CERT's facility has 6,000 aerosol pallet positions with projectile fencing around Zone 2 areas.

Pyroban and Crown Lift Trucks have helped third party logistics (3PL) company CERT FMCG Logistics upgrade its Rotherham facility to comply with UK safety regulations.

The Rotherham facility was built in 1990 for fragrance company Coty whose brands include Rimmel London and Adidas. Today it manages operations for more than 20 companies, including The Body Shop.

The collaborative solution was implemented to help CERT expand its storage of aerosols to 6,000 pallet positions. A Pyroban spokesperson says Rotherham stores 15,000 pallet locations in high-bay narrow aisle racking.

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told CERT that this added capacity requires compliance with the Top Tier COMAH (Control of Major Accidents and Hazards) regulations.

Under COMAH regulations, there are two thresholds for liquefied petroleum gas - a lower one of 50 tonnes (lower-tier) and a higher one of 200 tonnes (top-tier).

CERT operations director John Hamilton says the aerosols added to the pressurised flammable gas risk at the facility.

"We estimated that at any one time we wouldn't have any less than 300 tonnes of LPG onsite," he says.

CERT also had to comply with the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR), which covers the management of the operation, training and classification of zoned areas.

To meet the regulations, CERT invested GBP750,000 (USD1,495,576) to upgrade Rotherham. A 12.5 metre high projectile fence was placed around the 6,000 pallet positions to contain the aerosols in the event of an explosion and a penstock valve was fitted to contain fire water.

The storage areas are classified Zone 2 under DSEAR regulations and all equipment operating in the areas has to comply with the ATEX 94/9/EC directive.

Health and beauty deodorants being handled at CERT's Top Tier COMAH site by Crown equipment explosion protected by Pyroban.

The upgrade coincided with the need for a new forklift fleet and Crown was selected to implement a fleet replacement program consisting of TSP man-up VNA trucks, WP2330S powered pallet trucks, ESR4500 reach and SC3200 counterbalanced trucks.
Crown's account manager Simon Barkworth says explosion-proof specialist Pyroban was brought in early in the program to ensure the forklifts operate safely in a Zone 2 hazardous storage system.

The forklifts were fitted with Pyroban's 5000E gas protection system at the company's West Sussex factory.

"The system combines active gas warning and equipment shutdown technology with a range of explosion protection solutions. The user benefits from the early warning of a problem, automatically shutting the equipment down if a hazard is detected."

Due to their size, Crown turret trucks had to be converted in three sections at West Sussex. They were later assembled at Rotherham, where Pryoban conducted a final test of the system.