Identifying Potential Areas Where Rack Guarding is Necessary
Shielded steel mesh panels, which are also known as rack safety panels or rack guarding, are attached to the columns placed on the sides. These protective panels prevent pallets from falling off by a simple method known as catching. It is effective when the pallets are dislodged, or when the load is not precisely fitted onto the beams. A forklift operator is usually the one who undertakes such operations. That said, not every facility would necessarily entail the use of safety rack guarding. A lot of operations do not even keep into consideration the installation of these guarding tools until an accident or near-miss takes place. That is why one must be diligent enough to determine where such protective panels are required in the workplace. It is therefore important to regularly check on each rack structure and its surroundings. Below are a few key attributes to look for while assessing areas that require these rack guards for the safety of the workers.
A high volume of pedestrians, as well as vehicle traffic. Primary aisles or walkways that lie close to the racking areas are frequently used by facility workers on foot or by using vehicles. They create an increased risk of causing injuries in the workplace, caused primarily by a pallet, or from cargo shipments falling from the overhead. The addition of safety rack guarding panels makes it a safer place as they prevent the dropping of items into these high-volume traffic areas.
Work equipment and machinery that lies close to the ongoing racking operations. Workers who are assigned to undertake some specific tasks in some particular locations are at high-risk areas of the accident. They may get injured from being struck by a falling object from the rack in the warehouse. Installing protective and safety panels to the racking makes the area safe from such falling hazards.
Unused and loose loads are other potential items where you’d need to use protective pallets. Pallets from loose items and products that have remained unused for a long time pose a high risk of falling objects. This is especially for the upper rack bays since these are transported by using a forklift. To prevent such situations, rack guarding is crucial that can be installed from the floor to the ceiling.
Last, but not least, you need to look into the pallet loads where rack beams are overhung. Some racking tools are designed in a manner where they tend to become narrower in-depth than that of the resting pallets. In case a forklift driver is unable to place the load precisely, that could topple the rack’s back, causing an accident. Keeping up with the loading dock safety and installing rack guarding can be the best solution here.
