How to Avoid Moisture at the Loading Dock in Fort Worth, TX?

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Loading Dock equipment Fort Worth, during wet conditions, the area surrounding your Fort Worth loading dock can be as hazardous or even more hazardous as an icy sidewalk or a wet entryway. These tips can help you prevent employee injuries.

Why moisture build-up at the loading dock area?

Wet loading dock floors are one common loading dock problem, particularly in places with hot, humid, and wet climates. They are caused by precipitation or condensation, wet loading dock floors typically become slippery and can cause accidents that injure workers, damaged products, and reduce productivity. 

Examples of when inspection personnel is required to take action in situations involving moisture condensate include:

• Drips from a ceiling in a cooler land.

• Droplets from a refrigeration unit on the exposed product.

• Moisture from a loading dock ceiling drips on to boxes of product, disrupting the packaging.

How to get rid of accidents to happen?

Loading docks have always been dangerous places to work. However, thanks to Fort Worth loading dock equipment from Southern Dock Products, a division of DuraServ Corp, and improved best practices, they are safer now than they used to be. Nonetheless, there are still hundreds of things that can and do go wrong.

There are several ways to address this dilemma. Smart facility managers are discovering that proper Fort Worth loading dock seals and Fort Worth loading dock shelters can greatly reduce the amount of precipitation and contaminants that enter the loading dock. Correspondingly, floor condensation can be minimized with the strategic use of high-volume, low-speed Fort Worth HVLS Fans.

How to keep your loading dock environment safe?

One way to reduce this risk is to minimize the infiltration of outside elements like rain and snow – from getting into the loading dock area. This can be done using a system of Fort Worth loading dock sealing products to get a complete, tight seal at each loading dock opening. 

Here are some tips for achieving a complete safety for Fort Worth loading dock: 

Loading Dock Door- Ensure a Closed Case 

• Even when the doorway is completely covered, moisture from condensation still can form on the dock floor, especially in cold-storage warehouses. 

• It's important that the dock door match the thickness of the dock walls. Utilizing a thicker, insulated impactable dock door is the ideal defense in cold storage applications.

Closing the Avenues for Moisture 

• Standard, pit-mounted dock levelers provide safe trailer access for forklifts, but the pit cut into the concrete dock floor includes small gaps that act as a passageway for moisture.

• Vertical levelers and dock bridges provide the added benefit of a full perimeter seal while also acting as a steel barrier when stored, protecting overhead doors from forklift assaults.

Door Seals and Parked Trailers 

• Loading docks depend on seals and shelters to close the gap between the dock wall and the trailer and prevent the invasion of outdoor moisture. As with damaged dock doors, a poorly specified seal or shelter also permits considerable infiltration.

• Trailers expose seals and shelters to damage through impact and compression thousands of times a year. 

• It is important that dock seals are made of durable material and inspected regularly for signs of wear, or they ultimately will provide no seal at all.

Combatting Condensation with HVLS Fans

• Precipitation is not the only cause of wet floors. Slippery spots can develop due to condensation. 

• Moisture develops when warm, humid air enters a facility and condenses on surfaces that are at or below the dew point temperature.

• HVLS ceiling fans can help reduce or eliminate slab sweating by minimizing ceiling-to-floor temperature differentials and increasing the surface evaporation rate.

Who to consult for your business loading dock matters in Fort Worth, TX

With fall just around the corner, it is a great time to consider your loading dock and take some proactive measures to increase safety. Concerns such as slips, trips and falls to trailer creep, early trailer departure, and dock drop-offs are all serious factors up for consideration. With the correct mix of safety equipment and training, you can avoid becoming part of a statistic and instead turn your loading dock into a productive, safe, and efficient operation.

For more information, visit Southern Dock Products. We all know that the southern part of our name is synonymous with humidity. Call us today.