The repercussions of vehicles or equipment colliding with structures in your warehouse go beyond serious injury to staff. This guide to column protectors shows the commercial advantages of installing this cost-effective safety solution.
You have the power to protect your building, machinery and employees within minutes. As well as avoiding large repair bills and business interruption. You get all of this from installing column protectors to any vertical structures in your warehouse.
These are a brilliant way to shield upright surfaces, with either a firm layer of protection or a tear-resistant layer of high-density foam. We sell both PolyWRAP and SoftWRAP polyethylene column and pillar protectors, designed to slot easily around vertical structures of all dimensions.
You can even vary the height to match your risks. Fitting our protectors is a tangible step towards fulfilling your Health & Safety commitments and protecting productivity and profits.
Keeping your building and vehicles intact
Accidents can happen, even in warehouses with stringent control systems and an emphasis on constant training. But when the pressure is on to meet deadlines even the most experienced staff can get distracted or misjudge distances.
The problem is that even a glancing blow can cause damage to a piece of essential warehouse equipment or a key structure. Which is why crash barriers and column protectors are so essential to warehouses.
Top-performing column protectors are designed to:
- Make columns highly visible to traffic operators to see the column and avoid hitting it
- Cushion impact and avoid damage to both vehicle and column
- Be a tough and durable Polyethylene construction suitable for most industrial facilities
What do column protectors do?
When these safety products are installed across warehouses and in car parks, they absorb impact brilliantly, even when a collision is at considerable speed. Making it far less likely that metal or concrete will be affected. It shields the driver from harm too.
The trick is to source a supplier of quality buffers made of polyethene, such as our PolyWRAP and SoftWRAP options.
Why polyethene? It is far more robust than other materials, holding its shape even after considerable weight and force are applied.
A good column protector should also:
- Be resistant to moisture and temperature changes
- Be brightly coloured to increase the visibility
- Be quick to install
- Have an air cushion to increase impact absorption
- Cover the column base plate
Our column protectors are also stackable and resistant to moisture and temperature changes. They are brightly coloured to increase the visibility of racking, columns, pillars and frames and avoid any collisions and scuffs.
Size matters when specifying column protectors. They need to be quick to install (ours are clamshell in design), but also snug against the vertical structure, with a cushion of air to increase their impact absorption.
Also, look for ones with a recessed feature to cover the column base plate and studs (up to 500 x 500mm) for additional safety cover.
Our range of column protectors provides considerable cost savings. They can be replaced quickly and at little cost. Especially when compared to the bill for vehicle bodywork or forklift truck lease hire penalties.
Minimising effect on productivity
Another important consideration is the extra problems you face if a vehicle does run into an unprotected vertical structure or inadvertently scuffs it.
For one thing, a full-force collision could bring a frame down, or dismantle pallets and stock. This puts not just the driver at risk but also endangers other staff working in the area.
When there is significant contact between machinery and a supporting structure in your warehouse, you could suffer clearly visible damage to a column or pillar.
As a precautionary measure, you may be required to temporary shut down and send staff home, while you get an engineer to do a thorough check, or a construction crew on site to complete repairs.
The cost of this can go beyond a day’s loss of work. If the damage is significant, you could well need to keep everyone away for a few days, to be 100% certain that staff safety is assured.
Alternatively, your structure could be relatively unscathed, but you face the hassles of having a vehicle out of operation and the cost of repairs or replacement for that.
Specifying column protectors
If you’re not sure on sizes and the relevant merits of PolyWRAP or SoftWRAP protectors, we are here to help. We would be pleased to chat to you about the specific sizes and fixing methods of our column protectors, to give you 100% confidence that you’re keeping your structures, vehicles and staff as safe as possible.