When designing Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems, engineers often focus on batteries, power distribution, and monitoring software. Yet, the UPS battery racks that house these critical systems play an equally vital role in ensuring long-term reliability and performance.
A poorly designed rack can lead to misaligned trays, restricted airflow that shortens battery life, costly service delays, and significant compliance risks. Across multiple deployments, these inefficiencies compound into higher total costs and greater operational risk.
As a roll forming partner with over 120 years of manufacturing experience, we know the right rack design does more than just hold batteries; it actively supports performance, serviceability, and regulatory compliance.
By engineering racks with precision from the start, components arrive at your site installation-ready and easier to certify. In this guide, we'll compare steel and aluminum, explore the advantages of roll forming, and show you how to specify a rack that delivers strength, safety, and long-term value.
UPS racks directly affect how batteries perform and how technicians interact with equipment. The wrong material or manufacturing process introduces recurring problems that reduce reliability and drive costs higher:
These failures don’t just affect one site — they replicate across every rack and location, compounding costs and risks. Roll forming solves these issues by embedding precision hole placement, airflow features, and compliance-ready details into each part during manufacturing. The result: racks that arrive ready to use out of the box, minimizing field labor and reducing rework.
UPS racks demand long, feature-dense components that other fabrication methods struggle to produce efficiently and cost-effectively.
Roll forming is engineered to overcome these challenges, making it the ideal process for manufacturing UPS battery racks.
Long components like rails and uprights are produced with exceptional straightness and uniformity, avoiding the tolerance stack-up common in other methods.
Features like perforations for airflow, mounting slots, structural hems, and integrated tabs are created in a single, continuous pass, dramatically reducing the need for secondary operations.
The process works equally well with High-Strength, Low-Alloy (HSLA) steel and various aluminum alloys, enabling strategic, hybrid rack designs.
Find out more about how we integrate processes like sheet metal punching into our roll forming lines.
The choice of material for your rack components shouldn't be a simple either/or decision. The most effective and cost-efficient rack designs leverage the unique strengths of both steel and aluminum in a hybrid build.
For uprights, support rails, braces, and base channels, steel provides superior stiffness, vibration damping, and impact resistance needed to support heavy battery loads.
Lightweight aluminum is perfect for battery trays, covers, and cable management ducts, which improve handling, speed up installation, and naturally resist corrosion.
By combining steel uprights with aluminum trays, you get a rack that is both durable and ergonomic—a true "best of both worlds" solution.
|
Factor |
Steel (Carbon/HSLA) |
Aluminum |
|
Strength |
Superior, supports >2,000 lbs |
Requires thicker sections |
|
Weight |
Heavier |
65% lighter than steel |
|
Corrosion Resistance |
Needs coatings or stainless options |
Naturally corrosion-resistant |
|
Fire Safety |
Non-combustible, NFPA 855 compliant |
Less fire-resistant |
|
Cost |
Lower material cost per pound |
Higher material cost |
|
Installation |
Harder to handle manually |
Easier handling, faster installs |
By mapping materials to their best applications, roll forming experts ensure that strength, serviceability, and cost efficiency are achieved together. The result is racks that are both durable and adaptable to evolving data center or industrial requirements.
UPS and data center rack infrastructure often require complex geometries that integrate multiple functions into fewer parts. Roll forming enables these advanced designs while reducing SKUs and simplifying installation alongside:
Structural profiles: Reinforced U-shaped rails resist deformation. Integrated frame elements with grooves and flanges strengthen cabinets. Seismic reinforcement profiles made from HSLA steel handle vibration-heavy environments.
Secondary services such as inline embossing, hemming, and integrated identification markers further increase functionality while reducing assembly time.
Locking requirements early prevents redesigns and delays. Typical roll forming capabilities include material thicknesses of 0.012”-- 0.200”, widths of 0.5”–20”, and lengths up to 40 feet.
Key parameters to define with your roll-form partner include:
Early collaboration with a roll forming partner ensures these specs are production-ready and cost-effective.
Pilot testing removes guesswork by proving manufacturability and performance under real-world conditions. Effective validation includes:
Roll forming specialists with in-house prototyping, pilot capabilities, and data collection tools often assist during these runs, providing measurable results. This allows specifiers to present clear evidence to stakeholders, strengthening the business case for rollout.
Regulatory compliance isn't an afterthought — it must be designed into the rack from the very beginning. Key standards from organizations like the NFPA dictate material and geometry requirements for safety. Roll forming directly supports compliance by enabling you to integrate critical safety features:
Utilize non-combustible steel and design gasket-ready flanges for fire containment, a key aspect of meeting standards like NFPA 855.
Integrate tabs and create consistent fastener paths to ensure reliable grounding throughout the structure.
Incorporate hemmed and radiused edges at all service points to protect technicians and prevent cable sheathing from being damaged during installation.
By adopting a clear material strategy and specifying precision roll-formed components, organizations can ensure their UPS racks deliver the uncompromising strength, intrinsic safety, and long-term reliability that critical power systems demand.
Q1. Are aluminum UPS racks NFPA 855 compliant?
Not for primary structural components in most energy storage systems. 44NFPA 855 emphasizes fire-resistant construction, making non-combustible steel the required material for the main frame, especially in systems using lithium-ion batteries.
Q2. Can you combine steel and aluminum components in the same UPS rack?
Absolutely. Hybrid designs are common and highly effective. However, it's crucial to manage the risk of galvanic corrosion by using appropriate coatings, isolators, or fastener materials when joining the two dissimilar metals.
Q3. What is the maximum load for a roll-formed steel UPS rack?
Racks made from roll-formed HSLA steel can be engineered to support loads exceeding 2,000 lbs. per frame, making them ideal for large-scale VRLA and other heavy battery installations.
UPS battery racks are far more than simple support structures; they are engineered components that directly impact system reliability, serviceability, compliance, and lifecycle cost. By leveraging the precision and efficiency of roll forming, you can design and deploy a superior system.
Remember these key takeaways:
Take the next step in optimizing your critical power infrastructure. With a clear material strategy and precision roll-formed components, your UPS racks will deliver the strength, safety, and long-term reliability that critical power systems demand. Download our comprehensive materials guide for side-by-side comparisons, cost analysis, and real-world application examples.