Long term savings with polymer barriers and guardrails

Steel vs polymer: which barrier delivers long-term value?

There are many factors to consider when choosing the correct barriers or guardrails. A common decision is deciding between steel and polymer. Cost is often cited as a driving factor, and while the initial investment in polymer barriers is typically higher, longer-term direct and indirect savings make polymer the obvious choice.

Reduced routine maintenance

Steel barriers require frequent maintenance. Chipped paint needs to be touched up, not only for aesthetics but to prevent the ingress of corrosion that can weaken the barrier performance. Polymer barriers stay looking good for longer and superficial damage that might eventually reduce the performance of a steel barrier has no affect.

Damage to vehicles

The cushioning effect of polymer barriers combined with yielding materials means your forklifts are less likely to be damaged in an impact compared to steel barriers. By reducing the risks of forklift damage, so too are the potential costs for vehicle repair and you are less likely to incur downtime in your vehicle fleet and all the associated operational challenges.

Protecting the floor

The best polymer barriers protect the floor. Even in extreme impacts they are designed to have safe, sacrificial failures elsewhere in the system that keep the floor intact. The rigidity of steel barriers means large impacts often destroy the concrete and repairs are costly and time consuming.

Repeated impacts

Steel barriers are often destroyed after a single moderate impact while polymer barriers can withstand multiple impacts day after day. In our own study of polymer rack end protection in a busy logistics facility, 20 sections of end frame protection were impacted 61 times in 127 days. Many were glancing blows that would likely only chip the paint of steel barriers but there were also 5 severe impacts which would have severely damaged steel barriers resulting in either the need for replacement or severely weakened their future performance. Meanwhile the polymer barriers are still looking good performing.

Ease of repairs

In a large impact even polymer barriers will need to be repaired. Due to the typical nature of steel barrier construction large sections need to be replaced often at the same time as repairing the floor. Modular polymer barriers have not only protected the floor, but the speed of the barrier repair is drastically reduced as only individual damaged components need to be replaced. This alone is a huge direct cost saving versus steel barriers. When you consider the potential indirect costs polymer barriers really pull ahead. Consider the time required to repair pallet racking protection in the event of a damaged barrier that has also destroyed the floor. Condemning even a single aisle of pallet racking while replacement concrete cures and barriers are replaced can cause chaos in a logistics facility.

Safety

Arguably, the hidden costs of safety, or lack of, are the biggest considerations when choosing a barrier or guardrail. Axelent’s polymer barriers are tested with real life dynamic forces so you can be confident that they will live up to our performance claims, whereas many steel barriers make no performance claims at all.

If barriers are added to your facility as a safety measure and they don’t work as intended, have you really made your site any safer? The illusion of safety can increase risk.

Then there is the potential hazard that steel barriers can pose themselves. For a vehicle operator, the abrupt stopping force of steel barriers can cause injury within the cab. In the event of a crushing accident, where a pedestrian is caught between a vehicle and a barrier, polymer barriers have contoured, yielding components that can reduce the risk of severe injury whereas the hard sharp edges of steel increase them.

Key benefits of polymer barriers

• Durability:

  Polymer barriers withstand repeated impacts without significant degradation, reducing the need for frequent replacements compared to steel barriers.

• Ease of repair:

  The modular design of polymer barriers allows for quick and cost-effective repairs by replacing only individual damaged components, unlike steel barriers which often require replacement of large sections and floor repairs.

• Indirect cost savings:

  The faster repair times for polymer barriers minimize operational downtime and prevent logistical disruptions, such as condemning parts of a plant while concrete cures.

• Prevention of severe damage:

  Polymer barriers are designed to absorb impacts and prevent damage to floors and other infrastructure, avoiding costly repairs and replacements.