Spring is on its way.  Sunshine. Warmer weather. A gentle breeze carrying the scent of blossoms.  And along with it, a tendency to leave the loading dock doors open. But along with that fresh air also comes the risk of injury for your employees.  It’s a good idea to start thinking about how we can keep our employees from falling through those open dock doors.

A couple years back we introduced our current version of the loading dock gate.  Its compact, easy to use design protects your employees with a line of 2-rail handrail per OSHA.  But what about areas that have heavy fork truck traffic? OSHA handrail is designed to hold back a person leaning on it, but it’s not going to offer much resistance to a rolling fork truck.

After releasing the latch, the dock defender gate folds in half and swings out of the way.

Allow me to introduce the newest gate in our product line: the dock defender gate.  This heavy-duty gate system has been tested to stop a 13,500 lb fork truck moving at 6.5 mph.  Plus, when you need access, it folds in half and swings out of the way. It has either a single 42″ high beam or a double beam set up for additional security.  Standard opening widths are available in 6′, 8′, 9′, 10′, and 12′, but custom opening widths are available up to 16′. The dock defender gate ships out quickly in three pieces with all required hardware (including wedge anchors), making for a quick and easy installation.

The Dock Defender gate si also available in a two rail configuration.

So go ahead.  Leave the doors open and enjoy the fresh air.  Let’s just do it in a safe manner.

Second story doorway opening with snap chains

We are often contacted by customers looking for a pallet gate to use in an atypical application.  Most commonly they have a second story that has been closed off with walls and a set of double doors through which they load pallets from below.  We recently received some photos back from a happy customer out in British Columbia for whom we provided a solution for just such a case.

The customer wanted something more substantial than the snap chains across the door frame to guard the opening when the doors were open.  In order to assist them with this, we provided them with a customized self closing pallet gate.

The required dimensions to properly fit a pallet gate on a door framed opening

The gates on the self closing pallet gate need to freely swing inward and clear the existing doors.  The clear opening with on their doorway was 6’.  In order to save the customer some money we used our standard hoops for a 5’ clear opening width gate.  The overall width is approximately 5’6”, leaving about a 3” gap on either side when centered on their doorway.  If necessary, we could have gone with a custom width, but remember, the largest self closing pallet gate we can provide has a 6’ clear opening (approximately 6’6” overall) width.

Wall mounted self closing pallet gate being used to guard a second story doorway.

As the gate wasn’t being mounted in the usual fashion to industrial handrail to the sides, we provided special angle brackets and longer columns to fix the gate to the wall above and below the door frame.  If the floor extended beyond the doorway, we could have gone with the angle bracket above and the typical floor mount brackets to mount it to the deck below.

Inside view of the second story doorway opening being protected by the self closing pallet gate

With this gate in place, when the customer opens their doors, the opening is still protected with industrial use handrail.  Their fork truck driver just needs to push the pallet against the bumpered gates which will open as they load the pallet into position on the second story.  When the customer pulls the pallet away from the landing area, the spring loaded hinges will automatically close the gate, once again protecting the door opening until the customer closes their doors.

I thought it might be a good idea to begin a little series in which we discuss some of the different mezzanine deck types available.  To start things off, let’s talk about our most commonly used mezzanine deck type:  the corrugated roof deck topped with resindek.

Corrugated roof deck, painted reflective white, as viewed from below.

As the name implies, roof decks with resindek is a two-layered mezzanine deck surface.  The structural component of the mezzanine deck is provided by a 1-1/2” corrugated steel roof deck.  The gauge of the roof deck used varies depending on the loads the mezzanine deck is designed to support.  The underside of the roof deck is painted white to help reflect light under the mezzanine deck.  The corrugation of the roof deck doesn’t offer a very useable deck surface, so it needs to be skinned with a second material — in this case, resindek.

Unfinished Resindek mezzanine deck surface

Resindek is a wood composite material specifically designed to provide a durable and affordable mezzanine deck surface.  There are different grades of resindek depending on the loads the mezzanine deck is designed to support.  Most commonly we will use an unfinished ¾” Resindek LD material which is designed to accommodate a combined pallet and pallet jack load of up to 2000 lbs.  If we’re designing the mezzanine to support heavier loads, varieties are available for all the way up to an 8000 lb max load.   It provides a smooth surface to roll your pallets across, both on and between panels, and doesn’t peel layers like plywood can.

Corrugated roof deck with resindek is easily our most popular mezzanine deck surface, largely due to its significant price advantage over other deck types.  There are, however, some situations where it would not be the best option.  As a wood based material, resindek can swell when it gets wet.  During installation you leave a gap between panels about the width of a nickel to accommodate some swelling, but if the deck will be in a wet environment it is not the recommended tool for the job.  In our next segment, we’ll talk about another deck type that would work better for wet environments.

We offer a number of different varieties of gates to provide fall protection on your mezzanines at your pallet access locations, but only some of them are labeled as safety gates.  Aren’t they all safety gates? While all our mezzanine pallet gates are designed to protect your personal safety while working on elevated platforms, the gates are designed to meet different standards.

Having only a single layer of gates, the self closing pallet gate is not considered a true mezzanine safety gate.

Gates, such as our self closing pallet gate, horizontal sliding mezzanine gate, or vertical sliding mezzanine gate, help keep your employees safe while working on elevated platforms, but are not considered true safety gates.  They are all single gate systems designed to meet the federal OSHA safety railing requirements for dimensions and loading.  This means that they have a 42” hand rail, a 21” mid-rail, a 4” high toe board, and can hold back 200 lbs. of pressure.  Because they are single gated systems, when the gate is open, you have a potential exposed opening on your mezzanine.  When using a single gate system, we recommend that you mark out a 6’ bubble around the opening, train your employees to remain behind that line when the gate is open, and post signage reminding them of this at the location.

Many of these single gate systems have some additional safety features built into their design. The self closing pallet gate was designed so that instead of needing to open the gate to lift a pallet to the deck, you can lift the pallet up and push it against the bumpers of the closed gate.  As you load the pallet the spring loaded doors will open up just enough to fit the pallet, keeping the sides closed off.  When you then pull the pallet all the way through from the top, the gate closes itself.  The controls for a manual horizontal mezzanine gate are all located behind your existing handrail so your personnel will always be behind OSHA hand rail while opening and closing the gate.  Even better, the horizontal mezzanine gate and vertical mezzanine gates are both available in electric operated versions.  This allows us to add additional safety features such as strobe warning lights and adjustable timers so the gates will close after a predetermined period of time if your employees forget to shut them.  With both control boxes being field wired, you can place them in a location within view of, but away from, the opening.

Having both a front and back gate, the dual interlocked vertical mezzanine safety gate is an example of a true safety gate

True mezzanine safety gates have both a front and back gate, and are designed to meet the voluntary ANSI MH28.3-2009 standard (Section 6.4.3) in addition to the OSHA safety railing requirements for dimensions and loading.  Operating like an airlock, the double gated system allows access to the pallet for the fork truck down below or your personnel above, while keeping a line of guard rail between your employees and the edge of the mezzanine.  The pivoting mezzanine safety gate, double drop horizontal mezzanine safety gate and the dual interlocked vertical mezzanine safety gate are all examples of true safety gates.  If your facility is following the ANSI standards and wants to put a mezzanine safety gate in a pallet opening, make sure it is a double gated system.

By Brett @ A-Mezz

Let’s dive into a little workplace safety tangent. Earlier this month an article came out of Wyoming pointing that their state legislators may hike the workplace safety penalties for companies found to be in violation of the state’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Currently, according to an OSHA.gov publication, OSHA can assess a penalty of $1,500 to $7,000 for a ‘serious violation’. The OSHA definition of a serious violation is one where there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result. This could be a situation that the employer was not even aware failed to meet federal safety standards. We come across this all the time when it comes to fall protection and machine guarding. If your roof hatch is open and employees are doing work in the vicinity, there is an opportunity for serious injury unless you use a roof hatch safety rail. Likewise, fixed ladders that do not have automatically closing ladder gates or offset orientations could also cause serious injury should a fall occur. Shop machines without proper guarding, and in some cases, without electrical interlocks, can also cause serious violations if your employees can gain access to movable parts without the machine shutting down.

OSHA also has a penalty for a “Willful Violation”. This they define as a violation that the employer intentionally and knowingly commits. The employer is aware that a hazardous condition exists, knows that the condition violates a standard or other obligation of the act, and makes no reasonable effort to eliminate it. OSHA can access penalties up to $70,000 for each violation. Knowing that areas lack proper fall protection but choosing not to address the hazard could easily put an employer into this category of violation. Should that violation result in the death of an employee the penalty can be increased up to $250,000 (or $500,000 if the employer is a corporation). Those fines are in addition to any legal amounts the injured or killed party may be awarded.

As Benjamin Franklin once put it, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Proper safety equipment is MUCH less expensive than ignoring a safety issue and having a costly accident.