RMI Requests Volunteers To Approve Updated Storage Rack Standard
The Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) is proposing revisions to the American National Standard for industrial storage racks, ANSI MH16.1-2012(R2019), and requests volunteers to serve on an approval committee to review and approve the revised standard.
Individuals interested in participating on the canvass committee are asked to contact Patrick Davison, MHI’s Director of Standards, at pdavison@mhi.org by February 19, 2021 to volunteer.
MHI is an ANSI-accredited standards developer and administers standards approval activities on behalf of RMI. RMI is the primary author of the standard; however, the standard is ultimately approved by a consensus body consisting of materially affected individuals.
MHI uses the ANSI Canvass Method to form consensus bodies. In the Canvass Method, volunteers are asked to participate in a committee whose task is to individually review the standard, cast ballots to approve the standard, and submit comments to revise or improve the standard where needed. The canvass committee does not meet in person; members are instead requested to review the document on their own and to cast ballots and submit comments electronically. Committee members will have the opportunity to review other members’ comments for consideration. Approval of the standard is achieved when the canvass committee comes to consensus on the draft and no unresolved objections remain. MHI and RMI anticipate that there will be two to three rounds of balloting required to approve this standard.
ANSI requires that canvass committees comprise membership from a balanced and diverse range of interest categories, such that no single interest category represents more than one-third of the canvass committee’s total membership. For this standard, MHI defines six different interest categories as follows:
| Interest Category | Description |
| User | Corporate or individual end user of industrial steel storage racks. |
| Manufacturer | Manufacturer of industrial steel storage racks. |
| Distributor | Companies or consortia that distribute, but do not manufacture industrial steel storage racks. |
| Government | Regulatory, legislative, or judicial entities at the federal, state, or local levels. |
| Association | Members of professional trade associations or societies that represent groups of individual professionals or groups of companies. |
| General Interest | Those who have a material interest other than those above. This category typically includes, but is not limited to testing laboratories, educational institutions, consultants, integrators, insurance, labor, etc. |
Canvass committee members are requested to identify the single interest category that best represents their interest pertaining to storage rack.
The draft standard is approximately 150 pages in length and frequently references AISI S100-16, North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members and ANSI/AISC 360-16, Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. Familiarity with these standards is not required, however, canvass committee members would benefit from having basic knowledge of structural engineering terminology, seismic considerations, and usage factors for storage racks.
Canvass committee members benefit from having the ability to influence the guidance for storage rack and will have a first review opportunity to review the standard. RMI anticipates that the revised standard will be published in late 2021 or early 2022.
