To ensure the safety and performance of a racking system, it’s important to regularly perform rack inspections at routine intervals. But what exactly is the optimal inspection frequency in a given facility? Particularly considering that every rack design accommodates different, situation dependent applications?

Guidelines for Rack Inspections

In acknowledgement of that fact, RMI’s publication Considerations for the Planning and Use of Industrial Steel Storage Racks and its recent presentation at ProMat 2019, “Storage Rack Safety 101,” offer some basic guidelines to help the rack owner determine the frequency of regularly scheduled inspections. (It’s important to note that the guidelines advise that a system inspection occur immediately after any event that increases the potential of rack damage. These include seismic events or forklift collisions.)

Conditions Requiring More Frequent Rack Inspections

Perform rack inspections performed—at a minimum—annually. However, RMI’s guidelines also recommend performing inspections more often in areas with the following characteristics:

Judging Impact Damage Risks

As for how often to perform rack inspections on systems at a higher risk of impact damage, here are a few best practice suggestions:

Additionally, document the schedule and results of each rack safety inspection. Keep all inspection records on file for future reference.

Learn More About Performing Rack Inspections

RMI’s publication Considerations for the Planning and Use of Industrial Steel Storage Racks offers additional information about the inspection process.