By Owen Toomey
Automation Engineer
Thomas Conveyor & Equipment Co
Industrial steel work platforms (mezzanines) are the best way to fully utilize existing overhead space so you can operate more profitably and efficiently. Your warehouse can gain valuable working, office, storage or manufacturing areas at marginal cost when compared to new construction and sometimes even with a significant tax depreciation advantage. Thomas Conveyor & Equipment can help you put this extra available space to work fast, with minimal interruption to your working floor area.
My customer, a pharmaceutical company, needed a solution for operators to access the top of three tank vats for maintenance. I designed a stainless steel mezzanine with a bolt-together construction to form a strong and secure unitized structure with heavy-duty columns and thick baseplates. The structure provides rigid support while minimizing obstructive bracing underneath the mezzanine. The mezzanine was designed to be built around the three tanks.
After we received approval on the mezzanine design, my installers erected the mezzanine. I believe that safety is always the biggest concern, so I designed a custom gap plate around the three different size tanks. The gap plate was fabricated from 7 gauge steel sheets. I designed the gap plate to have 8 pieces per tank for easier shipping and installation. We fastened the gap plate on top of the bar grating with saddle clips. Engineering was completed on the plate to ensure that the operators will have a safe platform to stand on while accessing the top of the tanks for maintenance.
There are various mezzanine decking options available, including roof deck and resin board, bar grating, and others. Mezzanine framing options available are:
Bolted C-Section Beam and C-Section Beam and Beam Beam and Bar Joist; or Truss Girder and Bar Joist.
The different framing options have different load capacity and span size. They also have inherent advantages and disadvantages, depending on the application.
Contact Owen Toomey at Thomas Conveyor to discuss your new mezzanine application at 708-449-2100.