Column wraps, skirts or guards can be sourced cheaply, installed quickly and serve a vital role in warehouse H&S. The potential for column protectors to save you time and money is outlined here.
A momentary distraction or misjudgement in your warehouse could end up costing you dearly. Especially if it results in staff injuries or structural damage that makes your building unsafe. Not to mention lost productivity and repair bills.
One of the most common incidents in warehouse operations is a forklift truck, pallet jack or other machinery and vehicles hitting support columns or racking. In many businesses, it’s often the same edge or corner that gets repeatedly scuffed or reversed in to.
This is a daily risk, no matter how well trained your team are, and no matter how logically you have laid out your warehouse.
Clearly, it represents a serious problem for the driver or operator, or anyone standing nearby if it brings a structure down. Even the slightest knock or graze on an unwieldy surface can dent your high-value equipment. It also has the potential to lead to a visit from a structural engineer to assess potential hidden damage to concrete supports.
Downtime and lost productivity can be an inevitable and unfortunate result.
Many of these issues become far less of a concern by simply fitting low-cost column protection products. Especially ones that are heavy duty and made of the right impact-resistant polymer materials.
The engineering principles of column protection
PolyWRAP Column Protectors are incredibly lightweight and easy to slot into place and secure to any protruding structures. Yet their efficiency in absorbing impact is unparalleled.
Buying these vital warehouse safety produces from Brandsafe also means you benefit from a recyclable polyethene protection system.
We sell a range of standard sizes, which can create a heavy-duty guard on columns from 152mm x 152mm up to 914mm x 305mm in size. However, we can also provide custom-fit column protectors for the ultimate structural shield.
This range is stackable, and due to its clamshell design and ratchet straps, it can be fitted and secured in minutes.
The recessed feature covers the base plate and studs up to 500mm x 500mm, avoiding trip hazards in warehouses too.
It will start having a positive effect from minute one. The bright colours act as alert to the presence of supports in the path of moving machinery. However, the true test comes when the first impact occurs. The quality polyethene material absorbs the kinetic energy, minimising the damage to both the machine and column.
Don’t forget PolyWRAP Column Protectors are ideal for outdoor use too, to keep the approach to your warehouse safer and less prone to damage.
Additional forklift impact protection
In areas where forklift activity is particularly high, we recommend considering the addition of PolyWRAP Forklift Impact Skirting may be useful. It creates a barrier 140mm high at the base of the column protector and can safely absorb the low-level impacts from forklift truck forks and pallets.
It shares many of the advantages of PolyWRAP Column Protectors, as it needs no mechanical placement or fixing, and can be slotted securely around vulnerable structures swiftly and inexpensively.
Impact protection in modern day warehouses is not a static issue
Once you have installed safety products at loading bay doors, around racking and to protect major columns, there could still be more risks to shield against. Mapping out your warehouse to replace or add extra barriers, guides and column protectors should be a continuous process.
You could well find that your operations shift and change over time, so your building’s vulnerabilities alter too. Or, new staff or visiting drivers ‘hit’ on places you have inadvertently left exposed.
Buying quality column protectors and other easy to fit safety products means you can replace and relocate them with minimum fuss. Though buying the right column protectors ensures you won’t need to buy new ones too often!
Modern warehouse safety product manufacturers have got creative and used their design and engineering knowledge to create a superb range of inexpensive aids for H&S compliance in warehouses. To chat through the solutions to your needs, and benefit from our safety advice and product recommendations, give us a call.
