 9 m. A man-up truck or one with a camera on the mast keeps 75 mm throughout.

Flue spaces. Flues are clear vertical gaps from floor to ceiling, which Steel King says speed fire detection and suppression. It defines transverse flues as the spaces between pallets, and between pallets and uprights, facing the aisle, and the longitudinal flue as the space between back-to-back rows, where 6 in between loads is the most common requirement. The NFPA sets the minimums, and the local code may differ. Lyon's row spacer is 8 in. In Europe, SEMA recommends 200 mm between back-to-back frames, which leaves 100 mm between pallets after 50 mm of overhang each.

The European standards. EN 15620:2021 "specifies tolerances, deformations and clearances" for pallet racking, with sections on clearances in a bay and in the depth. SEMA's columns predate that edition, so check a project against the standard. EN 15635 covers application and maintenance; Mecalux cites it for annual rack inspection.

How RackCity AI Uses These Dimensions

In RackCity AI, frame depth, beam length, levels, upright height and pallet height are set per zone, and every count and drawing follows them. A 42 in frame is drawn and counted as 42 in. Design in feet and inches or metres and millimetres, with US or Euro pallet sizes, and change a bay that differs with Bay Controls, which override its beam count or pallet height for a column, a low door or a different pallet at one end of a row.

The elevation drawing shows them: one per rack type, with the upright punching, beam levels and endplates, pallet loads and height dimensions, plus the frame's side view. It is free to start; the Layout PDF that carries the elevations is a paid-plan export.

RackCity AI does no structural calculation: no beam or frame capacity, no deflection or overturning check, and nothing it exports is stamped. Capacities come from the manufacturer's charts, the design from a qualified engineer.

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