FEM 10.2.19 · STANDARDS LIBRARY

FEM 10.2.19 — The Design Code Written Specifically for Shuttle Racking

By Dan Sun, Marketing Director · Technically reviewed by Yongfeng Jiao, Structural Engineer · JISE Intelligent Storage

Why shuttle racking needed its own code

A shuttle car is a machine that lives inside the rack. It accelerates, brakes and carries pallets along lane rails thousands of times per day, imposing dynamic loads, repeated stress cycles and alignment demands that static racking design never anticipated. FEM 10.2.19 provides the dedicated design methodology for racking serving shuttle and aisle-carrier systems, used in conjunction with EN 15512.

The code covers what generic racking standards do not: lane-rail design and continuity, deformation limits under moving loads, fatigue verification based on the number of load cycles, recommended lane clearances, and system tolerances for shuttle operation — in four-way systems and radio shuttle racking lanes alike.

The interface problem — and why buyers should care

FEM 10.2.19 explicitly defines the data that must flow between the shuttle supplier and the rack supplier: rail profiles, tolerances, load cycles, clearances. A shuttle system where rack and robot were designed in isolation is a system that faults at full speed — usually after commissioning, when fixing it is most expensive.

This is why JISE engineers four-way shuttle racking structures from the shuttle supplier's interface drawings, and why our delivered shuttle projects — up to a 32 m high-bay system in Thailand — are calculated under FEM 10.2.19 with project-specific documentation.

Questions to ask any shuttle racking supplier

Ask three questions: Which design code governs the structure? (The answer should name FEM 10.2.19 or an equivalent project-specific methodology.) What lane-rail tolerances do you guarantee, and how are they verified on site? And: who owns the rack–shuttle interface — is there documented data exchange with your shuttle supplier?

A supplier who cannot answer all three is selling you steel and hoping the robots forgive it.

Frequently asked questions

What does FEM 10.2.19 cover that FEM 10.2.02 does not?

FEM 10.2.19 is written specifically for racking served by shuttles and other moving equipment: rail geometry and straightness, fatigue under repeated moving loads, and the deformation limits that keep shuttle cars running at rated speed — load cases that static racking codes never address.

Does FEM 10.2.19 replace FEM 10.2.02?

No — it supplements it. A shuttle system is designed to 10.2.02 for the static structure and to 10.2.19 for everything the moving equipment imposes on rails, lanes and interfaces. Serious shuttle racking suppliers design to both.

What should a buyer ask a shuttle racking supplier?

Ask which code the lane rails are designed and verified to, what rail straightness tolerance is guaranteed after installation, and how rack–shuttle interface data is exchanged with your shuttle supplier before manufacture begins.