Do you need a new industrial staircase to connect the different floors of your building while withstanding heavy foot traffic? Or maybe you need a caged industrial ladder to help your workers safely and easily access a tank or silo? For bulk storage metal fabrications, your industrial stairs, ladders, and/or platforms can help you keep your facility running smoothly while meeting your requirements for worker safety.
Fortunately, Southern Metal Fabricators (SMF) offers metal fabrication services and structural steel processing for all your industrial access and support structures, including industrial staircases and industrial ladders. We’ve spent more than three decades fabricating industrial access equipment, including hundreds of stairs, platforms, and ladders for commercial and industrial operations.
For your next industrial access project, here are five key considerations that can reduce time and costs.
1: Key Considerations if You Need New Industrial Stairs
Need new industrial stairs? You’re probably already aware that designing, fabricating, and installing a new industrial staircase is complex. Every installation is unique and there are always exceptions to every rule when it comes to safety and your industry requirements.
Some key considerations for industrial stairs include:
- Logistics: Will you need railings? How do you determine the height of your railings? Do the vertical and horizontal dimensions meet safety requirements?
- Specifications: Do you need to comply with strict industry regulations while also conforming to any unique on-site facility features? Correctly measuring and calculating your industrial stairs at the beginning of the fabrication process can help you avoid costly mistakes.
- Materials: Do you require carbon, stainless steel, galvanized steel, and/or aluminum? Will your staircase require finishing, galvanizing, and/or painting? Choosing the right materials and surface finishing can impact both the safety and longevity of your industrial access components.
- Assembly: Welding and other assembly processes are key to ensuring your next industrial staircase meets all your industry and quality requirements. Check with your vendor before welding and assembly and make sure their welders are certified to meet your industry and quality standards.
2: Industrial Railing Considerations
Do your stairs need industrial railings? Railings can be particularly costly to fabricate, so it’s important to partner with an experienced metal fabricator with automation and structural steel processing capabilities. Outsourcing your structural steel processing can help you get product out the door faster, without sacrificing quality.
For example, at Southern Metal Fabricators, we use state-of-the-art automation like the Bend-Tech Dragon A400 to accelerate railing production. We can also achieve dead-on accurate, plasma-cut handrails that assemble perfectly.
If you need new industrial railings, here are some key considerations that this type of automation can address.
- Need longer material cutting? Our Bend-Tech Dragon can cut material up to 24-feet long, with pass-through via the chuck for round, square and rectangle material.
- Looking for flexible-sized cutting? Options include round .75 to 6 inches, square 1 to 4 inches, rectangle 1 inch to 4 inches, angle and channel 1 inch to 4 inches, and hypotenuse options.
- Want more material value? We can cut a wide variety of materials, including stainless and galvanized steel, aluminum, black pipe, chrome alloy, or any electrically conductive metal.
- Seeking more material options? The Bend-Tech Dragon can cut any thickness from 1/32 inch to 5/8 inch in pipes, tubes, channels, or angles. The coolant system increases quality, reduces slag amount, and decreases fumes.
3: Fabrication Considerations for Industrial Ladders
Industrial ladders often have to meet OSHA safety and regulatory requirements — especially fixed ladders for an industrial site. These rules apply to load-bearing capabilities, clearance measurements, side rails, rungs, platforms, landings, and may include safety features such as cages. Below are some of the most common fixed ladder requirements.
Load and Clearance
Your fixed ladder must be able to support two loads of 250 pounds on two consecutive rungs. You need at least seven inches between ladder rungs and any “obstruction” behind the ladder — which is usually the surface the ladder is fixed to. On the climbing side of a fixed ladder, there needs to be at least 30 inches of clearance between the center of a rung and any obstruction. Note that there are additional rules for different types of fixed ladders and many of these rules have exceptions.
Industrial Railings and Rungs
Long ladders require splicing several pieces of metal together to make continuous side rails. Any side rail assembly made of multiple parts has to be at least as strong as a one-piece side rail made of the same material. Rungs must be engineered to minimize slipping. Corrugated, knurled, or dimpled patterns meet this requirement, as does coating the rungs with some sort of skid-resistant material.
Ladder Extensions
When a fixed ladder reaches the top access level of a landing platform, its side rails need to extend 42 inches above the surface. For a side-step ladder with an extension, that extension must extend 42 inches above the point of egress and be equipped with rungs. It should also include rungs in the extension.
For a through-fixed ladder, don’t include any steps or rungs in the extension. The side rails of a through-fixed ladder’s extension must be flared in such a way that there are 24–30 inches of clearance between the side rails.
Industrial Ladder Safety Features
It’s important that all your industrial ladder components are properly surfaced so that climbers aren’t at risk for lacerations, punctures, or snagging. If a fixed ladder has a vertical height of 24 feet or more, it must be equipped with one of the following safety features.
- Ladder safety device
- Self-retracting lifeline
- Rest platform
- Cage or well
4: Do You Need an Industrial Caged Ladder?
A caged industrial ladder is a good option when you need a safe, sturdy, permanent solution, whether it’s a stand-alone ladder or part of a large ladder assembly. One of the benefits of a cage compared to other safety devices is that it stands up over time and doesn’t need to be replaced until the ladder itself is due for replacement.
Like all ladders, caged ladders have basic requirements to meet industrial and safety standards, such as:
- Horizontal bands on caged ladders must be less than 4 feet apart. The vertical bars, which can be no more than 9 1/2 inches apart, must be on the inside of the horizontal bands.
- A cage’s vertical bars must be on the inside of the horizontal bands and need to be fastened to them. Vertical bars need to be at most 9 1/2 inches apart, measured from the center of each bar.
- The top of a cage has to be at least 42 inches above the point of access at the top of the ladder.
- The bottom of a cage needs to be between 7 feet and 8 feet above the point of access at the bottom of the ladder. If the bottom of a cage flares, it has to do so in such a way that the distance all around the bottom horizontal band is no more than 4 inches of the distance all around the next higher band.
5: Do You Need an Industrial Platform?
Industrial platforms give workers a chance to rest and get their footing, reducing the risk of injury and increasing overall plant safety. If you need an industrial staircase or ladder for your facility, there’s a good chance you’ll also need an industrial platform to accompany it.
There are many considerations in fabricating an industrial platform, from load capacity and materials to the environmental conditions for worker use. Some considerations to meet your specific access requirements include:
- Access: How will your platform and stairs be used? Do you need to break up long flights of industrial stairs or connect multiple ladders together?
- Structural: Do you need a platform to bridge the divide when two or more fixed ladders are used in succession?
- Assembly: Assembling the platform and your industrial staircase and/or ladders must adhere to your specific codes and requirements. Make sure every final assembly, including staircases or ladders, is carefully reviewed to check for any defects.
Also, your metal fabrication partner should advise you on the best material for an industrial platform based on your facility, budget, appearance, and durability. This requires double-checking all the calculations to ensure all the components fit with each other and meet your industry’s safety and OSHA regulations.
How a Metal Fabrication Partner Can Save Time and Costs for New Industrial Stairs, Ladders, and Related Access Systems
Given the many complexities surrounding industrial staircases, ladders, railings, and other industrial access systems, there are time- and cost-saving benefits to partnering with a custom metal fabricator. This is especially the case when it comes to having in-house structural steel processing automation and industry expertise.
For example, the engineers at Southern Metal Fabricators have been solving structural steel processing challenges for well over three decades, including finding new ways to shorten production timelines, reduce errors, and minimize material waste.
We understand that steel fabrication is the framework of our daily lives, from agriculture silos to petroleum tank-access ladders to utility water towers. This is why we’ve invested in industry-leading automation and processes to fabricate even the most challenging staircases and structural steel tanks with wrap-around stairs.
Give us a chance to say, “Yes, we can do that!” by outsourcing your industrial access project to Southern Metal Fabricators. Visit our metal fabrication capabilities page to learn more or contact us today.
