Our first query for this month asks about Storage Racking Regulations. Then we take a look at Guidance on Inspections.
Storage Racking Regulations
Q. If I am placing pallets which are 800mm wide and 1200mm deep on racking that is 1100mm deep. Should I have an overhang of 50mm of the pallet at the front and the back or can I have an overhang of 100mm at the front or back of the beams? If I have racking that is erected back to back do I need to allow a space between the ends of the pallets or can they butt up to each other?
A. Unless intended for a specific purpose racking is designed for uniformly distributed loads. This means that pallets need to be located equally on front and back beams and as you state in this particular case this means you need 50 mm overhang on both front and back beams which should ensure that pallet corner blocks are well supported on those beams.
Operator care will be needed to ensure that this is the case as there is a tendency for operators to try to create a little more working space in the aisle by sitting the pallets further back into the rack which can then impact with the pallet in the back to back aisle.
SEMA recommendations are that there should be 200mm between the frame uprights in such a back to back situation. This will allow 50mm overhang on each pallet and with ideal positioning will still give 100mm clearance between the two back to back pallets. In practice this allows both pallets to be misplaced accidentally such that they can be level with the front beam and just touch each other in the back to back flue. This is not recommended, however it usually prevents accidental lifting of the tail end of the pallet in one aisle by someone removing a pallet in the adjacent aisle. This caused a fatality some years ago due to goods slipping off an inclined pallet onto an order picker who was totally oblivious of a truck operation going on in the adjacent aisle.
Guidance on inspections
Q. I’m completing weekly inspections and have been looking for notes on how to classify damage to front of beams? (What are the measurements for dents to deem it amber or red). Also is one bolt in base plates acceptable, the racking can hold up to 3 tonne?
A. There are no specific limits for a dent to the front face of the beam. However, the following may be of assistance.
If there is a buckle in the beam or the bottom or top corners of the beam are damaged it is usually amber or red risk. The limit for unloaded lateral deflection of a beam is span/500. Therefore, the limit for a beam length of 2700mm is 5.4mm. As an estimate of the damage level to the front face of a beam if there is no damage to the corners, you could check if any part of the damage is greater than this limit from the straight undamaged beam position. If no part of the damaged front face of the beam is greater than span/500 from the straight undamaged beam location then it is likely to be green level damage. If the damaged front face of the beam is greater than span/500 from the straight undamaged beam location then it may be amber or red level damage.
Your annual rack inspector should be able to provide more specific information on inspection of the actual damage. As far as the number of floor fixings for an individual rack this is a matter for the rack designer. There is something of a trade-off between the number of fixings used and the amount of steel provided in the racking so I am afraid you will need to check with the supplier if in doubt. If most of the footplates in your warehouse have two fixings in each it is a fair bet that this is what the designer specified. You can of course place two fixings in a footplate which only requires a single one, however it is not acceptable to use a single where two are required.
SEMA
Comments are closed.