Is our pallet racking fit for purpose? A reasonable question to ask by any end “user” of storage equipment, considering how this piece of work equipment forms the backbone to any warehouse operation and has the potential to present an organisation with some high risk hazards and expensive financial implications if incorrectly specified, misused, neglected or abused.
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Many users of pallet racking may be surprised to learn that much of the equipment they have purchased and use on a daily basis, may in fact not be fit for purpose. Especially if the equipment is serviced by means of a fork lift truck or other mechanical handling equipment as a part of day to day operations. Just because the pallet racking can carry the loads specified does not make it fit for purpose when the slightest impact renders it incapable of supporting that load!
Recently published codes of practice for pallet racking protection devices state that within an aisle the protection device should be designed with an energy absorption of 200Nm and on the end frames 400Nm, both of which are deemed to represent low speed impacts.
Industry guidelines also state that where an upright has been subjected to impact damage producing an overall bend in the member of 3mm (front face) and 5mm (side face) over a length of one metre, then the structural integrity of the equipment has been compromised sufficiently to warrant the equipment to be isolated until repairs can be carried out.
At this juncture a “user” of pallet racking would be well within their rights to ask the question, if the structural integrity of my pallet racking system is dependent on it remaining within these small margins, surely the equipment should be designed in a way which makes the most vulnerable areas prone to fork lift truck impact damage durable enough to withstand these impact forces? Especially as it is “reasonably foreseeable” to assume that fork lift truck and mechanical handling equipment impact damage will occur during normal use?
The Rack Group
tel: 01226 784 488
email: info@therackgroup.com
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