It’s imperative to ensure any busy industrial site is adequately protected from a range of current dangers. How do you find the right safety bollards for your needs, and how do you install them? This useful guide should help to explain the questions you might have. The 3 points we are going to cover are the following:

1. Why should I consider investing in industrial safety bollards?
2. When looking to purchase safety bollards, what should you look for?
3. Make sure that your safety bollards are fitted and installed correctly

Why should I consider investing in industrial safety bollards

It is important to evaluate your current safety systems and facility layout to understand which safety bollards are best for your needs within your facility. Here are some key points to consider when you start your search.

• What sort of budget do you have in mind when looking at safety bollards...?
• When it comes to money that a business can spend on safety for their facility it is not unlimited, so making sure that the right product is doing the right job is essential. Once you have identified the hazards on site, look at ways to remove or control these hazards.
• What would the safety bollards be protecting against...?

Once a risk assessment has been finished for the facility, you will better understand what your safety bollards will be protecting against. At this point, you can see if the bollards are the right choice over safety barriers.

• Look at the durability of bollards...?

Another thing to consider is how often accidents happen on your site. If they’re frequent, then you need to consider the long-term costs. If a bollard is repeatedly struck, then it’s essential to invest in bollards that can withstand multiple impacts – if this is the case, then a polymer bollard will be a more effective solution over a traditional steel or iron.

When looking to purchase safety bollards, what should you look for

When looking for safety bollards for your facility, there are many things to consider. Here are some points you should consider before starting your purchase.

Has a risk assessment been done first?

Performing a risk assessment is the best way to identify the hazards present at your facility to start off with. From there, you can start to figure out where safety systems are required. It’s essential to look at those areas of your site where accidents and incidents are most common. This might just be minor scuffs or scrapes to walls, corners or other structures such as racking, but if these incidents are happening regularly, then it’s proof that a bollard or something similar might help to eliminate these problems.

Where do I need the safety bollards in my facility?

Off the back of doing your risk assessment, you will better understand where these need to be. Industrial bollards are used all over busy facilities where there is an increased risk of accidents involving site vehicles such as forklift trucks. They are often used to protect:

• Machinery
• The infrastructure of the buildings, such as corners and structural columns
• Assets; including stock or goods

They can also be used in other zones where there is a high volume of vehicles in operation, such as:

• Car parks
• Loading bays
• Airport aprons

What can safety bollards in a facility environment protect against?

Usually, bollards are designed to protect against vehicle impacts. Whether this is in a car park, near busy roads and streets or in an industrial setting, their primary purpose is to act as a barrier between vehicles and whatever needs protecting. 

In industrial settings, bollards can protect against a variety of vehicles and materials handling equipment, including:

• Forklift or pallet trucks
• Side-loaders
• Cars and vans
• Articulated lorries

What are the long-term costs when capitalizing on safety systems?

When you think of the long-term costs of investing in safety barriers, it’s best to look at the longevity of the safety systems.

As mentioned, you will tend to find that concrete and steel barriers will need repairing or replacing after any single impact. This will be due to the structure of the barrier being damaged, which will give you little protection to what it is protecting.

Also, you must factor in how likely it is that you will have to replace them over several years.

You will find that the polymer barrier systems can be more expensive than concrete and steel options. However, as they have the reform properties and require minimal maintenance, you will find that they are far less likely to be replaced or repaired after each impact.

Overall, polymer barriers can provide an outstanding return on investment.

Make sure that your safety barriers are fitted and installed correctly

Once you have evaluated and purchased your chosen manufacturers for your safety systems, the next step is installing them.

This is extremely important as this will guarantee your barriers can make any impact.

When looking to install your safety barrier or bollard, these can go anywhere with appropriate flooring. Concrete flooring gives the best to secure safety barriers to the ground and ensure that they can withstand an impact.

It is essential to be conscious that some barriers, such as steel and concrete, are likely to damage your floor surface during any impact to them.

An accident can rip a barrier from its footing as it defends against the impact. Some polymer barriers absorb impact forces and divert them from their footings to keep your concrete floor completely intact.

How do I install safety barriers correctly?

The barrier supplier should supply you with the essential instructions to install your barriers properly. However, we would recommend using the suppliers’ installation teams as they will be more customary with the barriers. It is the best way to safeguard that the barriers are fitted properly.

Our OnDemand team can provide a dedicated installation team to make sure your site is safely up and running. Our team is fully trained and can survey your site, and give you suggestions on the right products to suit your needs from barrier systems, facility line marking etc. Our fully qualified install team can ensure they’re up to standard to give you peace of mind. Contact us for a free quote.

If you want to know how Warehouse Safety Solutions can help your business with having the correct safety bollards and barriers then get in touch by calling us on 0800 055 4737 or email us at info@warehousesafetysolutions.com.