Safety barriers
January 1st 2008

The A-Safe safety barrier and safety product range from A-Safe (UK) offers a safety barrier system that protects workforce personnel, site visitors, machinery, buildings and vehicles alike. It is quick and economical to install and A-Safe's modular design means it can expand with businesses' growing needs. Neil Clifford, business development manager, A-safe UK, spoke to IP&E

A-Safe's barrier systems are tested and certified to British Standards, and are strong, durable and flexible, aesthetically pleasing and highly visible.

Installation is easy as no screws or welding are required, and once installed they never need painting, and require little or no maintenance.

A-Safe has a worldwide agreement with Alcan to supply safety barriers and products for its manufacturing locations, and recently received a signed agreement from DHL Corporate Procurement to become the approved supplier of safety barriers to all DHL group sites and facilities in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

What specific barrier products are in your current range? A. Fundamentally the product range falls into two major categeries, Pedstrian and Traffic, based on the products initially introduced to the market in 2002. The product range has grown to be quite comprehensive, and I would think all our products have a use somewhere in a warehouse, logistics or distribution facility.

Our Handrail is suitable for direction and guidance of pedestrians and indication of, and access restriction to, fall and edge hazards. Pedestrian Barrier is for use where segregation of pedestrians or workforce personnel and vehicles is required, such as pedestrian walkways. It also has the ability to absorb the impact of a moving forklift truck.

Providing a higher level of impact protection, our Traffic Barrier product is used to define and segregate forklift truck and other vehicle routes. A double rail version is available for use where larger and/or more powerful vehicles are present.

The Traffic Barrier can also be fitted with Pedestrian Rail Attachments where enhanced low level impact protection is required with the height of a Pedestrian Barrier needed to protect personnel.

Our Rack End Barrier is a non-contacting method of protection used at rack aisle ends, giving the same impact protection level as the Traffic Barrier. We also have rack upright protectors available, if protection of individual uprights in an aisle is needed.

Where bollards are required for loading bay protection, edge protection at vehicle or pedestrian entry and exit points or to prevent vehicle access, we have high impact bollards in heights from 400mm to 1200mm with a heavy duty version of the 1200mm high bollard also available.

We also have an on-going development of a barrier specifically for use in car parks, designed in accordance with the latest legislation and regulations relating to Car Park Barriers. We believe we have developed a product range that will provide a solution for nearly any barrier requirement. If we come across a need that can't be satisfied with an existing product, we are flexible enough to be able to design and supply a product that will.

Do you offer a consultancy and barrier advice service? A. This is included as part of our sales service. As product requirements (type, dimensions and layout) tend to be specific to individual sites and facilities, the process of defining exactly what is required is usually an interactive one between the customer and ourselves.

How do your polypropylene barriers compare with metal ones? A. Very well. Many people don't realise that extruded polypropylene has a very high tensile strength, with the ability to flex under impact conditions thus absorbing and dissipating the impact forces before returning to its original shape and form.

Metal barriers however tend to provide a rigid obstacle to an impact source and can quite easily suffer permanent damage, to both barrier and vehicle.

What this means to the customer is that he has a product that will suffer little or no damage on impact, does not cause damage to the vehicle causing the impact, and does not need frequently repairing or repainting to maintain its appearance and effectiveness. It also severely reduces the risk of expensive floor damage. On impact with metal barriers the bulk of the impact force is transmitted to the barrier anchor points, which can often cause the barrier fixings to be ripped out of the ground.

A-Safe products also offer other additional features and benefits. They won't rust or rot, are coloured all the way through, so don't need repainting when they get scratched or chipped on impact. They are easily cleaned, corrosion resistant, and impervious to environmental conditions, meaning they can be used internally or externally.

How do they compare in terms of cost and lifespan? Are they easy to repair? A. While our products are competitively priced, frequently being cheaper on a like for like basis, a truer cost comparison can be made by comparing the cost of purchasing and installing the product and maintaining it over a 12 month period.

Based on figures provided by A-Safe product users, the installation and maintenance costs for a typical metal product can represent 125% of the product's purchase price (with product installation alone accounting for 60% and yearly floor maintenance for 30%). The figure for an equivalent A-Safe product is 25%. This means that over 12 months our products can cost nearly 50% less than their metal counterparts. We would expect our products to have a longer usable lifespan.

Being polypropylene, they are also 100% recyclable at the end of their useful life.

Does having your barrier products improve a company's insurance risk? A. Definitely. Pedestrian segregation is a prerequisite of Health and Safety regulations.

Our products ensure pedestrian and structure protection from FLT's and other vehicles. A visit by the company's CEO to an Alcan site in the UK where our barriers are installed resulted in our products being recommended for installation as best practice where Pedestrian Segregation was required, on Alcan sites worldwide.

What impacts can your barriers withstand? A. The products are tested and certified as capable of withstanding the impact forces specified in the relevant British Standards, a horizontal 90° impact force of 150kN. Simply put, this equates to a vehicle up to 2500kg moving at 4.5m/s.

We know from the tests carried out to obtain certification that the products will withstand impact forces exceeding those required by the standards. In-house testing has proved that the actual forces the products withstand can be 50–75% higher than the standards stipulate.

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