If you haven’t made any significant changes to your distribution center lately you may not have noticed that local government inspections for new rack installations have been increasing . Along with this trend (and probably as a result of it), more and more rack systems are required to have fire protection included.
An in-rack sprinkler system adds protection to your building but it also adds expense and complexity. Today we want to talk to you about an often overlooked aspect of deploying a sprinkler system.
Fire Sprinkler Guarding
When a local government requires in-rack fire protection, the decision is often made based on the height of your storage rack. The higher you go, the more likely you’ll need to deploy a sprinkler system.
This creates a potentially costly situation because the lift truck operators usually can’t see the sprinkler heads due to the skids stored in the racking. If a load hits a sprinkler head, the water damage to the stored product, along with the clean-up cost and interruption to your operation can run into tens of thousands of dollars.
Pretty destructive for something the size of your fist.
While all of this sounds like something designed to give operations managers nightmares, there’s an easy and inexpensive way to prevent the problem.
At DAK Equipment & Engineering, we’ve installed thousands of in-rack sprinkler guards like those you see in the pictures here. We created our K3 WERKS line of premium in-rack sprinkler guards with 25 years of experience dealing with warehouse floods.
For $35 or less per sprinkler head (depending on quantity), you can protect your building, rack, and stored products from water damage due to a lift truck load hitting a sprinkler.
Our good friend and go-to guy for all things related to fire protection is Larry Forbes, President and owner of Forbes Fire Protection. He had this to say about sprinkler guarding: “It is virtually impossible to design an In-rack Sprinkler System that will eliminate the possibility of damage to sprinklers by lift trucks. However, the level of protection that DAK’s In-rack Sprinkler Guard provides can give the Warehouse Managers the peace of mind that they have done everything possible to avoid accidental damage to the sprinkler heads.”
To learn more about preventing damage to your in-rack fire protection find your project manager now.
