Floor joints key safety issue
Floor joints are an essential part of a warehouse floor’s construction – yet choosing the wrong type of joint during construction may create future health & safety issues for warehouse staff, says Permaban.
Many floor joints are straight, commonly seen as parallel metal strips in the floor’s surface. When a forklift crosses a straight joint at 90 degrees, its wheels momentarily drop into the gap between the two edges of the joint, causing an impact jolt. This not only risks damaging the concrete around the floor joint, but can also damage the vehicle. The driver can also be affected by whole-body vibration, and repeated jolting during the course of a shift can cause particular discomfort to the back and neck.
When constructing a new warehouse, the problem can be prevented by specifying Permaban Signature, a ‘no impact, no damage’ armoured joint for warehouse floors. Its half-hexagon design means that vehicle wheels cannot drop into the gap between the two edges, so pass smoothly over without causing any impact or jolting.
Damaged straight joints in existing floors can be repaired and upgraded using Permaban’s new Signature AR joint arris repair system. The damaged portion of the joint can be cut away and replaced with a length of Signature specifically designed for floor repairs.
Steel wheels and dock levellers
In the spring of 2013, Permaban Signature was installed at the Milton Keynes warehouse of a leading drinks manufacturer. It was placed around the dock levellers, where the area would be in constant use by pallet trucks with steel wheels.
Despite this unforgiving application, Permaban’s return visit showed that the joint had suffered no damage, aside from a little abrasion to the thin top edge of the joint which has no effect on performance. The joint had opened by 7mm, and importantly the concrete around and behind the joint was intact, with no cracking.
24/7 operation
A Sheffield-based printing firm produces 2.5 million catalogues, magazines, brochures and supplements every 24 hours. Its £100m facility became operational in the summer of 2014. With the site running 24/7, any floor joint failure would seriously hinder operations – and hence Permaban Signature was installed exclusively, to ensure there would be no joint impact damage from the hard rubber-wheeled forklift trucks.
The return visit eight months later showed that the joint had opened well as the floor cured, and was performing well for the client.
