What Is a Stillage? Types, Uses and How to Specify One

If you work in manufacturing, logistics or warehousing you'll hear "stillage" used for anything from a mesh cage to a steel frame on legs. Here's what a stillage actually is, the common types, and what to decide before you order them, standard or bespoke.

What is a stillage?

A stillage is a steel frame or container used to store and move goods, designed to be lifted by a forklift or pallet truck. Think of it as a heavy-duty, reusable pallet with sides, legs or posts. Most are stackable, so the same unit does three jobs: holding parts at the line, storing them in the warehouse, and carrying them on a lorry.

Stillages are made from steel because they have to survive years of forklift handling, stacking and loading. A good stillage outlives dozens of timber pallets and keeps the load contained in a way a pallet can't.

Stillage vs pallet vs cage

	Pallet	Stillage	Cage / roll cage
Material	Usually timber or plastic	Steel	Steel mesh
Sides	None	Optional: mesh, sheet or posts	Mesh on all sides
Stackable	With care	Yes, designed for it	Usually not
Handled by	Forklift / pallet truck	Forklift / pallet truck	Pushed by hand on castors
Lifespan	Short	Many years	Many years

Common types of stillage

• Mesh (box) stillages. A steel frame with welded mesh sides, often with a drop-down front gate or half-drop flap so parts can be picked without unstacking. The most common type in factories and warehouses.
• Solid or sheet steel stillages. Plate or sheet sides and base for small parts, swarf, or anything that would fall through mesh.
• Post stillages. A base with corner posts, sometimes removable, for long, awkward or bulky items that don't need full sides.
• Collapsible stillages. Sides that fold flat so empty units take up less space on the return journey.
• Product-specific stillages. Frames built around one product, with supports, cradles or dividers so each part sits in a fixed position and can't rub against the next. Common in automotive and component supply.

What to decide before you order

Whether you buy standard or bespoke, these are the questions that define a stillage:

1. Safe working load. How much each unit has to carry, with a margin. This drives the steel sections, the base and the welding.
2. Stacking. How many high, full and empty. The bottom stillage carries everything above it, so stacking height matters as much as the load inside.
3. Footprint. Sized to your products, your racking and your vehicles. Matching a standard pallet footprint makes them easier to store and transport.
4. Forklift entry. Two-way or four-way entry, and the clearance under the base for your forks or pallet trucks.
5. Access. A full-height gate, half-drop front or open side, depending on how parts are loaded and picked.
6. Finish. Painted or powder-coated for indoor use, hot-dip galvanised for outdoor storage or damp conditions.
7. Identification. Load plates showing the safe working load and stacking limit, plus numbering or colour coding if you track them.

Standard or bespoke stillages?

Standard stillages suit general storage where the load and footprint are typical. Bespoke stillages make sense when:

• the product is an awkward shape, fragile, or needs to be held in a fixed position
• the stillage has to fit a particular line, rack, vehicle or container
• you need a specific load rating or stacking height
• you're ordering in batches and want every unit identical, so they stack and nest consistently

Because a bespoke stillage is designed around your product, it usually protects it better and wastes less space.

Safety and inspection

A stillage is work equipment, so it needs to be suitable for the job and kept in good condition. In practice that means:

• Marking. The safe working load and stacking limit should be clearly shown on each unit.
• Regular checks. Look for bent legs, cracked welds, damaged mesh and distorted stacking cups. A damaged stillage can make a whole stack unstable.
• Taking damaged units out of use. Repair or replace them rather than stacking them.
• Lifting by crane. If a stillage has lifting points and is lifted by crane rather than forklift, it may be treated as lifting equipment, with thorough examination requirements. Get advice if that applies to you.

What we make

We design and fabricate standard and bespoke stillages and handling equipment in our Peterlee workshop, built to your load, size and stacking requirements and produced in batches to schedule. For the rest of an industrial site we also make mezzanine floors, steel walkways and platforms and machine guarding.

Frequently asked questions

What is a stillage used for? Storing and moving goods by forklift or pallet truck, usually stacked, in factories, warehouses and distribution.

What's the difference between a stillage and a pallet? A stillage is steel, usually has sides, legs or posts, and is designed to be stacked when loaded. A pallet is a flat base, normally timber or plastic.

Can stillages be stacked? Most can, up to the stacking limit marked on them. The limit depends on the load inside and the design of the legs and stacking cups.

Can you make stillages to our drawings or samples? Yes. We work to your dimensions, load and stacking requirements, so a drawing or your product details are the starting point.

Do you make stillages in batches? Yes. Batch quantities are made to the same specification so every unit stacks and handles the same way. Tell us what you need for a quote.