Rack structural support

Rack-mountable equipment is mounted simply by bolting its front panel to the rack, or with a square-holed rack by clipping or some other variation on the theme. Having all the structural support at one edge of the equipment is a weakness of this system, and so heavier equipment is designed to use a second pair of mounting strips located at the back of the equipment. Various spacings between the front and back strips are used; 31.5 inches (800 mm) is typical, and equipment is often designed to handle a range of rack depths. Depth of 39.4 inches (1,000 mm) is getting increasingly common, more depth allows for more space for routing cables at the back.

The strength required of the mounting strips means they are invariably not merely flat strips but actually a wider folded strip arranged around the corner of the rack. The strips are usually made of steel of around 2 mm thickness (the official standard recommends a minimum of 1.9 mm), or of slightly thicker aluminum