Cantilevered construction has been used by builders and architects for millennia in construction projects.

It was used by the ancient Greeks, the Romans and the Egyptians.

The principle of a cantilever is also a favourite in the storage industry because of its robustness, its inherent strength and its simplicity and practicality. A cantilevered support is strong and can bear considerable weight without the need for lintels or spars. The weight load carried on the horizontal support is transferred to the vertical support contact point where it is then distributed and resisted by a combination of momentum and shear stress forces.

A cantilevered racking system is a storage system which employs a cantilever support arrangement for its individual racks or shelves. A cantilevered racking system is one where a load bearing beam is supported at one end only with no other external braces. Cantilever rack systems rely on individual rack supports: these are attached at one end to upright members by means of slot-and-tag or bolt-on fixtures. There are no other oblique or vertical supports involved which means that the racks can easily accommodate materials that are longer than the rack span. Cantilever racks may be constructed as single or double-sided units and can be easily combined to form modular assemblies.

A cantilevered racking system can be installed as either a free-standing structure or bolted to a suitable wall.

In free-standing applications, the racks can be used in a single or double-sided configuration with back-to-back shelves. Cantilevered racking systems allow users to maximise available floor space and are available in many different sizes and load capacities to suit a wide variety of storage needs. Because of the simplicity of their construction, they are also among the most cost-effective of all rack types.

The cantilevered racking system offers several distinct advantages over other rack and shelf storage solutions. Because it does not rely on vertical or oblique braces, a cantilever racking system can be used to store loads far wider than its own span. Loading and unloading can also be achieved from the front of the rack using equipment such as pallet jacks and fork lifts. This makes the cantilever rack arrangement an obvious choice for facilities that store timber, pipes, tubes and steel.

Another major benefit of cantilevered racking as a storage solution is the ease and speed at which they can be assembled.

The majority of smaller cantilever rack systems utilise a slot-and- tag assembly method, which consists of a tag on the horizontal support which locks into a corresponding slot on the vertical member. This simplicity translates into a quick and easy installation and makes the storage of the racks themselves simple when they are no longer needed. Larger systems typically use more complex bolt-on horizontal beams but are still simple and quick to construct. Cantilever units are also often modular by design allowing for several units to be bolted together to extend an existing system.