Securing Unique Pallet Drop Areas

No two facilities are exactly the same. This is true for virtually all facilities, whether they are primarily used for production or for distribution. If you think about it, it makes complete sense - each facility has a different purpose and their operations within the facility are also unique.

This point is also very true for pallet drop areas; it’s not uncommon to have pallet drop areas that are unique. These areas can be limited in space, have large items being unloaded or loaded into the area, have a need extra wide or deep pallets, and more.

Keeping this general rule in mind, we often see pallet drop areas with different safety needs in the same facility. Selecting the same safety gate for each different area is not always a good idea as the size of the system may not accommodate for extra tall, wide or deep material.

We saw this rule come to life in a production facility that we helped to make safer. The facility had areas on the mezzanines that needed to be secured, and the production area had different safety needs than the areas in which the material was being loaded and unloaded. One area was configured for loads up to three pallets wide, while others had tall loads that needed to be fed into a production platform. In addition, some of the gates needed to be power operated so the fork lift truck drivers could control the gates from below.

After reviewing the facility’s requirements, our engineering team created custom Roly® safety gates for each of the areas. Designed to secure openings on mezzanines, the Roly safety gate provides protection for employees working on elevated platforms and mezzanines at all times. The Roly gate is one of our most customizable designs, and can be constructed in extra wide, deep and tall configurations.

Our team created multiple designs of our Roly safety gates to meet the facility’s different requirements in its pallet drop and production areas. An extra tall version of the Roly gate was created for the production platform, which allowed tall loads to be easily and safety loaded and unloaded to the area while keeping employees from falling from the ledge. The dual-gate safety system’s gates open and close within the confines of the gate structure, which helped to avoid obstruction into the production area.

The Roly gates were configured differently for the facility’s pallet drop areas. Gates were configured in extra wide designs to fit the three pallet width requirements, and other gates were created to fit extra deep loads. All of the safety gates in the pallet drop areas were configured with power operation that allowed the fork lift truck drivers to operate the gates from the ground level.

When you are working to secure elevated work platforms and mezzanines for your employees, remember that each of your areas is most likely unique. You may need to work with a safety gate manufacturer like us to ensure that any safety gate you install has the correct dimensions and fit for your application.