Retailer Adds Mezzanine Safety Gates to Pick Modules
A material handling equipment dealer in Indianapolis, Indiana, was working on a project for a national retail chain. The retailer wanted to convert six storage areas into pallet drop areas in the rack-supported pick module in its warehouse.
Several of the customers’ other warehouses used Rack Supported Roly® safety gates from Mezzanine Safeti-Gates to secure ledges in pick modules, and indicated that they’d like to use the same product in the Indiana facility. The dealer reached out to Mezzanine Safeti-Gates to discuss adding safety gates to several of the existing storage rack areas.
The existing storage bays were 96 inches wide with 42-inch deep frames. The facility manager planned to use the drop areas to load and unload product in carts. When loaded, the carts measured 60 inches wide by 72 inches tall, and had a depth of 28 inches. A total of six bays needed to have fall protection for employees working around the drop areas.
The Ideal Solution: Rack Supported Safety Gates
The best way to provide fall protection within rack systems and pick modules is using rack supported safety gates. These dual-gate systems attach to rack components from any manufacturer and create a totally enclosed workstation that provides fall protection for employees and materials during loading and unloading. When the ledge gate is up, the rear gate is down, allowing the pallet drop area to be replenished while keeping the employee away from the ledge. Once the ledge gate is closed, the employee can access the material in the drop area safely.
After making a few site visits to measure all of the areas, the dealer sent the Mezzanine Safeti-Gates team pictures and videos of the space and application. The Rack Supported safety gate in the Roly design was selected. This model is typically designed to accommodate pallets that are 48 inches deep, so the safety gate is often made 56 inches deep, which often extends the gates into the picking aisle.
The customer did not want any part of the gates extending into the picking aisle at all. However, the existing frames on this project were only 42 inches deep, which posed a challenge. Upon learning the customer was loading smaller carts instead of full-size pallets into this area, the team determined gates could be less deep than standard models. To accommodate this limited space Mezzanine Safeti-Gates turned to its lead engineer to create a custom solution.
Customization & On the Spot Problem Solving
Engineers at Mezzanine Safeti-Gates created a custom solution based on the Roly® safety gate design. This solution features ledge and rear gates that overlapped each other at the top middle of the system. With the gates in the new configuration, both gates stayed within the 42-inch depth constraints. Upon design approval, Mezzanine Safeti-Gates manufactured and shipped the gates to the location.
Safety gate installation was handled by the dealer. An installer discovered one of the bays was 3/4 inch shorter than the other five bays. The smaller bay opening prohibited operation of the safety gate. The installation team immediately called Mezzanine Safeti-Gates for help. To make the gates fit within the new space, Mezzanine Safeti-Gates machined a new hardware component at no cost. On the same day, the team machined and shipped new hardware to the customer site. Once the parts were replaced, the mezzanine safety gate worked perfectly.
After successful installation, both the retailer and dealer expressed how pleased they were with the new Rack Supported Roly safety gates. The dealer was also very impressed with Mezzanine Safeti-Gates’ customer service. Not only did they meet all of its customer’s requests, the team solved an issue in less than 24 hours.
All Rack Supported Roly safety gates supplied in the Indiana are manually operated. Each could have been outfitted with power operation, as well as additional options such as product containment netting, pallet position light indicators, lights, alarms and wire mesh.
