Is Your Production Floor Cluttered with Empty Racks?

The “Parking Lot” Problem in Glass Factories

Walk through any high-volume glass factory, and you will see the same problem: “The Parking Lot.” This is the area where empty racks pile up after the glass has been unloaded onto the tempering line or dispatched. In traditional setups using welded shop carts, these empty units create a maze that forklifts must navigate, slowing down material flow and increasing the risk of accidents.

The Agrack eliminates this congestion. Once a rack is unloaded, an operator can fold it in under 60 seconds. A forklift can then remove a stack of 10 empty racks at once, rather than making 10 separate trips. This clears your production zones immediately, allowing your team to focus on processing glass, not managing traffic.

Create vertical WIP buffers between production stations to save floor space.

Creating Vertical WIP Buffers

Production speeds rarely match perfectly. Your cutting line might run faster than your IGU assembly line, creating a backlog of glass that needs to sit somewhere. Placing these sheets on static racks spread across the floor is inefficient.

With the Agrack’s 3-Tier Stacking Capability, you can build “Vertical Buffers.” Instead of taking up 300 square feet of floor space for WIP storage, you use only 100 square feet by stacking the racks. This organization protects the glass from accidental breakage (common when floor space is tight) and keeps batches together for organized tracking.

Protecting Glass During Internal Transport

Most glass breakage happens during handling—moving from the cutting table to the furnace, or from the furnace to the dispatch bay. Standard shop carts often have worn-out rubber or makeshift padding.

Our racks use 10mm thick rubber profiles with an internal steel core. This profile is bolted to the base and uprights, ensuring it never peels off. Whether you are moving annealed float glass or sensitive Low-E coated sheets, the contact surface remains soft yet rigid, preventing edge chips and coating scratches during internal transport.

Comparison: Static Shop Carts vs. Agrack System

Why modernizing your internal logistics gear pays off in efficiency.

Steel-core rubber padding ensures durability for daily factory handling.

Seamless Transition from Factory to Truck

The biggest efficiency killer is “double handling”—loading glass onto a shop cart, moving it to the loading dock, and then manually transferring it to a delivery A-frame. This takes time and risks injury.

The Agrack is a hybrid solution. It works as a shop cart during production and a certified shipping rack for delivery. You can load the glass once at the end of the line, store it in the rack, and then load that same rack directly onto the delivery truck. Load once, ship once.

Frequently Asked Questions