Lean Pipe Products & Systems

How the product range fits together

There are two ways to buy modular factory furniture, and only one of them works. The first is to pick items from a catalogue picture by picture. The second is to start from the structure and let the structure dictate the parts. Everything on this page is organised the second way, because a lean pipe system is not a list of products — it is one frame with parts chosen around it.

The frame comes first

Almost every system we supply starts with 28 mm coated steel tube and a set of joints. That combination is chosen far more often than any other for a simple reason: it can be rebuilt by one person with a hex key. If your line layout changes twice a year — and most assembly lines do — a bolted frame costs nothing to change, while a welded one costs a fabrication job.

Where the frame will not move for years, or where a fixture must hold position to a tight tolerance, aluminium profile is the better frame. It is stiffer, it holds dimensions, and it accepts standard T-slot accessories. What it does not do is reshape cheaply. That trade-off, flexibility against rigidity, is the first decision in every project.

Three families, three jobs

Workstations and benches sit where people work. The design question is ergonomic before it is structural: surface height, reach envelope, lighting, and where the parts arrive. A bench that is structurally perfect and ergonomically wrong is a bench people work around rather than at.

Flow racks and roller track sit where material moves. The design question is slope and containment — how steep, how wide, and what stops a carton from arriving too fast or turning sideways in the lane. Gravity is free and reliable, but only if the lane is built for the boxes that will actually run in it.

Carts, trolleys and casters sit between the two, and they are where most hidden capacity is lost. A four-wheel trolley on a real factory floor has three points of contact, not four, and any stated caster capacity needs derating accordingly.

Accessories decide whether it holds together

Joints, brackets, end stoppers and guide rails are the cheapest items on any order and the ones most often under-ordered. They also carry the load path. A frame is only as rigid as its least-tightened joint, which is why we publish the specified bolt torque rather than leaving it to feel.

If you are sizing a shelf or a frame and want the numbers rather than a rule of thumb, our 28 mm lean pipe load rating tables give allowable load by wall thickness and span, computed with a stated deflection limit and safety factor so you can check the arithmetic yourself.

What we need from you to quote accurately

Send the application, the load and how it is applied, the space available, and any ESD or cleanroom requirement. A photograph of the current station is worth more than a paragraph of description. From that we will propose a frame and a parts list, and tell you where the design is being pushed close to its limit — which is the part of the conversation worth having before you order rather than after.