Long stock is the most awkward thing in most workshops. Bar, tube, angle and channel arrive in lengths nothing else in the building is shaped to hold, and the default — a pile in the corner — costs time on every job, because getting to the profile you want means moving the four you do not. A bar storage rack fixes that by giving each profile its own tier or column, so any length can be drawn out without disturbing the rest.
Three formats are stocked here, and they solve three different versions of the problem.
Fixed tier racks — rated per arm
The GPC Heavy Duty Bar Storage Racks are double-sided with 250 mm between arms and a load capacity of 500 kg per arm, available as GSR11 (5 tier) or GSR12 (6 tier). Units can be drilled to fix to the floor for stability, and the manufacturer's instruction is to load heavy materials at the base — not a suggestion, but the thing that keeps the centre of gravity where the design assumes it is.
Note the rating carefully: 500 kg is per arm. Multiplying it by the number of arms does not give you a unit capacity, and the total a frame will carry is a different figure from the one an arm will carry. Our load ratings guide explains why the two are not interchangeable.
Mobile bar racks — take the stock to the saw
The Heavy Duty Mobile Bar Storage Rack carries 3 tiers with 330 mm between arms on 4 × 200 mm heavy duty swivel castors, 2 braked, with an overall size of 1600 × 1100 × 1560 mm and a folded height of 630 mm. It comes as GSR51 (2 posts) or GSR52 (3 posts).
The folded height is the reason to consider it. A rack that drops to 630 mm can be wheeled out of the way, stored under a bench line or moved between a stock area and a cutting station instead of being walked back and forth with an armful of bar. Where cutting happens away from where stock is kept, this is usually the format that saves the most walking.
Bar CUBI-Rack — rated per column, sorted by profile
The Heavy Duty Bar CUBI-Rack is a pigeon-hole arrangement for flat and round bar, hollow section, angle and channel steel, with a heavy duty capacity of 3000 kg per column. Columns are fully welded, with the braces and spacing angles bolted together, it is easy to assemble, and units can be fixed to the floor for stability. Configurations run from BRP21Z (2 columns) and BRP22Z (3 columns) through BRP03Z to BRP07Z at 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 columns.
Column count is a sorting decision, not a capacity decision. Count the profiles and sizes you want kept genuinely separate and buy that many columns — a rack with too few columns quietly turns back into a pile.
A forklift is needed to unload
All three families ship as heavy welded steel, and a fork lift will be needed to unload these units. Confirm you have one available on the delivery day, along with clear access to the final position, before the vehicle is booked. It is the most common avoidable delay on this product group.
Bar rack or cantilever racking?
Bar racks handle workshop-length stock in workshop quantities. Once the stock is longer, heavier, or held in enough volume that it needs to be reached with a truck rather than by hand, the right answer is cantilever racking — arms on uprights, sized per arm and per column, with the aisle designed around the handling equipment. Our cantilever racking buying guide covers that decision, and long load storage shows the wider range. For sheet rather than bar, see vertical sheet racks.
All units manufactured by GPC Industries Ltd in the UK. Send us the profiles, the longest length and the floor space, and we will specify around them.
