Working with Distributors to Make Facilities Safer
We often work with material handling distributors. They rely on our safety expertise to help them make areas in their customer facilities safer and we rely on them as they know the facility inside and out and usually reach out and let us know the safety gate designs that they need. We love these relationships as they are beneficial to us all.
It’s not a rare happening when a partner comes to us with a challenging safety application. Challenging applications can feature various issues, including extreme width or depth of the pallet drop area, limited depth on the work platform, or even areas that are obstructed by machinery or doorways. We love it when a challenge is posed to us.
For example, we worked with a material handling distributor that had a customer that used a scissor lift to move totes to an elevated platform. The platform was located in an area in which overhead beams drastically reduced the height in the area where the totes were dropped. The application posed some challenges due to the height restrictions, and the distributor reached out to see if we could provide a safety gate for that area.
The beams over the tote drop area ruled out most of our safety gate models as many designs need overhead clearance for the dual gate system to work properly. After working with our distributor partner to get the exact measurements, we reviewed the employee process of loading and unloading the totes, which were moved off to the side of the drop area. From there, we determined an Open Top safety gate model was the best solutions for their customer.
The Open Top safety gate design has no overhead mechanics, so it really was the only design that worked with the overhead beams that were in the application area. Additionally, because the model can be configured to allow material to be moved off to the side, as well as straight back, it was ideal for the customer application.
Once the gate was configured for the customer's exact application, the gates were shipped to the facility. The distributor installed the Open Top safety gate at the location, and after initial testing, the gate easily became a part of the customer's process.
Without any overhead mechanics, the employee on the scissor lift can bring up the totes to the area when the ledge gate is open. After the totes are loaded, the ledge gate is shut by the employee on the scissor lift, which provides a safe working environment for the employees moving and working from the totes.
The Open Top was originally designed to allow access from overhead to accommodate tall pallet loads or access for overhead equipment, such as overhead vacuums or chain hoists. However, we have found it is ideal for securing elevated ledges with limited height through our work with great partners and customers.