Rules of Best Practices

Storage facilities and equipment

Scope of rules

These best practices rules applies to storage facilities and equipment. It does not apply to storage facilities if specific regulations are included in the respective national building code.

Definitions

For the purposes of this rule, the following terms are defined:

  1. Storage Facilities are stationary or movable shelves and cabinets. Shelves include, for example, shelving units with adjustable shelves, pallet racks, cantilever racks, flow racks, drive-in racks, and multi-tier shelving systems. Cabinets include, for example, cabinets with hinged, rolling, or sliding doors, cabinets with drawers or pull-outs, multi-tier cabinet systems, and cabinets with motor-operated internal fittings.
  2. Storage Equipment include pallets intended for reuse, with or without stacking aids, and stackable containers. Pallets include, for example, flat pallets made of wood, steel, plastic, or lightweight metal. Stackable containers are containers whose structures are firmly connected to the base, such as box pallets, mesh box pallets, stackable trays, and stackable boxes.
  3. Stacking Aids are aids intended for reuse that are to be attached to flat pallets. Examples include frames and stanchions that are placed on, stacked on, or inserted into pallets, as well as their connections. See also DIN EN ISO 445 “Pallets for Handling Goods – Terms.”

General requirements

Storage facilities and equipment must be designed, operated and tested in accordance with SSM rules and the generally accepted rules of technology. Deviations are permitted if the same level of safety can be guaranteed in another way.

Construction and equipment

Common Provisions

Design

Storage facilities and equipment must be constructed and installed in such a way that they can safely bear the load of the stored goods during proper use. Their stability and load-bearing capacity must meet operational demands and be verified through calculated load-bearing capacity proofs for the load-bearing elements or through load tests.

Static Requirements

This includes: safety against breakage, stiffness, deflection, horizontal forces, stability factor, installation surfaces, and loads from the building.

External Design

Components of storage facilities and equipment – especially their corners and edges – must be designed or processed in such a way that the risk of injuries is minimized.

Best practices rules also specifies how traffic routes and aisles should be designed and what must be considered when installing shelving systems.

Special Provisions for Storage Equipment

Structural stability

The stability of racks and cabinets must be ensured in all operating conditions. In addition to the permissible load, forces occurring during loading and unloading must also be considered. Fixed racks, which are loaded or unloaded with lifting equipment, must be specially secured.

The following can generally be considered stable, provided they have sufficient load-bearing capacity and are vertically aligned:

  • Racks and cabinets with adequate self-weight.
  • Cabinets with pull-out stops, allowing only one drawer to be opened at a time.
  • Cabinets with hinged doors, if the height of the top shelf above the base does not exceed four times the cabinet depth.
  • Shelves and cabinets with sliding or rolling doors, which are manually loaded and unloaded, if the height of the top shelf above the base does not exceed five times the shelf or cabinet depth.
  • Racks due to their connection and installation method.

Special securing measures include, for example, connections between racks or to suitable building components.

Assembly and Operating Instructions

Racks must come with assembly and operating instructions that include guidelines for installation, operation, and necessary safety measures. This also applies to cabinets whose design requires special instructions for installation and operation.

Prevention of Falling Out or Down

Components of racks and cabinets must be designed or secured so that they cannot unintentionally fall out or down. These components include inserted frame parts, hooked or inserted shelf elements, drawers, and pull-outs.

Supports for holding loading units must be designed and arranged so that they cannot fall off and must securely hold the loading units.

Racks that are loaded and unloaded with lifting equipment must have carriers secured against an upward force of at least 7500 N and at most 10000 N. The securing elements must be designed so that they cannot be unintentionally loosened.

Prevention of Falling Loading Units and Stored Goods

The sides of racks not intended for loading and unloading must be secured against falling loading units. The dimensions of the securing elements must correspond to the dimensions and loads of the loading units.

For pallet storage, the securing elements against falling loading units must be at least 0.5 m high, even on the top shelves.

Areas above rack passageways must be safely designed to prevent falling loading units and falling through of stored goods.

Double-sided racks, which are loaded from both sides with non-guided lifting equipment, must have push-through protections that are effective up to a height of at least 150 mm.

Push-through protections are not required if a safety distance of at least 100 mm is maintained between the largest loading units stored from both sides when centered.

Racks and cabinets with power-driven internal fittings must have protective measures against falling objects. Covers, shields, and barriers must be adequately dimensioned and securely fixed.

Impact Protection

Fixed racks that are loaded or unloaded with non-guided lifting equipment must have their corner areas – including drive-throughs – secured with an impact protection at least 0.3 m high, adequately dimensioned, not connected to the rack, and marked with yellow-black hazard stripes. This does not apply to the inner sides of fixed end racks in movable systems.

Installation

Racks must be installed vertically. Deviations of the rack supports from the vertical in the length and depth directions of the racks must not exceed 1/200 of the height of the rack supports. The connections of carriers and racks must not deviate in height by more than 1/300 of the distance between supports.

Labeling

Fixed racks with a shelf load of more than 200 kg or a bay load of more than 1000 kg, movable racks and cabinets, and racks and cabinets with power-driven internal fittings must have the following information clearly visible and permanently attached:

  • Manufacturer or importer
  • Type designation
  • Year of manufacture or commission number
  • Permissible rack and bay loads
  • If applicable, electrical specifications

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Operations

General provisions

Load

The permissible load of storage facilities and equipment must not be exceeded, and their stability must not be compromised. Loading units must not be placed down with a jolt.

Protection Against Falling Objects

Storage facilities and equipment must be loaded in such a way that stored goods cannot fall out or down. This includes ensuring that, in the event of a change in stored goods, storage facilities and equipment are adapted to the new goods.

Operating Instructions

The employer must create operating instructions for storage facilities and equipment based on the manufacturer’s assembly and operating manuals and communicate these to the personnel.

The obligation of the employer to instruct the insured personnel based on these operating instructions, as well as the obligation of the insured personnel to follow them, arises from SSM, on minimum safety and health requirements for the use of work equipment by workers.

Elimination of Defects

Any defects found in storage facilities and equipment that could endanger the personnel must be rectified immediately and properly. Until the defects are eliminated, the storage facilities and equipment must be withdrawn from use.

Special provisions for storage facilities

Racking

Racks must only be assembled and modified by specially instructed personnel, following the assembly and operating instructions provided by the manufacturer. Racks can only be modified when unloaded. If necessary, the manufacturer should be consulted.

Annual Inspection

 The employer must ensure that powered racks and cabinets, as well as racks and cabinets with powered internal fittings, are inspected as needed, but at least once a year, by a qualified person to ensure they are in a safe condition. Records of the inspection results must be maintained.

A competent person is someone who, due to their training and professional experience, has sufficient knowledge of the respective work equipment and is familiar with state regulations on occupational health and safety (OHS), SR/DIN standards, technical rules of other European Union member states or Turkey (or other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area) to the extent that they can assess the safety conditions of the work equipment.

These requirements are met, for example, by specially trained and experienced installers from manufacturers and maintenance companies, as well as appropriately trained company personnel.

Pallets, stackable containers, and stacking aids must be regularly inspected, particularly when reused, to ensure they are in a safe condition. Damaged storage equipment must be withdrawn from use.

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