Why Pallet Racking Protectors Are Essential at Warehouses
Even workers who undergo hours of pallet racking safety training and strictly follow protocols can make mistakes. To prevent this unfortunate reality from becoming a catastrophic event, you can install rack safety products. Continue reading this article to learn about the best racking protection products for warehouses and storage facilities.
What Makes Warehouse Rack Protectors So Important?
As a warehouse worker, one of your most important responsibilities is safeguarding the people and inventory stored at your facility. With so many people, pieces of equipment, and forklifts moving around the floor, accidents are bound to happen. All it takes to endanger the safety of your workforce and products is for a forklift driver to become distracted and bump into a pallet rack system.
Shielding the upright frames and cross beams of a racking system is one of the most critical steps in racking protection. Without pallet racking protectors and other rack safety products, any impact jeopardizes the structural integrity of a shelving unit or can even cause it to collapse. Fortunately, pallet racking protectors are designed to avoid bumps and impacts from reaching racking columns.
Solutions like warehouse post protectors and rack safety products enhance warehouse safety for everyone and everything involved. The machinery and equipment used to move pallets around floorspace are heavy and powerful. Even a low-speed impact can render racks useless.
Think of what a hassle it could be if you had to remove all the inventory from a rack because it’s been damaged. Now imagine your warehouse is already full. Even worse, what would happen to your bottom line if an accident destroyed a rack’s worth of product due to crashing to the ground?
Racking protection is a cost-effective and straightforward way to avoid:
- Injury or death
- Business disruptions
- Revenue loss
- Rack replacements
- Product damage
- Liability lawsuits
Types of Racking Protectors
Now that you have a better understanding of why pallet racking protectors are important, let’s explore some rack safety products you can incorporate into your warehouse.
Warehouse Post Protectors
The most common damage to racking systems is caused by lift equipment impact. That makes warehouse post protectors, also called column guards, a crucial element of racking protection. Guards act as a barrier of pallet rack protection between the equipment and individual columns of the rack’s interior frame. If you have ground-level loading and unloading at your facility, pallet rack post protectors are necessary.
End-of-Row Racking Protection
A great way to protect the frames of storage racking is to install end of row protection. End-of-row guards help prevent forklifts and other machinery from bending the frame. These rack safety products also defend against sliding pallets or pallets stored outside the storage unit from being pushed into the frame.
Down-Aisle Guards
The more narrow your aisles are, the harder it is for drivers to navigate them. Down-aisle pallet racking protectors help prevent forklifts from running off course and crashing into columns and pallets. They also add an essential layer of protection when performing high lifts to the upper levels of racks.
Guard Rails
It’s far too easy for a forklift operator to be off by just a few inches while loading and unloading or maneuvering around a corner. This makes the bottom portion of the rails the most susceptible to impact. Guard rails are a necessary pallet racking protector in high-traffic areas.
Additional Rack Safety Products
Not all pallet racking protectors are explicitly made to defend against the damaging effects of forklift impact. Along with components like warehouse post protectors, you can increase your safety efforts by installing:
Frame Extensions
Keeping your rack upright is only part of the battle when it comes to racking protection. If you store pallets on the top level of your system, you should consider frame extensions. Frame extensions act as a barrier that prevents products from falling to the ground level following forklift impact.
Rack Safety Netting
While items falling from the highest level of your racking system present the highest degree of danger, any pallet can cause the direct consequences. Adding sturdy plastic, polyethylene, or wire mesh netting to your racks keeps your inventory secure and workers safe from crashing into them. As an added benefit, enclosed racking protection can also protect high-value items from theft or tampering.
Repairing Rack Safety Products
Rack safety products are built to withstand the force of powerful forklifts and other heavy-duty machinery, but they’re not indestructible. If your pallet racking protectors were damaged during an impact event, they can often be repaired.
Mac Rak repair kits are available in a wide variety of categories, including:
- Super Heavy Duty
- Heavy Duty
- Standard Duty
- Bottom 12″
They also offer various repair kits for several different rack system configurations.
Turn to HTX Material Handling for All Your Rack Safety Products
HTX is the leading provider of material handling and warehouse equipment. Our team is deeply rooted in our principles of integrity and dependability, and we work hard to make sure our customers’ needs are met. Your safety goals are important to us, and we want to contribute to your success.
We supply businesses throughout Dallas-Forth Worth and Houston with the highest-quality pallet racking protectors. We also offer a wide range of warehouse storage solutions, including automation, handling systems, conveyor systems, and loading dock solutions. If you’re looking to partner with a company that puts as much emphasis on delivering the highest level of customer service, products, and solutions, reach out to HTX.