By Alexia Hope
Copyright researchsnipers
Steel is a widely used material in many industries. We owe this material the edification of modern buildings, the manufacturing of most vehicles, of household items and of many other essential items. As a result of its inherent attributes, the storage of this material and its products is a material difficult to handle and to transport.
Oftentimes, injuries in steel workshops happen because of improper infrastructures. Such injuries can be costly to the business and devastating to its production rate. Improper infrastructures may also lead to wastes in time since accessing the stored materials can be inefficient.
To overcome those obstacles, carefully designed racking systems can be implemented. These allow easier access to the stored materials and a safer environment for the workers. Let’s visit what to look for in industrial steel racks and how it can optimize a workshop.
A Storage Optimization Tool
As mentioned previously, steel is a challenging material to store and to handle. The racking systems storing it must then be designed with specific characteristics. Here are the most important ones:
The Integration to Bridge Cranes
For steel workshops, bridge cranes are effective and important tools. They are an expensive tool and, to be profitable, should always be in function. For most workshops, though, this is not the case. They are often stale since the operators are waiting for the workers to move the material at their disposition.
With carefully designed racking systems, accessing the materials while they’re in the rack with the bridge crane without any handling from the workers becomes possible. The waiting periods are then seriously limited, by consequence, the work output from the bridge crane is significantly increased.
Limiting the Required Space
Racking systems should effectively utilize horizontal space. This allows them to maximize storage capacity within an area. Transitioning from a standard rack to an optimized rack allows businesses to expand operations without requiring the acquisition of new storage space.
Insuring Safety
By providing an easier access to materials, an optimized rack limits the need for employees to handle the heavy pieces of steel. Lifting and transporting such materials inevitably leads to injuries. These injuries are very costly for companies, making employees unavailable for their plants and costing them millions every year in wages and compensation. In 2022, in the US only, work related injuries cost businesses over 167 billion dollars.
Instead of requiring dangerous and heavy lifting from workers, with an adequate industrial rack, all lifting can be accomplished by the bridge crane. This significantly decreases the risk of injuries. Limiting such injuries in workshops saves money to the business and ensures a stable production rate.
Maximized Product Quality
Proper and adapted handling of the material minimizes all risks of damaging it in the process. Indeed, having a safe and easy access to the materials makes accidents that could reduce the quality of the material less probable to happen. The combination of carefully designed racks and of a bridge crane offer a smooth and safe handling of the product.
Overall, by offering easier and optimized access to the material, industrial racks significantly improve the productivity and the workflow of any steel shop. It also limits the number of injured workers and the damage made in the handling process to the product.
The roll-out cantilever rack offered by Roll Out Racks truly does it all. This rack offers access that few will ever be able to provide, with the unique feature of a roll-out system for each shelf. Each shelf fully extends, ensuring optimized access to materials without compromising on load capacity, which can go up to 15000 pounds with standard configuration.
Such racks are more than basic equipment for a factory. They are a strategic investment that offers a high return on investment and a safe environment for the workers.
