Two questions this month, the first looks at the practicalities of repainting racking and Our second asks about restrictions that may be imposed when raising racking to a new height.
Corporate colour scheme for racking
Q. I am installing pre-used pallet racking and would like guidance/advice on the legal situation regarding repainting of the uprights and beams.
The racking has been inspected, passed and is being installed by approved installer.
We would like to paint the racking in our corporate colours but are receiving conflicting information.
A. First of all we will assume have paid for the racking so it is your property and quite frankly you can paint it whatever colour you like.
There are however a couple of points that you might like to bear in mind.
Manufacturers tend to paint their beams bright red, orange or yellow in order to make them stand out against the background and make life easier and safer for fork lift truck drivers who are trying to get accurate placements of pallets on the beams in sometimes not very good lighting conditions.
Should you for instance paint your beams in a colour that blends into the background and then subsequently have an accident which was identified as down to poor placement of a pallet someone might ask the question as to why such re-painting took place. There are of course other colours that are ‘high visibility’ other than the conventional red, orange and yellow however you would need to consider the background and the lighting in the particular situation.
There is a tendency in the second hand racking market to re-paint racking components that are starting to show the effects of a long and eventful life in order to enhance their value. If racking is in its original colours then wear and rust staining on the seams of beams might perhaps indicate that racking has been stored out of doors and might indicate some serious rusting was going on internally on some of the closed box sections which cannot be examined. Repainting might be done to camouflage these effects and therefore the value of repainted racking to the discerning buyer in the market might be less then racking in its original colours which is a little counter intuitive. In this regard it is no different to buying a second hand car where pristine paintwork often indicates a recent repair.
Height restriction for racking?
Q. We have been advised to contact you by a government Health & Safety advisor.
We are interested to know what the height restrictions are (if any) with regards to storage racking. Our current racking height is 5M but we would like to increase this in the near future to 8M at a proposed new site.
Could you advise me on any implications that this may have along with any H&S issues that will need to be considered.
A. In short, there is no restriction on the height of racking that you can use and heights of 8 metres are considered perfectly normal these days. In fact automated warehouses with racking up to 35 metres are not that unusual. However plainly there are many issues and risks that need to be considered at these sorts of heights that will not be present at lower levels.
It is unlikely that your existing racking which has presumably been designed for 5m height can economically be modified for 8m so we are assuming you will equip your new site with new racking which is designed for the increased loads which will be placed upon it. It is also likely that your aisle equipment will need replacement and it is assumed that you will liaise with both your rack supplier and the aisle equipment supplier to confirm operating aisle widths necessary for safe operation in your new situation.
Your staff may need familiarisation training for operating at the new height and indeed it might be possible to obtain various driver aids to help with positioning. For instance auto height selection is only one of the features offered on some trucks which can make the drivers’ job rather easier.
We would suggest that in making a change like this it is reasonable to predict that initially there may be an increased level of rack damage due to unfamiliarity with the new situation. This will improve as time progresses and skills improve – however initially it would be a sensible precaution to increase the frequency of rack inspections to ensure that damage is repaired quickly and dangerous situations are not allowed to remain longer than necessary. If you are currently carrying out a weekly supervisor’s check and a yearly formal rack inspection it might be a good idea to increase this to two supervisor’s checks per week and a 6 monthly formal inspection until it can be seen that damage levels are back to normal.
We hope that this is helpful and if there is anything further that we can help you with please do not hesitate to contact us.
SEMA Technical Enquiries: We hope you find the above articles, and those in previous editions, interesting. If you have a query send it to us by fax or email and we will do our best to have it answered by one of our technical experts.
SEMA Rack Safety Awareness and Inspection Courses: SEMA runs a one-day safety course on Rack Safety Awareness and Inspection. These courses are aimed at end users, giving an in-depth look at the need for inspections, how to conduct an assessment and what actions to take when this is completed.
SEMA Approved Rack Inspectors Qualification: This qualification is aimed at professionals who conduct rack surveys as an integral and significant part of their duties. It involves delegates in undertaking an in-depth SEMA Course, together with an examination and practical assessment.
SEMA Publications: SEMA has 26 publications in stock – Codes of Practice, ‘Guides’ and European documents – all of which are available from our Offices.
SEMA USERS Club: SEMA runs a USERS Club designed to be of benefit to purchasers and users of storage equipment. Members receive newsletters, access to specialised events and discounted rates on publications and codes of practice.
For more info, www.sema.org.uk
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