One aspect of Healthy and Safety compliance with no room for ambiguity or corner-cutting is shielding staff and visitors from site traffic and machinery. We drill down on the best impact protection options, and traffic management and pedestrian protection products.

Traffic and safety control on commercial premises comes down to one central theme. You must think ahead and try to predict what sort of problems humans and machinery can throw up! Which is no easy matter.

Risk assessments must take account of human nature, and the possibilities of inadvertent slip-ups, as well as deliberate recklessness. Then, you need to find the best impact protection options to keep people, machines and structures well out of each other’s way!

Fortunately, safety product manufacturers have covered all the same considerations, designing and engineering a diverse range of items to slot into place to meet your H&S obligations brilliantly.

This includes both permanent and semi-permanent fixtures and low-cost products that serve vital traffic and safety management purposes. Such as the following site ‘must-haves’.

Combination of flexible and heavy-duty bollards

Both fixed and relocatable bollards and delineators come in many shapes and forms these days, include bollard covers to boost the effectiveness of existing structures.

The goal is always to choose a high-vis product that alerts drivers of off-road and visiting vehicles to areas of risk.

Then, the best bollards are made from good quality impact-absorbing materials, springing back to shape from lighter blows or grazes.

Such versatile products as ImpactSAFE Protection Posts are also a wise investment. They zone off and shield internal fixtures and expensive equipment, from forklift trucks, pallet jacks and other moving machinery.

Parking and loading bay guards and guides

Bollards and other traffic safety measures are particularly crucial in commercial car parks, for fleet management or around busy loading bays.

There are plenty of choices for HGV landing plates and wheel guides, but also products that mark out parking spaces and keep pedestrians and cars apart. Commercial speed bumps are also cost-effective and quick to install in workplace environments.

Flexible delineator posts and chains can be moved into place to manage parking in a versatile way too.

More systems to separate pedestrians and moving machinery

There are other ways to keep staff and visitors safe from impact too.

Including highly affordable and easy to install pedestrian safety barriers and sprung return gates. These high-vis polymer segregation systems enable you to clearly identify pedestrian walkways on your premises.

Demountable shoe plate options make this product category another ‘lean’ choice, as the barriers can be relocated and reused at will.

Or, opt for heavy-duty guardrail systems from Brandsafe, to keep moving machinery carefully segregated.

Impact Protection from protruding structures and roof beams

Another example of the best impact protection products is Brandsafe EdgeWRAP. It’s a light-duty foam to cheaply and swiftly slot on to edges and corners, including any low laying structures and exposed metal. This greatly reduces the chances of staff or visitors sustaining an injury to their head, limbs or clothing!

CornerWRAP is a similarly low cost, high-quality safety solution sold by Brandsafe. It’s a Medium Duty foam, with the added benefit of chevron reflective strips for improved night visibility.

When it’s slotted on to steel, brick, or concrete walls and posts, it reduces the potential for human injury but also protects your building from damage.

Column protectors

PolyWRAP column protectors are another multi-faceted impact management product. With their clamshell design and easy fasten straps, you can install and stack column protectors both indoors and externally.

They absorb impact brilliantly, to keep your structure sound, but also to minimise impact injuries for your workforce.

You could also highlight and guard internal structures using SoftWRAP i-Beam, which you Velcro on to columns for rapid protection.

Modern materials and design for impact protection options

The invention of polyurethane revolutionised the safety product industry. It led to the invention of resilient products with incredible tensile strength, that could absorb impact and then return to their shape instantly. It also led to a new breed of durable workplace protection products with a low unit cost.

In the hands of designers and manufacturers who understand modern safety and traffic management priorities, you can now find a product for every situation and location!

To find your way through the various product ranges and plan the best impact protection options for your workplace, please feel free to get in touch.

If you’re not already among the many commercial sites using Armco barriers, this guide will demonstrate why this brand leads the sector. It will also answer questions about where you can buy accessories for warehouse Armco barriers.

Car parks, loading bays and a diverse range of other warehouse areas need traffic guides and guards to meet safety compliance, and for highly practical reasons too.

Replacing a section of safety barrier is a lot less disastrous than dealing with an injured worker or visitor, paying H&S non-compliance penalties or rebuilding a damaged structure.

However, simply erecting cheap barriers or walls is not sufficient. This can lead to two extremes. A barrier that folds or shatters on impact, or a solid surface that seriously damages the vehicle and puts the driver at risk.

For many companies, the best solution is to install Armco Crash Barriers. This leading brand offers a cost-effective and reliable off-road barrier system, that deflects and absorbs low-speed, low-impact kinetic force from vehicles.

Why Armco?

This steel barrier company has earned its reputation by supplying structures used on UK motorways, roadsides and even race circuits. Its production systems meet BS 4872 industry standards.

The company also manufacturers protective barriers commonly installed in busy warehouse operations, as well as being a brand respected enough to specify for many public thoroughfares, including pedestrian shopping areas and local authority car parks.

A review of Armco Barriers for warehouses shows that the sections are made from highly durable and strong corrugated steel. They are referred to as untensioned corrugated beams, meaning they are manufactured in an iconic W shape. This helps absorb impact, and they can potentially even hold their shape from a lighter blow from many off-road commercial vehicles.

Clearly, Armco Barriers for warehouses can deflect a lot of the force from forklift trucks and cars, but may also protect your staff and structures from HGVs travelling at slower speeds on your premise.

When galvanised and finished off correctly – including properly fitted Armco pedestrian safety ends and post caps – these barrier systems are also moisture resistant and long-lasting. Making them a sound investment, and ideal for external traffic management.

The range is also highly versatile, with various heights and shapes to create different protective abilities according to the layout of your warehouse. Including offering enough scope to engineer internal guards in warehouses too.

Tips to avoid mistakes in specifying warehouse Armco barriers

It’s important to buy direct, or from suppliers with reliable insights into the configurations that serve the best purpose. The same applies to accessories for warehouse Armco barriers. Make sure you buy genuine parts to finish off your barriers, from Brandsafe. Buying industry experience -as well as quality products – matters!

This especially relates to covering off sharp or protruding edges. We stock Armco Post Caps which quickly push into place, increasing visibility and safety.

Also, make sure you map out your protective barriers for your warehouse operations – or other commercial sites – accurately. Your risk assessment needs to take account of any irregular shapes you may need to create an effective barrier system. To help you measure your Armco crash barriers spec, the company has an excellent free calculator on its website.

How to erect warehouse Armco barriers

As well as buying the correct posts, lengths and curves, make sure you find a supplier of accessories for Armco crash barriers who is knowledgeable and quick to respond. Especially as you may find you need additional components once the installation is underway.

Bolt-together the components, then attach the main beam sections together. These are usually 3mm thick and pre-drilled for fixing in place. When you have concreted your support posts into the ground or used base plates, you should find that the pre-drilled holes on these posts line up with the ones in the beams and curves.

Move gradually down the posts, attaching the beams as you go, making sure to slot on Armco pedestrian safety ends and post caps to smooth out transitions, gaps and edges. Use at least two posts to support a corner section.

Warehouse Armco Barrier Accessories

Brandsafe has everything you to need finish off your warehouse Armco barriers, or to retrofit protectors on sharp edges and intersections. Our safety edges and post caps for Armco barriers are either yellow or black, with diamond grade reflectors for increased visibility.