Liability claims from slips, trips and falls in the workplace can be financially debilitating and have an extremely negative impact on the reputation of a business. Considered the most frequent cause of injuries in the workplace, these incidents can result in serious downtime and even closure of facilities.
“Businesses should consult floor grating specialists to ensure that their floor grating adheres to the required building regulations and occupational health and safety (OHS) standards,” says Elaine van Rooyen, marketing manager of Andrew Mentis.
Not all floor grating products are of a suitably high standard. “An inferior quality product may well look identical to a reputable brand. However, the real litmus test comes after installation,” van Rooyen points out.
Van Rooyen cautions that customers should carefully research the claims made by the manufacturer. “Mentis floor grating is engineered to take specific loading which then ensures the optimum safety of the people walking on or working in those areas. A complete understanding of the load bearing capacity of grating is required to ensure that the correct floor grating product is selected for an application.”
All Mentis floor grating is manufactured using a pressure locking system pioneered by the company. “Quality control is stringent during the manufacturing process to ensure that close tolerances are maintained and that the round transversal bar fits tightly through the pierced bearer bar on our floor grating products,” van Rooyen says.
Mentis has two predominant floor grating products – Rectagrid RS40 and Rectagrid RS80. “RS40 is a premium brand and is formed through a process of compressive pressure locking of bearer bars and transversals to form an exact pitch of 40mm by 40mm. Rectagrid RS80 is identical to RS40 grating except that we omit every second bearer bar, giving an 80mm pitch bearer bar with a 40mm pitch transversal. This reduces the RS80’s permissible load bearing capacity by 50%,” she adds.
Van Rooyen emphasises that the most critical element is the load bearing capacity of the floor grating.
Non-negotiable factors include the fact that the transversals must be positively and permanently locked to the bearer bars.“The locking method at the intersections should be designed to use the full depth of the bearer bar when calculating loads. Finally, the grating panels should be flat, square and untwisted. Safety in the workplace simply cannot be compromised,” van Rooyen concludes.
