Damaged racking? Here are the three levels of risk

Marco CazzinIn depth Analysis, Laws and Racking

Safety? At 360 degrees

In the latest updates, we have seen how fundamental it is to invest in the safety of your storage installation.  You must pay a lot of attention to, through periodic inspections, not only eventual damage like impacts or curvatures that the racking could have but also verifying that the area in which the loading, unloading and picking of the merchandise is done does not present dangerous situations to people or things.

The eye – and the knowledge – of the safety inspector

The technical figure who does the safety inspections is therefore fundamental. This person knows how to quantify the curvature of the racking.  It is his duty to determine, starting from the maximum degree of tolerated deflection of each racking component and if these enter within the limits or not.

It is on this curvature – and not on damage such as dents, chips or crevices caused by impact – that the inspector determines which level of risk to apply to each warehouse installation. As always, to guarantee the safety of the installations, it is obligatory to respect the weight limits indicated on the carrying capacity signs.

Green risk level the racking must be (for the moment) monitored

This is minor damage and include slight deflections that do not compromise in any way the carrying capacity of the racking.  Even though they are in good condition to be used, this racking must be flagged so that it can undergo a more thorough inspection, to verify that the conditions have not worsened in time.

Yellow risk level – intervene as quickly as possible

The racking that the technician will evaluate based on the yellow risk level is that whose deflection and curvature requires immediate intervention, but that does not require that the racking be unloaded immediately.

The racking identified with a yellow risk level is to be repaired promptly, even with the substitution of damaged components so that the risk level does not get worse. For this reason, by law, the racking identified as yellow risk that are not repaired within a month are promptly designated as a red level, the most serious.

Red risk level – severe damage that requires immediate intervention

The red risk level is assigned to all the severely curved racking, whose deflection is considered critical damage by the inspector.  The flagged area is to be immediately unloaded of merchandise and made in accessible to people until the repair has been made; seeing the seriousness, it usually requires the substitution of one or more damaged components