Latest PS Safety Access News

The heart of almost every busy distribution center or warehouse / fulfillment center is its pick line. Essentially the pick line is the area or process (the phrase is often used to describe one or the other or both) in which workers or machines select or “pick” products or items for an order or for shipment. The success of any pick line, then, relies on how quickly and efficiently this system works. However, speed cannot be the only consideration, since this complex dance of people, products and machines must work in harmony to be productive and – most importantly – safe.

For a safety gate to be effective, it needs to prevent an accident. In most cases, that means the gate must be closed when not in use, serving as a barrier against whatever risks are on the other side of it. One of the primary features that sets a safety gate apart from a regular gate in this regard is that a safety gate closes on its own after someone goes through it. This self-closing action happens thanks to heavy-duty springs, and if those springs aren’t doing their jobs properly, the safety gate’s protection is compromised and its lifespan is diminished.

As manufacturing machines become larger and more automated and facilities become more productive and faster paced, the job of keeping workers safe has evolved as well. It’s no longer enough to rely on signage to remind employees that they must keep a safe distance from equipment or floor tape to steer foot traffic onto safe pathways. Even products like cones can be easily overlooked, creating a need for more tangible, more effective protection for workers.

CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck, North Dakota, was struggling with a safety solution that was causing a problem of its own. The busy regional hospital was employing gates on various stairwells in order to keep patients and staff safe, but the gates themselves closed with a deafening “clang” that echoed through the building. CHI St. Alexius needed gates that did their job without disrupting staff or patients.

The idea of American governing bodies requiring that materials used in publicly funded projects originate in the United States is not a new one. In fact, the original Buy American Act originated in 1933, requiring federal agencies to purchase “domestic end products” and use “domestic construction materials.” This act has been amended multiple times over the past 90 years or so, including revisions in the late 1970s and the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act introduced in 2021 (and taking effect in 2022). How do these regulations govern the inclusion of doors in a project? Read on for more information.

Work for any length of time in the business of keeping workers safe, and you will become familiar with a large number of acronyms that represent safety-based organizations or programs, some of which provide government oversight and others that offer private certification. To the rest of the workforce, though, these acronyms represent an arcane and challenging dilemma – everybody knows that acronym-named organizations like OSHA are important, but they would be hard-pressed to explain what they do.

Industry has been built on ingenuity, but as a result, many companies face something of a consistency problem. Seven out of ten pieces of equipment in their plant are “standard,” but those other three have been modified somehow to meet a unique need. Some of the most important jobs in an industrial setting need to be done by custom-built products, and that goes for doors, hatches, gates and barriers as much as it does for automation and technology.

It may seem like a paradox, but the more automation is introduced into industrial and manufacturing facilities, the more important it becomes to keep workers safe around machines. The less direct interaction humans have with mechanical technology, the more likely we are to take our safety around them for granted.

Wally J. Staples values the people on his team. His company, Wally J. Staples Builders in Brunswick, Maine, has been building custom homes since 1993, and during that time, he has worked hard to keep his longtime employees safe and satisfied with their jobs. To deal with the current shortage of tradespeople, Staples took the unique step of constructing a wood shop so that his carpenters could do more of their work indoors before installing custom cabinetry, etc., on site. It was the design of this new facility that led Staples to PS Safety Access™ and its EdgeSafe® Smart Gate.

The safest safety gates on the market, these new gates feature Slam-Proof technology that closes each gate in a quiet, controlled manner. They have been tested to meet or exceed OSHA, ANSI and Canadian COHS standards, providing top- and mid-rail protection to minimize the chances of a fall from elevated platforms, mezzanines or ladderways.