Warehouse racking

[Gareth Young]

We are currently making a move to storing flightcases on warehouse type racking shelves, access to which will be provided by a fork-lift device. There are a total of three levels of shelf, each of which is tall enough to hold a Mac 500 flightcase with a little headroom and quite deep. Each shelf can hold two Mac 500 cases adjacent to each other. Macs aren't the only thing we will be storing on them, but serve well as an example. Most of the units will be stored on their castors.

 

The concern we have is that during the loading/unloading of higher shelves, adjacent boxes to the case being moved may be knocked or dragged out by accident, falling off the front of the shelf. Personally I think a competant fork operator would stop before this happened, but the scope is there all the same - and none of us are very experienced in using forks yet. The fact that the greatest risk occurs when the shelf is being loaded or unloaded rules out the use of a flap or chain across the front of the shelf, and so far we are considering fitting some kind of lip to the front edge of the shelf to stop cases rolling off the front.

 

Does anyone have any ideas of the best way to control this risk and have they seen any products/ideas that work well to prevent it from happening? The type of shelving we have is similar to what you might see in a B&Q store - a series of modular vertical columns, with chipboard shelves placed across supports clipped into these columns. Are there any 'custom made' devices that provide a lip and fit well with racking systems? Answers on a postcard please! (Or you could just reply to this post :) )

[iamchristuffin]

IIRC, Mac500 flightcases have locking castors on them. While this won't solve your problem, it may help a bit.

[Pete McCrea]

A good stout lip from 2'x4" would be my preferred option, but check the depth of the wood doesn't stop you getting the forks in between the top of the wood and bottom of the case. You say you have the headroom, so it just means that the case has to be lifted by the required amount before being withdrawn. It also means that any wheeled case can be put on the racking and there are no worries about them rolling off. Non wheeled cases will need to be put onto a pallet or something similar

 

I can't remember ever having come across any Mac500 cases that have locking castors.

[boatman]

You could fit runners of 6"x2" timber to each position from the front to the back of each shelf. They would need to be slightly higher than the castors so the edges of the cases rested on the runners and the castors were in between the rails. This solution would also work for cases without castors.

[mac.calder]

The runners idea works well, provided your fork operators are competent, and your layout is fairly static, as it really does need to be custom built based on what flight case goes where (so that your forks will fit in, and the casters will too).

 

We use lips on the front of all our shelves, with the wood being 1/2 the radius of the largest caster we have in stock that goes on that shelf.

 

If your fork has relatively thick forks (which seems to be common on many new forklifts) contact your local dealer to try and get some thinner ones.

[Roderick]

Or you could have a timber batten at the back of the shelving in such a position that the rear castors are behind it.

That way it will stop any case from being dragged out but solve the problems of the space between the tyne and the case.

 

Just a thought.

[Wuddy]

We are currently making a move to storing flightcases on warehouse type racking shelves, access to which will be provided by a fork-lift device. There are a total of three levels of shelf, each of which is tall enough to hold a Mac 500 flightcase with a little headroom and quite deep. Each shelf can hold two Mac 500 cases adjacent to each other. Macs aren't the only thing we will be storing on them, but serve well as an example. Most of the units will be stored on their castors.

 

The concern we have is that during the loading/unloading of higher shelves, adjacent boxes to the case being moved may be knocked or dragged out by accident, falling off the front of the shelf. Personally I think a competant fork operator would stop before this happened, but the scope is there all the same - and none of us are very experienced in using forks yet. The fact that the greatest risk occurs when the shelf is being loaded or unloaded rules out the use of a flap or chain across the front of the shelf, and so far we are considering fitting some kind of lip to the front edge of the shelf to stop cases rolling off the front.

 

Does anyone have any ideas of the best way to control this risk and have they seen any products/ideas that work well to prevent it from happening? The type of shelving we have is similar to what you might see in a B&Q store - a series of modular vertical columns, with chipboard shelves placed across supports clipped into these columns. Are there any 'custom made' devices that provide a lip and fit well with racking systems? Answers on a postcard please! (Or you could just reply to this post )

 

My red,

 

Have you and your coleagues been trained in accordance with the Lift Truck ACoP, if not you could find yourselves in serious trouble especially in the event of an accident.

 

You may need to show HSE or LA inspectors documentary proof of approved training.

[Bryson]

Training != Experience.

 

They could easily have the requisite training and certificates, but not very much experience.

 

And if that's the case, then good on them for realising that doing the training does not magically make you good at it.

[Jivemaster]

Can your racking supplier find a part of your racking system that is designed for this job. Buying the correct item from the manufacturer is one way to approach the due dilligence issue.

[lightsource]

with chipboard shelves placed across supports clipped into these columns

Chipboard is not really a suitable surface to store heavy flightcases at height. Remember that the whole load of the flightcases rest on the point contact of the four castors..... Look at 3/4" or thicker plywood for additional strength.

 

As you have the use of fork lifts, then why not think of putting the cases onto pallets. It would be fairly easy to buy a pallet, put a false top on it, with a cut out of the castor positions, so everything would stay in place whilst being moved. If you can't do the false top, then look at strapping the cases to the pallets. That way everything stays secure.

 

Also when they reach the ground, hand pallet trucks can be used to put them where you want them. This could also include the venue.

 

Most industrial shelving conforms to a lot of standard pallet dimensions.

 

You could then do some other things like spray paint a Mac 500 pallet red, and a Mac 2K pallet green... or a cables pallet blue... so you don't actually need to know the contents of a flightcase, to know what it contains.

 

Another idea is to use removable castor plates, and just re-attach them once they hit the ground.

 

Training != Experience.

 

They could easily have the requisite training and certificates, but not very much experience.

 

And if that's the case, then good on them for realising that doing the training does not magically make you good at it.

Sad....but true.

 

Working in a factory / stores environment for a few years, some horror stories...

 

A fork lift driver with 30 years experience, in one year managed to drive over the feet of a person (not wearing steelies), reverse the truck into a rack of parts, causing it to fall over and shed it's contents...

 

While another driver with about 10 years experience, managed to drop the contents of a pallet to the ground from a height of 8-10 metres, when I say drop.... the pallet was still up in the air :D

 

Another driver with less than 2 years experience took a stack of about 15 pallets through the car park to the pallet storage area....... they fell off the forks in the car park, and damaged 3 cars.

 

I think what I'm saying here, is there is no such thing as a competent fork lift operator. It lies totally in the quality of work of the operator. Same as any other practice really, but like rigging, for example, can be desasterous when things go wrong.

 

Stay safe.

[Pete McCrea]

As you have the use of fork lifts, then why not think of putting the cases onto pallets. It would be fairly easy to buy a pallet, put a false top on it, with a cut out of the castor positions, so everything would stay in place whilst being moved. If you can't do the false top, then look at strapping the cases to the pallets. That way everything stays secure.

 

Also when they reach the ground, hand pallet trucks can be used to put them where you want them. This could also include the venue.

 

Most industrial shelving conforms to a lot of standard pallet dimensions.

 

You could then do some other things like spray paint a Mac 500 pallet red, and a Mac 2K pallet green... or a cables pallet blue... so you don't actually need to know the contents of a flightcase, to know what it contains.

 

While I'd probably agree about chipboard possibly not being the best solution. And I know rapid racking do parts that allow items to be slid in. That said the chipboard that comes with the Rapid Racking is stout stuff- thicker than contiboard flooring that can potentially take higher point loads. Although the span is likely to be less on the contiboard, so possibly balances out.

 

However I think mounting flight cases into a pallet tray is going to be a lot of hard work. There is also the question of how do you get the case into the pallet, as you'll have to lift and locate it, which is effectively double handling the case, when the right shelving would save on that.

[JimWebber]

I think what I'm saying here, is there is no such thing as a competent fork lift operator. It lies totally in the quality of work of the operator. Same as any other practice really, but like rigging, for example, can be desasterous when things go wrong.

 

To be honest, I think this is a very unfair statement! In the past, I have worked in a very safety (and cost) critical industry, and have known plenty of highly competant fork-lift, crane, and cherry picker drivers as well as associated slingers. There have been numerous occasions that I have literally put my life in their hands, and would do it again. (Admittedly more crane drivers then fork lift drivers...)

 

 

 

Stay safe.

 

Here Here! now that I cannot agree with more!

 

Jim

[Chris Higgs]

Been a few years, but a type of pallet racking beam used to be available so the shelf timber fitted inside, making the beam proud, not flush.

No idea if these are still available. Try Link 51.

 

Didn't the OP say 'fork lift device'? - Maybe it isn't a fork lift, before we all start our lift truck indignation dance........

Maybe a Superlift or one of the many pallet handling machines that exist these days.

[ChrisD]

Why not have the racks sloping slightly backwards? So if anything is to roll on castors, it will roll towards the shelf supports.

 

Obviously you don't put the entire rack tilting, but each shelf. If the front edge is about 1-2cm higher than the back edge, it will stop them falling off. Alternatively, you put a lip round the entire shelf, high enough to stop stuff rolling off, but low enough to still get the forks between the shelf and the bottom of the case. If your forks drivers are inexperieced tho, I expect the lips would get trashed pretty quick.

 

Alternatively, invest in a rather nice forklift from Hubtex, which won't let you touch any of the shelves except for the one you're after...