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.