Racking Repairs – An essential part to any racking maintenance programme

Pallet racking repairs can be costly, but are a pivotal aspect of any racking maintenance program. Racking systems are constantly under attack by Fork Lift Trucks and inevitably damage occurs. However 90% of the time damage only occurs in the first 600mm of the upright. It seems a waste to replace the whole upright when only a small percentage of the upright is damaged. With the help of the sacrificial leg this is no longer the case.

The Rack Group has designed specialist tooling to enable repairs to be carried out with minimal fuss and disruption to the warehouse. Using the Sacrificial Leg Prop, racking can be propped up whilst the damaged part of the upright is cut out. Once this is completed a sacrificial leg is bolted into the bottom 600mm of the upright. A repair can be completed in less than 20 minutes without the need of offloading any materials and without the use of a scissor lift.

Benefits:

• No need to replace the whole upright
• No materials need to be offloaded
• No need to wait for replacement uprights and materials
• No scissor lift or plant hire is needed

Ease of repair encourages operators to deal with damage as and when it happens, creating a safer working environment.

The Rack Group’s Sacrificial Leg Prop is a unique piece of tooling used alongside the sacrificial leg to help reduce costly and timely pallet racking repairs.

So, how does it work?

The SLP is a simple but highly effective tool used to prop up the racking to take the load weight whilst repairs are carried out. This is achieved by bolting the SLP to the upright. The SLP has been tested to carry up to twenty tonnes in weight.

The Rack Group Ltd is working with its customers to establish effective, efficient and low cost proactive racking maintenance systems for their industrial storage systems, which are designed to:

• Ensure health and safety compliance.
• Ensure that the storage equipment remains fit for purpose.
• Ensure that any identified none conforming components are repaired/replaced with minimal disruption to daily activities.
• Above all, ensure that a safe place of work is maintained within the workplace for all.
• Allows the customer to budget for storage equipment repair works, as in most cases nearly all damage is “unplanned” damage and as a result of this racking repair costs come straight off the organisations profit line.

By developing and adopting a proactive maintenance program this can help overcome the problem.

A key element to any proactive racking maintenance program is a good understanding of the types of industrial storage equipment in use by our customers which in turn allows us to react quickly and effectively should the need arise. The Rack Group Ltd addresses this issue through its independent pallet racking inspection program.

Once a detailed breakdown of the storage equipment in use has been established, this then allows The Rack Group Ltd to hold key stock items thereby eliminating the need to store spare materials on site.

By establishing this data The Rack Group Ltd are able to react quickly in the event of an unplanned incident, thereby ensuring minimal disruption to the organisation by helping to reduce lost production and downtime costs.