Making Your Warehouse Safer With Barrier Rail
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 7,500 employees are injured from forklifts, including over 75 fatal injuries. Additionally, OSHA found forklift violations to be the most common citation for warehouses. With an estimated 641,000 “Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators,” these statistics are higher than the national average, giving the forklift operators and warehouses much room for improvement.
Luckily, OSHA provides all companies with a thorough list of safety tips and guidelines for forklift operators and warehouse managers to increase their safety. Among these tips are general rules like no ‘stunt’ driving, ensuring only certified drivers over 18 operate the vehicle, etc. However, they also provide helpful information on operating a forklift and warehouse layout like “maintain a safe distance from the edge of ramps or platforms while using forklifts” and “provide covers and guardrails to protect workers from the hazards.”
In addition to providing extraordinary space solutions for your facility, Panel Built aims to keep your facility safer. That’s why Panel Built offers our independently manufactured barrier railing systems to help increase forklift safety at your facility. This post will review the many applications of Panel Built’s forklift barriers and how they make your facility safer. cations of Panel Built’s forklift barriers and how they make your facility a safer place.
How Can Barrier Railing Make Your Warehouse Safer?
Panel Built, Inc. introduced its line of barrier railing in 2011 to complement its other storage and space solutions. To protect their newly acquired structure, Panel Built customers would also purchase barrier railing to help protect their investment. To provide a more turnkey space solution, Panel Built began producing our line of forklift barriers to serve our customers better. They will usually line their new modular office system or mezzanine columns with barrier railing to prevent forklift accidents. Because of the incredible force behind the forklift, even the tiniest collision could cause severe damage to columns and wall panels.
However, guard railing also makes a significant barrier to creating pathways within your facility. Forklift barriers are frequently used to develop individual pathways through the facility, typically designated for forklifts or foot traffic. Because of their piece-together modular design, Panel Built’s barrier railing can create a fully custom layout through your facility with entirely custom barrier lengths. This helps you make the most efficient, safest forklift lanes in your facility. Warehouses are not forced to leave open spaces or gaps like a cookie-cutter system. With a physical barrier separating foot traffic and forklift traffic, facilities can help prevent ‘struck by’ heavy machinery accidents. It provides an easy way to section off employee areas, preventing forklifts from intruding into safe zones.
Additionally, barrier rail systems are frequently used to protect equipment or hazardous materials on the plant floor. Many facilities must store potentially dangerous chemicals or equipment near their production floor. Chemical tanks, batteries, and equipment can be enclosed using barrier rail layouts custom-designed for their specific dimensions. This way, the equipment can be protected from a forklift impact without taking up a ridiculous amount of space on your facility floor.
Why Choose Panel Built Barrier Railing?
Panel Built began producing our barrier railing to offer customers a more turnkey building solution. Manufacturing and shipping our barrier rail systems with the structure they’re designed to protect helps to reduce overall project times and coordinates errors. These benefits make for smoother sailing at the project site and ensure that your structure does not have to sit in your warehouse without forklift barrier protection.
Panel Built offers our barrier railing in one rail (18″ to top of the rail) and double rail (42″ to top of top rail) variants. Rather than using a bolt-together barrier railing design, Panel Built’s railing uses a lift-out design. The barrier rail features an integral sleeve with slide-in and out sections.
The lift-out sleeve allows for flexibility over a bolt-together design. If you want to add an opening to your railing system, the lift-out design will allow you to quickly and easily open up a section and allow you to re-close it at a later date.
Aanel Built’s barrier rail system also utilizes the same powder coating paint on our industrial mezzanine systems. The powder coat provides a long-lasting, durable finish to the barrier rail, allowing it to withstand warehouse and manufacturing conditions. Panel Built has six standard powder coating colors, with safety yellow being our most popular barrier railing. The bright yellow finish provides higher visibility for forklift operators, making it easier to spot when carrying a load.
When appropriately installed into a facility, a Panel Built barrier rail can significantly reduce the risk of industrial truck and forklift accidents. When adding barrier rail to your facility, you can help provide safe walkways and forklift lanes, defining clear paths within your facility. Panel Built are fabricated from 11 gauge steel and lengths from 2′ to 10′ from post to post. The barrier’s columns are formed from 4″x4″x3/16″ structural steel columns welded to 10″ square baseplates.
If you have any questions about our barrier rail or would like to get a quote, you can give us a call at 800.636.3873, send us an email to Info@PanelBuilt.com, or let us know in our LiveChat feature at the bottom-right of the page. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Panel Built’s mission is “To Solve Our Customers’ Space Needs With Excellence And Great Customer Service.”