Sometimes it's not so much about 'how cheap' but more about 'how good' an item of safety equipment is!

We were recently contacted by a regular customer who told us that they had two irritating and not to mention expensive problems occurring around their business premises in North London. The first being random thefts from site and the second being damage to expensive plant on the premises. We suggested that one of our representatives could visit the site to see firsthand the exact nature of the problem. During this site visit it was immediately apparent that the individual items of the plant varied in size and weight considerably and that the items being stolen were mainly small but valuable tools. Damage and theft were spontaneous and seemed to occur predominantly during workplace hours and were never the result of any carefully planned actions.

A list was drawn up of all the important items of the plant like electrical systems, air conditioning units, electrical pumps and production plant. These tended to be 'bolted down' items. We also found that the expensive tools were more portable and often used around different parts of the site. The company had tried some lightweight barrier rails to protect the plant and also a variety of storage boxes and containers to hold the tools. Generally, these were inexpensive fixes and had no lasting merit. We proposed a series of heavy-duty lockable storage cages that were to become permanent fixtures around the premises. Some would be fixed around the heavy plant and some would be used to store the tools at several locations wherein a booking in/out system could be employed to monitor the issue of tools to operatives.

The variety of sizes to deal with were many and complex so we had to be careful to design and supply cages that were perfectly fit for purpose in every case.
 

The cage framework was constructed from 50 x 50mm box section, infilled with 25 x 25mm heavy duty weld mesh and braced at intervals to provide aditional strength and security. All the swing doors were fitted with anti-theft hinges and locks. The units were finished off in grey powder coating. The cages were fitted with bolt plates to secure them to the floor or to the wall panels that they were laid adjacent to.

In total some 13 storage cage units were supplied to the site and we understand that they have been an enormous success with damage and theft being reduced by somewhere in the region of 90%. It shows that good quality security storage cages can be a worthwhile investment when compared to low quality storage containers.

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