A mezzanine floor doesn’t just expand your building’s footprint but also your business’s potential.
Having completed almost 300 mezzanine floors (at the time of writing!), the team here at The Mezzanine Company fully appreciates that every project calls for something different.
Beyond considering the size of the mezzanine floor, in some cases, you may also want to add custom features such as a conveyor or lift.
Our team would be happy to discuss your specific project requirements with you when you contact us. In the meantime, we want to tell you more about conveyors and lifts, including how we can incorporate them into the mezzanine floor we can build for you.
Wait, Why Should I Add A Conveyor Or Lift To A Mezzanine Floor?
As a business, any investment you make into your commercial premises needs to make sense from a financial and practical point of view.
While conveyors and lifts are different types of equipment, they share many benefits, especially when installed in industrial settings like warehouses, factories or distribution centres.
The key perks of installing a lift or a conveyor as part of a mezzanine floor include:
Improved Productivity
In any setting, both lifts and conveyors work to improve productivity. But with a mezzanine floor specifically, automated conveyors can continuously feed cartons or totes to the mezzanine for picking or packing. Pallet lifts can also move full loads to upper floors in seconds instead of minutes. Both of these features can help meet same-day dispatch and e-commerce fulfilment targets.
Better Efficiency
You don’t need us to tell you that ‘time is money’. In any industrial environment especially, poor workflows or inefficient systems create bottlenecks. Both conveyors and lifts can work to solve these challenges as they reduce the need for manual handling. Likewise, there can be a reduction in forklift traffic if vertical transport systems are used instead.
Better Space Utilisation
A mezzanine adds an extra floor for storage, packing or assembly. However, both lifts and conveyors go that extra mile to drive efficiency when they are integrated into the material flow. This is especially the case when your mezzanine floor has been meticulously designed by our experts, as we can work to maximise the potential of every inch of floor space.
Cost Savings
Lifts and conveyors allow workers to spend more time on value-added tasks rather than manually transporting items. This can work to reduce costs. Over the long term, costs can also be reduced in terms of reduced injury claims or downtime.
Scalability
At The Mezzanine Company, we also recognise the need to scale your operations up or down over time. The great thing about integrated features like lifts and conveyors is that they make it easier to add more floors or processes without reworking the warehouse layout. This makes it easy to expand your operations as order volumes increase.
Integrating Lifts & Conveyors Into A Mezzanine Floor – The Essential Considerations
When integrating conveyors and lifts with mezzanine floors, there is a need to balance operational efficiency with regulatory compliance.
Here in the UK, where our company is based, mezzanine floor integrations including lifts and conveyors, must comply with LOLER and meet EN standards. The overall system must also get building regulations approval, especially for aspects such as fire safety and structural stability.
Some general regulations and standards that can apply include:
- Building regulations (Part A structural safety & Part B fire safety)
- BS EN 528 (safety of conveyors)
- BS EN 1570-1 (safety requirements for lifting tables)
- BS EN 81-31 (lift safety for goods only lifts)
- BS EN ISO 12100 (machinery risk assessment)
- Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER).
- Manual Handling Operations Regulations (MHOR).
As highly experienced mezzanine floor installers, we can take care of such aspects on behalf of your business. However, it’s still good to be aware that any integrations need to be safe and compliant.
With these finer points taken care of, we can then work on ensuring the type of systems installed truly meet your brief. For lifts and conveyors, this can include considerations such as improving productivity and safety.
Can Lifts Or Conveyors Be Integrated Into An Existing Mezzanine Floor?
If your business is located in the UK, you’re in exactly the right place for this kind of question! That’s because our mezzanine floor experts can determine this for you once we have carried out a survey of your premises.
The good news is that yes, it’s certainly possible to modify an existing mezzanine floor, including adding a lift or conveyor. However, there are some things we’d have to check first such as the structural capacity of the floor, space access, fire escape routes and power integration.
In some cases, retrofitting works can take place to upgrade the necessary aspects so that a lift or conveyor can safely be added. Once you contact us, we can get the ball rolling in making all the necessary checks. We’ll then arrange for the applicable works to take place.
Discuss Your Industrial Mezzanine Floor Requirements With Us
Are you looking to have a mezzanine floor installed? Or, do you want to modify your existing mezzanine structure to include a lift or conveyor?
Contact the experts here at The Mezzanine Company for further advice or to arrange a free survey.
Our team is based in Nottingham, and we provide mezzanine expertise across the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
Alternatively, please give us a call on 0115 647 7140.
