The Sacrificial Leg

Welcome to Technical Topics. The aim with this column is to explore some of the areas that influence the design and effectiveness of a storage system. Technical Topics is a regular feature of Rack It, so, if you have a subject you would like included, let us know.

Fork lift trucks moving within a racking system will result in regular fork truck impact and inevitable damage to frames. Yet in 90% of cases damage is restricted to the first 1000mm of the upright. It is logical therefore, that only the damaged section is replaced, rather than replacing the upright or the frame and having to dismantle the complete rack bay to do so.

Redirack's unique sacrificial leg was designed to solve the problem of rack repair being expensive and time consuming. It also tackles head-on the safety issue as it encourages operators to repair damage rather than leave the repair until it is more convenient.

The sacrificial leg is a replacable section in the front upright of the rack frame. This is the most vulnerable part of the rack and is the part most commonly damaged. If a fork lift truck or its load hits the leg it deforms, as would any upright. However, after unloading the beams immediately around the frame, a special jack can be attached to the front of the upright and the damaged section replaced. It is as simple as that. Users report replacement times of under fifteen minutes, using their own staff!

What Our Customers Say:

Kieron Dunne is the Logistics Director of Delbanco Meyer. “With narrow aisles, damage to the racking uprights is unavoidable. The sacrificial leg is a brilliant solution. Redirack has trained our maintenance staff to change the leg and we have invested in the special frame support jack. We can repair damaged legs in a matter of minutes, without having to call for a Redirack service engineer. This has, undoubtedly, saved us a lot of time and money.”

Ron Hattersley is the Logistics Director of Chatsworth Bathrooms: "The sacrificial leg is an ingenious idea. Having an easily replaceable section in the front upright enables us to make substantial savings on repair time and ultimately costs."

Paul Blackman, is Morphy Richard's Operations Manager: “With such a busy operation, damage to the racking is inevitable, no matter how well trained our reach truck drivers are. Redirack’s sacrificial leg is an excellent accessory, enabling a damaged upright to be replaced in a matter of minutes.”

How It Works

If you have opted for sacrificial legs to the front of all your frames, or if not all, to the most vulnerable i.e. at aisle entry - the repair sequence is as straight forward as it is simple. (See figure 1)

When the frame gets damaged encourage your operators to report the damage straight away. Alert your maintenance staff or call us if you would like us to complete the repair. Start unloading the affected bays. (See figure 2)

Having unloaded the pallets from all the beams that connect to the damaged upright, fit the special jack. It's simple - it locks into the holes in the front face of the upright. With it in place, jackup the upright the two or three millimetres required to remove the bent leg. (See figure 3)

Replace the bent leg with a new one. The replacement leg will have a larger base plate with additional holes for the floor bolts. So, if the fixings have been pulled out of the floor, new ones can be fitted at different points. (See figure 4)

With the new leg bolted to the upright, lower the frame and remove the jack. Fix the leg to the floor and the repair is complete. Now reload the bay with pallets and you are working again, rack safely repaired. If you are good, the whole process should take less then 15 minutes. (See figure 5)

*Please note: Unless otherwise specified, legs are supplied unpunched.