As part of SEMA’s Three Steps to Safety campaign, the association’s Vice President Chris O’Connor explains how safe storage design makes commercial and practical common sense.
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SEMA’s job is to provide accurate, generic guidance on how to get the best out of your assets in three ways; by maximising your building’s space to profitable advantage; through the design and installation of storage systems that are fit for purpose while preventing damage to items stored; and with the utmost respect for the health and safety of personnel.
As lead body for the storage industry, SEMA has recently published two landmark codes of practice. This technical guidance falls into the domain of the storage designer and/or structural engineer and the end user is more than safe to leave best practice at the design stage to the experts!
Changes to Rack Design
The 40 year old SEMA Design Code for Adjustable Pallet Racking has recently had a major upgrade. A number of refinements were made including the test method for establishing floor connection moments. The revised finalised code was published in 2014 so now, racking designers and manufacturers can test and analyse their product to a modern code without anticipating any further changes to the mathematics or in testing protocols.
SEMA’s quality system is being independently assessed by the University of Salford which means that manufacturers must commit to the independent assessment of their products.
So what changes will the user notice? All base plates are to be bolted to the floor. Run spacers are permitted up to 3.6m spacing but within 225mm of bracing positions. While the new code is not retrospective, safe working loads will be slightly different but there is no requirement to change existing racks to meet new standard.
Protecting Your Racking
In parallel, SEMA’s Code of Practice for the Design and Use of Rack Protection is believed to be a world first. The new rack protection proposals cover the first part of a three-phase programme covering Adjustable Pallet Racking; Drive-in Racking Components and thirdly, the Protection of Personnel. Our WLN front cover feature in June will look at rack protection in greater detail but here are the basics.
HSE Warehousing and Storage, HSG76 says: “Where racking is likely to be struck by lift trucks and other vehicles it should be protected”.
Minimising damage to pallet racking is one of the important challenges. Physical rack protection should be considered as the last line of defence if all other measures fail. Corner uprights in a run of racking are especially at risk and should be suitable provided with a protective device in a conspicuous colour.
The first form of protection is for the racking to be specified, designed and installed with adequate clearances, for use by trained operators and with an effective inspection and maintenance procedure in place.
SEMA’s original Users’ Code recommended that End Frame Protectors be installed for all end frames between the gangway and aisle and to all end frames between a bridge bay and an aisle. Other means of protection was to be identified by the risk assessment. SEMA’s new 2014 Code on the Design and Use of Rack Protection in Phase One has made further specific recommendations on corner upright protection, internal upright protection and frame protection.
The overall ‘take-away’ for the end user is that SEMA member companies commit to implementing all SEMA’s codes of practice which automatically deliver on the three levels above, i.e. financial ROI, effective storage and safety.
There is no need for end users to get bogged down in technical design matters, as they can leave compliance to SEMA’s expert members. SEMA manufacturers and distributors have in-house design teams of qualified storage designers and structural engineers to ensure that space design is optimised, load calculations and clearances are correct and that HSE requirements have been fully met.
The SEMA Design Code for Static Pallet Racking costs £149 and the Code of Practice for the Design and Use of Rack Protection £58.
SEMA
SEMA’s WLN series will cover Step 2 – Safe Installation in the issue of 1st May and Step 3 – Safe Repair & Maintenance on 15th June.
Tel: 0121 601 6359
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