Louvre Panels, Rails and Bin Stands in India: how bins actually get mounted, and how to choose between wall, stand and trolley
Louvre panels, rails and bin stands in India are the half of a bin project that rarely appears on the enquiry, and the half that decides whether the bins are still in the right place a year later. A bin is a moulded box; what turns it into a pick face is the steel behind it. This page sets out how ALKON bins actually get mounted, using the catalogue's own figures: the four louvre panel sizes LP 1, LP 2, LP 3 and LP 6 with their lip counts and load charts, the universal rail AUR-1 with its published bins-per-rail numbers, the free standing louvre stands FSS/C and FSS/LP 6, the SFT shop floor trolley, the Alkon Tuff stands and trolley, and the crash cart rails. It also covers the decision nobody writes down: when to hang bins on a wall, when to stand them on a free standing louvre stand, and when they need to be on a bin trolley that follows the work.
Why the carrier, not the bin, decides whether the installation survives
Almost every bin enquiry that reaches our counter in Vashi arrives as a list of bin codes and quantities. The bins are the visible half of the job and the easier half to decide. The half that decides whether the installation still works a year later is the carrier: the louvre panel, the rail, the stand or the trolley that holds those bins at a particular height, in a particular aisle, within a particular reach. Louvre panels, rails and bin stands in India are ordered as separate line items from the bins themselves, and that separation is where a great many part-shipped orders and disappointing installations begin.
The ALKON catalogue we stock keeps these items deliberately apart. Panels, channels, stands and trolleys each carry their own art number, and the listings say so in plain words. The shop floor trolley SFT is supplied without louvre panels and bins, with a note to order two LP 2 panels for single sided use and four LP 2 panels for double sided use separately. The Alkon Tuff Trolley ATTB carries the same instruction against its ATSLP panels. If a purchase order lists bins and a trolley art number only, what arrives is a bare frame and a carton of bins with nothing to hang them on.
There is also a hard physical gate that catches buyers working from bin size alone. Supra bins carry a strong rear lip for use with louvre panels or rails, but the catalogue excludes SB 7, SB 7X and SB 8 from that feature. The three largest Supra codes are shelf and floor bins, not hangable ones, which is precisely why the published bins-per-panel table for Supra stops at SB 6. Discovering that after the panels are on the wall means you have bought a mounting system for bins that cannot mount on it, and the fix is either a shelf or a different bin code.
Louvre panels LP 1, LP 2, LP 3 and LP 6: sizes, lips and the load chart
The louvre panel is the backbone of the whole system, and it is worth reading its specification closely before anything else is decided. The catalogue describes it as 1.5 mm thick CRCA steel, powder coated in Light Grey RAL 7035, available in four sizes, all of them 457 mm wide. LP 1 is 457 mm wide by 457 mm high with 72 lips. LP 2 is 457 by 610 with 96 lips. LP 3 is 457 by 914 with 144 lips. LP 6 is 457 by 1829 with 288 lips. The same four panels are listed as fitting on walls, on the FSS/C and FSS/LP 6 stands, and on the SFT trolley, and it is that interchangeability which makes the panel the common currency of the whole range.
The load chart carries two numbers that people routinely confuse, and confusing them is how panels get quietly overloaded. Each panel has a load bearing capacity for the panel as a whole: 180 kg for LP 1, 240 kg for LP 2, 360 kg for LP 3 and 780 kg for LP 6. Separately, the maximum load per lip is given as 12 kg on all four sizes. These are not the same kind of limit and they cannot be multiplied together to produce a bigger allowance. LP 1 has 72 lips, but 72 multiplied by 12 kg comes to 864 kg, which is nearly five times the 180 kg the panel is actually rated to carry in total.
Read correctly, the two figures describe a local limit and a global one. The 12 kg per lip is the most any single lip is rated to take, which governs one heavy bin in one position. The panel figure governs everything hung on it added together. Divide the panel capacity by its lip count and you get the average allowance across a fully populated panel: about 2.5 kg per lip on LP 1, LP 2 and LP 3, and about 2.7 kg on LP 6. In other words you may load a few positions heavily, but you cannot load every position heavily.
The shared 457 mm width is the other design fact worth planning around. Panels gang side by side in 457 mm increments, so a wall run is always a multiple of 457 mm plus whatever gap your fixing arrangement needs. That makes the sizing arithmetic clean but it also means you cannot fine-tune a run to the millimetre. Vertically the four sizes give you very different jobs: LP 1 is a patch above a bench, LP 2 the standard trolley and stand panel, LP 3 a shoulder-height column, and LP 6 at 1829 mm high a full working wall in one piece.
- LP 1: 457 mm wide by 457 mm high, 72 lips, 180 kg panel capacity, 12 kg maximum per lip.
- LP 2: 457 mm wide by 610 mm high, 96 lips, 240 kg panel capacity, 12 kg maximum per lip.
- LP 3: 457 mm wide by 914 mm high, 144 lips, 360 kg panel capacity, 12 kg maximum per lip.
- LP 6: 457 mm wide by 1829 mm high, 288 lips, 780 kg panel capacity, 12 kg maximum per lip.
- All four are 1.5 mm CRCA steel, powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035; the panel listing covers walls, FSS/C and FSS/LP 6 stands and the SFT trolley, but FSS/C is listed for LP 1, LP 2 or LP 3, FSS/LP 6 for LP 6 and the SFT for LP 2.
How many bins each panel takes, range by range
For Supra bins the published maximum bins per louvre panel run as follows, quoted in the order LP 1, LP 2, LP 3, LP 6. SB 1 takes 24, 32, 48 and 96. SB 2 takes 16, 20, 32 and 64. SB 3 takes 9, 12, 18 and 36. SB 4 takes 6, 8, 12 and 24. SB 5 takes 3, 4, 6 and 12. SB 6 takes 6, 8, 12 and 24. Those six codes are the whole hangable Supra set, and the ladder from 96 positions down to 12 on one and the same LP 6 panel is the clearest illustration available of what a step up in bin size costs you in pick face, and why the bin decision and the panel decision have to be made together rather than one after the other.
The other ranges have their own tables and they are not interchangeable with the Supra figures. Hippo bins on louvre panels are published as 612/T at 24, 32, 48 and 96; 612/S and 612/S2 both at 16, 20, 32 and 64; 612/M at 6, 8, 12 and 24; 612/DW at 3, 4, 6 and 12; and 612/B at 4, 6, 10 and 20. Bull bins run Bull Bin 5 at 24, 32, 48 and 96; Bull Bin 15 at 12, 15, 24 and 48; Bull Bin 25 at 9, 12, 18 and 36; Bull Bin 35 at 4, 6, 10 and 20; and Bull Bin 45 at 4, 6, 8 and 16. Note that Bull Bin 15 breaks the arithmetic pattern of its neighbours at 15 per LP 2, so it is a figure to quote rather than to guess.
Koala pick bins are published as AKP-01 at 24, 32, 48 and 96; AKP-11 at 16, 20, 32 and 64; AKP-22 and AKP-32 both at 9, 12, 18 and 36; AKP-33 at 6, 8, 12 and 24; and AKP-35 at 3, 4, 6 and 12. Roo tilt bins are given as grids rather than plain totals, so RTB 1 is six across by four down on LP 1 for 24 bins, and six by sixteen on LP 6 for 96, which tells you the row pitch as well as the capacity. Component organisers are coarser still, at one ACO unit per LP 1, two per LP 3 and four per LP 6, and they need the ACO CP clip to mount on a louvre panel at all.
- On a single LP 6 panel: 96 Supra SB 1, or 36 SB 3, or 12 SB 5, or 4 component organisers.
- Hippo 612/T, Bull Bin 5, Koala AKP-01 and Supra SB 1 all share the same per-panel counts of 24, 32, 48 and 96.
- Bull Bin 15 is published at 15 per LP 2, which breaks the pattern of the other codes, so quote the figure rather than assuming it.
- Rhino Tuff bins are published against rails, stands and trolleys rather than in a per-panel table, so ask before you size a Rhino wall from a panel figure.
- Roo tilt bin figures are published as horizontal by vertical grids, which tells you the row pitch as well as the total.
The universal rail AUR-1: the lightest way to hang bins
The universal rail is the alternative to a panel when you already own the surface. Art no AUR-1 is 915 mm long and 60 mm high, made from 1.5 mm CRCA steel and powder coated in the same Light Grey RAL 7035. The catalogue is explicit that it can be mounted on any surface such as walls, benches, slotted angle systems, stands and trolleys. That is the whole point of the word universal: one rail profile serves several bin families, so a single bench back can carry a row of Supra bins for fasteners and a row of Hippo or Koala bins for larger items without two different mounting systems fighting for the same frame.
The rail has one feature that is easy to miss and genuinely saves money. When rails are fitted one below another, from the second rail downwards the top part of the rail can act as a support to the lower part of the bin hung on the rail above, while the bottom part of the same rail mounts the next bin. The catalogue notes that this means fewer rails are needed where bins taller than 130 mm are used. So the rail pitch is not simply bin height plus a gap; it is set by where the bin bottom wants to land on the rail below, and a trial row is worth doing before you drill twenty fixings.
Rails suit retrofit work in a way panels do not. Adding a metre of rail to an existing bench back or a machine guard frame can be done between shifts, whereas building a panel wall is a project. Rails also let capacity grow one 915 mm module at a time, in step with what a line actually needs, instead of committing to a full wall and finding two rows never get used. The trade-off is structural honesty: a rail carries its load in a line, and whatever it is fixed to has to take that line load, which rules out thin sheet bench backs and lightly built partitions unless they are reinforced.
Bins per rail: the published figures for each range
The bins-per-rail numbers matter more than they look, because they follow the bin width rather than the bin size you have in mind, and a code one step wider costs you positions along the run. For Supra bins on AUR-1 the published maximums are 9 for SB 1, 9 for SB 2, 7 for SB 3, 5 for SB 4, 2 for SB 5 and 5 for SB 6. Note that SB 1 and SB 2 both give 9 even though SB 2 is the taller and longer bin, because on a rail it is the bin width at the lip and not the height that sets how many will sit along the run. That is the opposite of the logic that governs a panel, where height decides how many rows you get.
Hippo bins on the same rail are published as 8 for 612/T, 8 for 612/S, 8 for 612/S2, 5 for 612/M, 2 for 612/DW and 4 for 612/B. Bull bins give 9 for Bull Bin 5, 7 for Bull Bin 15, 6 for Bull Bin 25, 4 for Bull Bin 35 and 4 for Bull Bin 45. Rhino Tuff bins give 8 each for ARTB-05, ARTB-10 and ARTB-20, 6 each for ARTB-25 and ARTB-30, 4 each for ARTB-35 and ARTB-40, and 2 for ARTB-60. Koala pick bins give 8 for AKP-01 and AKP-11, 6 for AKP-22 and AKP-32, 4 for AKP-33 and 2 for AKP-35. Those are the only rail figures published, so do not interpolate a number for a code that is not listed.
Use these as your planning unit when the carrier is a rail, and use the per-panel figures when the carrier is a panel, because the two sets do not convert into each other. A practical example: a 915 mm rail takes 9 Supra SB 1, while an LP 2 panel 457 mm wide takes 32 of the same bin across a 610 mm height. Per metre of wall width the panel is denser because it stacks rows; per metre of bench edge the rail is cheaper because there is no panel to buy. The two are answers to different questions, not competing answers to the same one.
- One AUR-1 rail is 915 mm long and 60 mm high in 1.5 mm CRCA steel, Light Grey RAL 7035.
- Supra per rail: SB 1 nine, SB 2 nine, SB 3 seven, SB 4 five, SB 5 two, SB 6 five.
- Rhino Tuff per rail: ARTB-05, ARTB-10 and ARTB-20 eight each, ARTB-25 and ARTB-30 six, ARTB-35 and ARTB-40 four, ARTB-60 two.
- Koala per rail: AKP-01 and AKP-11 eight, AKP-22 and AKP-32 six, AKP-33 four, AKP-35 two.
- Where bins are taller than 130 mm, the rail-on-rail support feature reduces how many rails a given height needs, so trial one column first.
Free standing louvre stands: FSS/C and FSS/LP 6
The free standing louvre stand exists because most Indian shop floors have no good wall where the work happens. FSS/C is made from mild steel square pipes of 25 mm by 25 mm by 1.2 mm, powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035, and fitted with ergonomic plastic shoes for stability. Its published size is 457 mm wide by 630 mm deep by 1560 mm high. It is listed as taking louvre panels LP 1, LP 2 or LP 3, mounted on a single side or on both sides for dual use, which is the decision that doubles both its capacity and the access space it needs.
The panels per stand are published plainly. Single sided, FSS/C takes two LP 1, or two LP 2, or one LP 3. Double sided it takes four LP 1, or four LP 2, or two LP 3. Work that through and a double sided FSS/C carrying four LP 2 panels presents four times 32, or 128, Supra SB 1 positions in a footprint of 457 mm by 630 mm. One important caution: the stand's own load rating is not published alongside the panel ratings, so do not assume a stand carrying four LP 2 panels is rated for four times 240 kg. Ask before you plan a heavy installation on one.
FSS/LP 6 is the taller sibling, built from the same 25 by 25 by 1.2 mm square pipe and published at 457 mm wide by 905 mm deep by 2160 mm high. It is specifically for the LP 6 panel, again single or double sided. Its listing notes a levelling base of six numbers for stability rather than plastic shoes, which makes sense given the height and the 275 mm of extra depth over FSS/C: a 1829 mm panel of loaded bins wants a wider base and a way to sit level on a floor that is not. That extra depth is also the figure to check against your gangway before you order.
Channels on an FSS/C stand: the other way to build a bin face
Louvre lips are not the only mounting profile in the catalogue. For Hippo bins there is a channel system, where horizontal channels span an FSS/C stand and the bins sit into them. Three channel sizes are listed to suit three Hippo bins. Small channel 612 SC is made from 1 mm CRCA steel and measures 665 mm wide by 79 mm high by 18 mm deep. Medium channel 612 MC and big channel 612 BC are both 1.5 mm CRCA, at 665 by 130 by 22 and 665 by 159 by 22 respectively. The 665 mm module is the giveaway that this is a different family from the 457 mm louvre panel.
The capacities are published per channel and per stand. An FSS stand takes 12 of the 612 SC channels, each holding 6 bins of size 612/S, which multiplies out to 72 bins. It takes 8 of the 612 MC channels at 4 bins of 612/M each, or 32 bins. It takes 7 of the 612 BC channels at 3 bins of 612/B each, or 21 bins. The listing is explicit that bins, channels and stands must be ordered separately, which is the same warning that applies across the whole mounting range and is worth reading twice before a purchase order goes out.
One discrepancy is worth flagging because it has caused confusion. The FSS/C art number appears against both configurations, but with different published dimensions: 457 mm wide by 630 mm deep by 1560 mm high in the louvre panel listings, and 665 mm wide by 1553 mm high by 610 mm deep in the stand-for-channels listing. The wider figure matches the 665 mm channel module. If you are ordering an FSS/C, say whether it is for louvre panels or for channels, because the two are not the same frame and a channel bought for a louvre stand will simply not span it.
SFT shop floor trolleys: taking a panel to the job
The shop floor trolley SFT is the mobile version of a louvre stand. It is built from mild steel rectangular pipes of 20 mm by 40 mm by 1.2 mm, powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035, and published at 970 mm wide by 600 mm deep by 1100 mm high. The unit comprises a base frame fitted with an aluminium chequered top plate and four heavy duty castors, plus a top frame on which two LP 2 louvre panels can be fitted on each side. It has handles on both sides and is packed in knock down condition, so it arrives as a kit to be assembled.
The ordering note is unambiguous and it is the one most often missed, so it bears repeating here: art no SFT is the trolley without louvre panels and bins, and you order two LP 2 panels for single side use or four LP 2 panels for double side use separately. One published combination shows what a fully panelled SFT will hold. Fitted with four LP 2 panels it takes 120 Roo tilt bins of size RTB 1, sixty on each side, dropping to 64 bins of RTB 2, 36 of RTB 3 or 16 of RTB 4. For the other ranges there is no published trolley total, so multiply the per-panel figure by the number of panels you intend to fit and treat the result as a planning number.
Two things make the SFT the right answer rather than a stand. The first is the aluminium chequered top plate, which gives a working surface for the sub-assembly or the kit being built while the bins feed it from the panel above. The second is the 1100 mm overall height, which keeps the loaded centre of gravity low enough to push safely over a floor joint or a drain channel. Measure the narrowest door and gangway it must pass before you order: 970 mm wide is not a trolley that goes everywhere.
Alkon Tuff stands and trolleys: ATSLP panels, ATSSS, ATDSS and ATTB
The Alkon Tuff family is the heavier, wider option and it uses a different panel. ATSLP is a louvre panel of 914 mm wide by 610 mm high in 1.5 mm CRCA steel, RAL 7035, designed specifically for the Alkon Tuff single and double sided stands and the Alkon Tuff trolley. Its published load chart gives 192 lips, a load bearing capacity of 420 kg and the same 12 kg maximum per lip. Note the orientation: ATSLP is landscape at 914 wide, where the LP series is portrait at 457 wide, so the two are not substitutes even where the height happens to match.
The frames are built from mild steel rectangular pipes of 25 mm by 50 mm by 1.6 mm, noticeably heavier than the 25 by 25 by 1.2 mm of the FSS stands. The single sided stand ATSSS is 915 mm wide by 550 mm deep by 1925 mm high and takes three ATSLP panels on one side. The double sided stand ATDSS is 915 by 700 by 1925 and takes three panels on each side, six in total. The Alkon Tuff Trolley ATTB is published at 995 mm wide by 700 mm deep by 1430 mm high, that width including the castor wheel extension and the handle.
The published bin counts show what that area buys, and they are the figures to quote on an enquiry. On ATSSS single sided, Supra gives 216 SB 1, 144 SB 2, 72 SB 3, 60 SB 4, 24 SB 5 and 60 SB 6. On ATDSS double sided the Supra figures double to 432, 288, 144, 120, 48 and 120. Rhino Tuff on ATDSS gives 384 for ARTB-05, 256 each for ARTB-10 and ARTB-20, 144 each for ARTB-25 and ARTB-30, 72 each for ARTB-35 and ARTB-40, and 36 for ARTB-60. Hippo on ATDSS gives 384 for 612/T, 224 each for 612/S and 612/S2, 120 for 612/M, 48 for 612/DW and 80 for 612/B. Bull on ATDSS gives 256, 224, 144, 80 and 64 across Bull Bin 5 to Bull Bin 45.
There is a scaling trap here that is worth knowing about. For most Supra codes the stand and trolley figures are proportional to the number of panels, so SB 1 at 216 on a three-panel ATSSS is 72 per panel, matching 144 on a two-panel single sided ATTB. SB 2 does not behave that way: it is published at 144 on ATSSS, which is 48 per panel, but at 90 single sided on ATTB, which is 45 per panel. Take the figure published for the unit you are actually buying rather than multiplying a per-panel number, and the same caution applies across the other ranges.
- ATSLP panel: 914 mm by 610 mm, 192 lips, 420 kg capacity, 12 kg per lip, for tuff stands and the tuff trolley only.
- ATSSS tuff stand: 915 by 550 by 1925 mm, three ATSLP panels on one side.
- ATDSS tuff stand: 915 by 700 by 1925 mm, three ATSLP panels on each side.
- ATTB tuff trolley: 995 by 700 by 1430 mm including castor extension and handle, two ATSLP for single side use or four for double side, ordered separately.
- ATTB comes with ergonomic plastic handles and heavy duty swivel castors, two of them braked so the trolley can be secured when not in use.
Rotary stands, tilt bin trolleys, sliding units and crash cart rails
Beyond panels and rails the catalogue holds several purpose-built carriers, and the rotary stands publish a permissible uniformly distributed load, which is the number to design to. The Roo tilt bin rotary stand RTBRS 425 measures 520 mm wide by 1680 mm high by 470 mm deep without bins and carries a permissible UDL of 100 kg. The larger RTBRS 636 is 730 by 1680 by 680 with a permissible UDL of 150 kg. The component organiser version ACORS 425 is 520 by 1475 by 470 with a permissible UDL of 80 kg. A rotary unit puts four faces within one reach position, which suits a single seated operator handling many small items.
The Roo tilt bin double sided trolleys are height adjustable, which is unusual and useful. One is published at 647 mm wide by 1520 mm high by 610 mm deep with the height adjustable from 1335 mm to 1520 mm; the taller version is 647 by 1920 by 610, adjustable from 1735 mm to 1920 mm. Both are assembled from horizontal arms, vertical frames, a trolley base and a trolley base top in CRCA steel, joined with M6 by 16 bolts, and run on 100 mm polyurethane castors: art no RMC0083 with brake and RMC0084 without, two of each per trolley.
Crash cart rails are the specialist item in this group. The crash cart rail is 665 mm wide by 80 mm high by 12 mm deep, made from 1.5 mm CRCA steel and powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035, and is designed to be mounted on crash carts used in hospitals. Roo tilt bins fix to it with the RTB clips provided with the bins, or can be bolted using suitable M6 bolts and nuts, which the catalogue notes are not provided. The Hippo route to the same job pairs the 612/S bin at 150 by 110 by 75 mm with the 612 SC small channel at 665 by 79 by 18 mm, sharing the 665 mm cart module.
One more carrier deserves a mention where floor space is the binding constraint. The ACO sliding unit ACOSU 950 is published at 950 mm wide by 1550 mm high by 650 mm deep without organisers. It holds four panels: two fixed at the back and two mounted in front of each other in two top sliding channels, so they slide left to right to give access to all four panels within one footprint. The unit is enclosed on three sides with access from the front only, built from CRCA steel and ERW formed pipe in RAL 7035, and guided at the bottom by an L support rail with roller bearings.
Spigots, clips and fixing plates: the small items that complete a run
A louvre panel does not have to carry only bins, and the spigot range is what makes the difference on a maintenance wall. Eight sizes are listed. SP1 is a single prong of 200 mm length on a 6 mm diameter rod and SP2 the double prong version. SP3, SP4 and SP5 are pipe hooks of 150 mm, 250 mm and 300 mm length in 20 by 20 by 1.5 mm or 25 by 25 by 1.5 mm pipe section. SP6 is a steel hook of 200 mm on a 9.5 mm rod, SP7 a Euro hook of 200 mm on a 6 mm rod and SP8 a chrome wire hook of 150 mm on 5 mm. The catalogue points them at fan belts, gaskets, hoses, automotive parts and packaged items.
Spigots occupy louvre lips exactly as bins do, so they draw on the same panel allowance. A wall of hoses and fan belts on 300 mm pipe hooks projects far further into the aisle than any bin, and a long hook loaded near its tip applies a leverage that a short bin lip does not. If you are mixing spigots and bins on one panel, put the spigots at the top or the end of the run where the projection does not block the pick face, and treat the panel capacity as shared between the two rather than as a separate allowance for each.
Two tiny items decide whether an organiser installation works at all, and both are easy to leave off a purchase order. The ACO clip, art no ACO CP, is 35 mm wide by 25 mm high by 13.5 mm deep in polypropylene in Light Black RAL 9005, and the catalogue states it is to be used while mounting component organisers on louvre panels. The fixing plate RTB FP is 40 mm long by 20 mm high in 1.5 mm GI steel, supplied with an M6 by 16 screw and washer, and is used when mounting organisers on a vertical frame for wall mount, stands and trolleys. Leave either off the order and the organisers arrive with nothing to hold them, which turns a one-day installation into a second freight cycle.
Working out the panel run a workstation needs from its part list
The arithmetic is simple once you do it in the right order, and it is the single most useful thing to do before an enquiry. Step one, count the part numbers the station handles. Step two, decide how many bins each part number gets, which for a two-bin replenishment arrangement means doubling. Step three, assign a bin code to each part number from its actual size, not from a description. Step four, convert each group into a fraction of a panel by dividing its bin count by the published bins-per-panel figure. Step five, add the fractions, round up, and add margin for the part numbers the station will gain.
Take a worked example, framed as an example rather than a real installation. A sub-assembly station handles 26 part numbers and wants two bins per number, so 52 bin positions. Eight of those part numbers suit SB 1, giving 16 positions; ten suit SB 2, giving 20; six suit SB 3, giving 12; and two suit SB 4, giving 4. Against LP 3, which takes 48 SB 1, 32 SB 2, 18 SB 3 and 12 SB 4, those groups work out to 0.33, 0.63, 0.67 and 0.33 of a panel. The total is 1.96 panels, so two LP 3 panels fit the requirement exactly and three give room to grow.
Now check the physical fit, because capacity and width are different constraints and only one of them appears in the bin tables. Three LP 3 panels side by side occupy three times 457 mm, or 1371 mm of wall width, standing 914 mm high. If the station has only 1100 mm of clear wall, two panels is your answer and the third set of positions has to go somewhere else, on an AUR-1 rail along the bench edge or on an FSS/C stand at the end of the line. Doing this check before the enquiry avoids the most common wasted delivery in this product group, which is panels that are perfectly correct in capacity and simply too wide for the wall they were bought for.
Then check the load, which almost nobody does. Fifty-two bins averaging, say, 2.5 kg loaded is 130 kg spread across two LP 3 panels, or 65 kg each against a published 360 kg panel capacity, which is comfortable. The per-lip check is the one that matters for the exceptions. If one SB 4 in that run holds 18 kg of steel parts, it exceeds the 12 kg per lip figure unless it is engaging more than one lip, so confirm how many lips the code engages before you plan heavy positions, or move that part number to a channel or a shelf.
- Count part numbers, then multiply by bins per part number to get bin positions.
- Assign each group a bin code from the measured part, then divide by the published bins-per-panel figure.
- Add the fractions across all groups, round up, and add roughly one panel of margin for growth.
- Check the wall width: each LP panel is 457 mm wide, so a run is always a multiple of 457 mm.
- Check the load twice, once against the whole-panel capacity and once against the 12 kg per lip figure for the heaviest single bin.
Mounting heights, reach and Indian site conditions
Panel heights translate directly into reach bands, and the useful habit is to set the bottom edge rather than the top. LP 1 is 457 mm tall, LP 2 610 mm, LP 3 914 mm and LP 6 1829 mm. Fix the bottom of an LP 3 at 900 mm above the floor and its top sits at 1814 mm, which is above comfortable reach for most operators; fix the bottom at 700 mm and the top lands at 1614 mm, which is workable. The stands make the same decision for you: FSS/C tops out at 1560 mm, FSS/LP 6 at 2160 mm, ATSSS and ATDSS at 1925 mm, the ATTB trolley at 1430 mm and the SFT at 1100 mm.
The vertical gap above a bin mouth is the detail that decides whether operators use a wall or lift bins off it. An open-front bin is only pickable if a hand can enter at an angle, so the row pitch has to clear the bin plus a gloved hand plus the part. The Supra listings publish an effective height alongside the outside and inside heights, running from 25 mm on SB 1 to 85 mm on SB 6, and it is worth asking us which of those three figures governs your row pitch for a given code before you fix panel positions, because getting it wrong by 20 mm is enough to make a row unusable.
Site conditions in India decide the wall-versus-stand question more often than ergonomics do. In leased units in Bhiwandi, Taloja, Vatva in Ahmedabad, Peenya in Bengaluru or Ambattur in Chennai, the wall is frequently sheet cladding or a landlord's partition that nobody will let you drill, and the FSS stand or a bin trolley is the only option that does not need approval. In older sheds around Howrah, Rajkot and Coimbatore the floor often slopes to a drain, which is exactly why the levelling base on the FSS/LP 6 listing matters and why a loaded mobile unit needs its brakes used.
Load per lip, overloading, maintenance and keeping the pick face clear
The safety discipline on this range comes down to respecting two numbers separately. The maximum load per lip is 12 kg and it governs one position. The panel capacity of 180, 240, 360 or 780 kg governs the panel as a whole, and 420 kg governs an ATSLP. Because the whole-panel figure works out to roughly 2.5 kg per lip averaged across LP 1 to LP 3 and about 2.2 kg on ATSLP, a fully populated panel of uniformly heavy bins will reach the panel limit long before any single lip approaches 12 kg. Plan heavy positions as exceptions, not as the pattern.
Take a check you can repeat. An LP 3 panel filled with 12 Supra SB 4 bins, whose inside dimensions of 265 by 155 by 130 mm give about 5.3 litres, filled to a realistic eighty per cent and holding small steel parts that settle at roughly four to five kilogrammes per litre as a working assumption, comes to about 19 kg per bin and 231 kg across the panel. That sits inside the 360 kg figure. Swap those for 12 bins of anything denser, or add a row of spigots carrying hoses, and the same panel can be over its limit without a single bin looking overloaded.
The visible warning signs are worth training storekeepers to spot. A hanging lip that has started to splay, bin walls bowing outward, a panel that deflects when a filled bin is pulled from the middle of a row, and fixings that have gone slightly loose about a month after commissioning are all the same message: the load is wrong for the carrier, not the operator is careless. Knock down units such as the SFT need their fasteners checked after the first week of use, and trolley castors and the two braked castors on an ATTB need a look on the same round.
The last point is the cheapest and the most often ignored. A pick face only works if it stays a face. Nothing goes on the floor in front of a panel, nothing is parked against a stand, and the deepest bin on the run sets the gangway clearance for the whole installation, not the average bin. Mark the floor, keep the bottom row high enough that a broom passes under a stand, and audit the face on the same walk that covers the fixings. The habits that hold a bin wall together are the same ones that a 5S routine on the shop floor already puts in place.
- Never multiply lip count by 12 kg to get a panel rating; the whole-panel figure is far lower.
- The average allowance across a full panel is roughly 2.5 kg per lip on LP 1 to LP 3, about 2.7 kg on LP 6 and about 2.2 kg on ATSLP.
- Splayed lips, bowed bin walls or panel deflection mean the wrong carrier or the wrong bin code, not a training failure.
- Re-check knock down trolley fasteners after the first week and the wall or bench fixings about a month after commissioning.
- Set gangway clearance from the deepest bin or longest spigot on the run, and keep the floor in front of the face clear.
Ordering the mounting hardware separately, and supply from Vashi
A complete enquiry for this part of the range carries more lines than buyers expect, because nothing is bundled. List the bin codes and quantities; the panel art numbers and quantities, with LP or ATSLP stated correctly; the stand or trolley art number with single or double sided declared; channels with their sizes if you are using the channel route; clips such as ACO CP and fixing plates such as RTB FP; spigots by SP number; and the fasteners appropriate to your wall, bench or floor. Say which side of a stand is being panelled and the count stops being ambiguous.
Freight is worth a thought because the two halves of the order behave differently. Panels and stand frames are flat and heavy; bins are light and bulky and priced by the space they take. Consolidating a plant's requirement into one despatch keeps the freight bill down, and it also means the carriers and the bins arrive together rather than the bins sitting in a corner for a fortnight waiting for something to hang them on. Where the installation is being phased, take the panels and stands first so the face is ready.
Shreeram Metafusion Engineers Pvt. Ltd. supplies this range as an authorised stockist of ALKON Plastics products, working from Shop-1, Gagangiri Chs, Sector 17, Vashi, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 400703, Monday to Saturday between 10:00 and 19:00. The catalogue on the site runs to 476 products across nine categories. Being in Vashi puts us beside the Navi Mumbai estates at Rabale, Turbhe and Taloja, with the Pune, Nashik and wider Maharashtra belts inland, and regular despatches to Gujarat around Ahmedabad and Rajkot, to Tamil Nadu at Chennai and Coimbatore, to Karnataka at Bengaluru, and to Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi NCR. Call 93266 29967 or 98201 01937, or write to enquiry@shreeram-metafusion.com with a photograph of the wall, bench or trolley you intend to use.
Frequently asked questions
How many bins fit on one louvre panel?
It depends on the panel size and the bin code, and the catalogue publishes the figure for each combination. For Supra bins, LP 1 takes 24 SB 1, LP 2 takes 32, LP 3 takes 48 and LP 6 takes 96. The same four panels take 9, 12, 18 and 36 of the larger SB 3, and only 3, 4, 6 and 12 of SB 5. Hippo 612/T, Bull Bin 5 and Koala AKP-01 share the same 24, 32, 48 and 96 counts as SB 1, while component organisers are much coarser at one per LP 1, two per LP 3 and four per LP 6. Always quote the published figure for your exact bin code rather than scaling from another one.
What does the 12 kg maximum load per lip actually mean?
It is a local limit on a single lip, not a figure you can multiply across the panel. Each louvre panel also has a whole-panel load bearing capacity: 180 kg for LP 1, 240 kg for LP 2, 360 kg for LP 3, 780 kg for LP 6 and 420 kg for the ATSLP tuff stand panel. LP 1 has 72 lips, so multiplying 72 by 12 kg would suggest 864 kg, nearly five times what the panel is rated to carry in total. Divide the panel figure by its lip count and you get the realistic average allowance across a fully loaded panel, which is about 2.5 kg per lip on LP 1 to LP 3. Load a few positions heavily if you must, but not every position.
What is the universal rail AUR-1 and how many bins does one hold?
AUR-1 is a mounting rail 915 mm long and 60 mm high in 1.5 mm CRCA steel, powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035, which the catalogue lists as mountable on any surface including walls, benches, slotted angle systems, stands and trolleys. One rail takes nine Supra SB 1 or SB 2, seven SB 3, five SB 4, two SB 5 and five SB 6. For Hippo it takes eight of 612/T, 612/S and 612/S2, five of 612/M, two of 612/DW and four of 612/B. Bull gives nine, seven, six, four and four for Bull Bin 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45. Rhino Tuff runs from eight for ARTB-05 down to two for ARTB-60, and Koala from eight for AKP-01 down to two for AKP-35.
Should I choose a wall panel, a free standing louvre stand or a bin trolley?
Choose a wall-mounted panel when you own a sound wall in the right place and the layout is settled, because it is the cheapest way to hold a given number of bins and it costs no floor space. Choose a free standing louvre stand such as FSS/C or FSS/LP 6 when the wall is a landlord's partition or sheet cladding, when the layout is likely to change, or when you want a double sided face serving two operators from one footprint. Choose a trolley, either the SFT or the Alkon Tuff ATTB, when the same set of parts has to travel to the work rather than the work coming to the parts, as with line-side replenishment or maintenance rounds.
How many louvre panels does an FSS/C stand take?
Single sided, the FSS/C free standing louvre stand takes two LP 1 panels, or two LP 2 panels, or one LP 3. Double sided it takes four LP 1, or four LP 2, or two LP 3. The stand itself is published at 457 mm wide by 630 mm deep by 1560 mm high, in 25 by 25 by 1.2 mm mild steel square pipe with ergonomic plastic shoes. One caution: the stand's own load rating is not published beside the panel ratings, so do not assume a double sided stand carrying four LP 2 panels is good for four times the 240 kg panel figure. Tell us the loaded weight you expect and we will check it before you order.
Do stands and trolleys come with louvre panels and bins?
No, and this is the most common cause of an incomplete first delivery. The listings state it plainly. Art no SFT is the shop floor trolley without louvre panels and bins, and you order two LP 2 panels for single side use or four LP 2 panels for double side use separately. Art no ATTB is the Alkon Tuff Trolley without panels and bins, with two ATSLP panels of 914 by 610 mm for single side use or four for double side use ordered separately. The same applies to the FSS stands and to the channel system, where bins, channels and stands are all separate items. Build the bill of materials line by line.
Can the largest Supra bins be hung on a louvre panel or a rail?
No. Supra bins carry a strong rear lip for use with louvre panels or rails, but the catalogue excludes SB 7, SB 7X and SB 8 from that feature, which is why the published bins-per-panel table for Supra stops at SB 6. Those three larger codes are intended for shelves and floor positions rather than a hanging face. SB 4, SB 5 and SB 6 do hang, and they additionally incorporate a safety stop feature at the back for use on shelves. If your part needs an SB 7 or SB 8 sized container, plan a shelf level or a base unit for it rather than trying to find a panel arrangement that will take it.
What is a crash cart rail and how do the bins fix to it?
The crash cart rail is 665 mm wide by 80 mm high by 12 mm deep, made from 1.5 mm CRCA steel and powder coated Light Grey RAL 7035, and it is designed to be mounted on crash carts used in hospitals. Roo tilt bins mount on it using the RTB clips provided with the bins, or can be bolted to it with suitable M6 bolts and nuts, which the catalogue notes are not provided, so add them to your own order. An alternative route uses Hippo 612/S bins at 150 by 110 by 75 mm with the 612 SC small channel at 665 by 79 by 18 mm, which shares the same 665 mm module as the rail and so fits the same cart widths.
How do I work out how much louvre panel a workstation needs?
Count the part numbers the station handles, multiply by the number of bins each one gets, assign a bin code to each from the measured part, then divide each group's bin count by the published bins-per-panel figure for the panel you intend to use. Add the fractions and round up. As an example, 26 part numbers on two bins each is 52 positions; split across SB 1, SB 2, SB 3 and SB 4 against LP 3 they come to about 1.96 panels, so two LP 3 panels fit and three allow for growth. Then check the wall width, since each LP panel is 457 mm wide, and check the load against both the panel capacity and the per-lip figure.
Can louvre panels hold anything other than bins?
Yes. The spigot range mounts on the same louvre lips and is listed in eight sizes for hanging items that will not sit in a bin: SP1 and SP2 are single and double prongs of 200 mm on a 6 mm rod, SP3, SP4 and SP5 are pipe hooks of 150, 250 and 300 mm, SP6 is a 200 mm steel hook on a 9.5 mm rod, SP7 a 200 mm Euro hook and SP8 a 150 mm chrome wire hook. The catalogue points them at fan belts, gaskets, hoses, automotive parts and packaged items. Remember that spigots draw on the same panel load allowance as bins, and a long hook projects much further into the aisle.
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