Posted by Stephanie on December 21, 2021
In every warehouse, pallet racking can be a deadly danger if proper safety measures are not taken to ensure your racking is installed correctly, up to seismic zone codes, and protected from potential damage. If you don’t take these proper measures, racks can get damaged by forklifts and could weaken over time due to multiple or repeated dents in the racking uprights. This opens up the potential for a rack to collapse as a result of constant damages occurring. As many people in the industry know, once one rack collapses, the others can go down like dominoes. This can be a very costly and in some cases deadly incident, and measures should be taken to avoid collapsing pallet racks at all costs.
Protect Your Uprights!
Working in a warehouse with forklifts comes with many different risks for your employees and your stored materials. A simple investment into pallet rack column guards (also known as post protectors) can prevent accidents from happening in your storage facility, ensuring the safety of the employees and materials in your warehouse.
What Pallet Rack Guards Do
Pallet rack guards are an accessory for your uprights that we highly encourage you to invest in for your warehouse. Column guards are installed along with your pallet racks, bolted to each upright. Some optional styles are bolted to the floor in front of/around the upright as well. They have painted safety colors (i.e. safety orange, safety yellow, etc.) to increase visibility and help avoid collision. These guards resist forklift impacts and ultimately protect your uprights from becoming impaired or weakened. You don’t have to worry about uprights being bent or dented by equipment, as column guards are sturdy and can withstand strong impacts. Ultimately this accessory is designed to provide optimal safety for your employees and materials stored on your pallet racking system.
Pallet Rack Safety Tips:
- Know seismic zones for your warehouse location
- Replace damaged racks immediately
- Don’t overload your racks to exceed capacity
- Place load square with the racking-don’t let materials hang off the edge
- Use pallet rack safety netting
- Keep your warehouse organized and well-lit
Are they worth it?
You likely invested a lot of money into your pallet racking system—increase its lifetime and make this investment more worthwhile by protecting your system. Investing a small amount now in protective accessories for your uprights could end up saving you thousands of dollars worth of potential incident damage in the long run. Additionally, ensuring employee safety should be a priority in your facility. Taking preventative measures is definitely worth the smaller investment now, than a potentially larger cost to repair incident damages later.
Upright guards come in a variety of styles and sizes. If you’re not sure which style of upright protection would be best for you, call us today to speak with an expert on protecting your pallet racking system.
Questions? Call 800-404-RACK (7225) or contact us below.
