Why is warehouse floor bunding important, and what type of bunding is best for warehouse use.
🗝 Key Points: On the list of must-have environmental health and safety equipment, bunding ranks high. In this article, we will learn what bunding is, how bunding helps in spill management, what are the different types of bunding, what bunding is best suited for warehouse use, and its main properties.
Physical Barriers Limit the Spread of Liquid During Accidental Spills
On a flat floor without any barriers installed, a hazardous spill will spread in no time, endangering your workplace’s overall safety. It is highly likely it will even reach the outer environment through drainage systems, possibly creating problems for the local community – and getting you in trouble regarding the breaches of environmental safety legislation.
That is why it is crucial to install a physical barrier that can limit the spread of liquid during accidental spills. Such a structure is called bunding and is a regular part of spill containment equipment.
Bunding is used in areas where there is the greatest risk of a hazardous chemical spill. In a high-functioning, responsible working environment, oils, fuels, and other hazardous chemicals stored in large drums and barrels will ideally always be surrounded by suitable bunding to prevent aggravating a spill.
An essential role of a warehouse is precisely to store items and goods – including fuels, cleaning agents, and other potentially troublesome chemicals. Equipping a warehouse with a proper type of bunding is essential for warehouse safety and environmental compliance and can also play a role in your insurance assessments.
What is Bunding?
Bunding is a low profile, mounting retaining barrier that is fixed to the floor. It is tall enough to contain the largest possible spill that can occur in the area, but still low enough so the workers and industrial vehicles can easily pass over it to deal with the spill and work without restraint in general.
With those requirements in mind it’s easy to conclude that bunding shouldn’t act as an obstacle and interfere with normal working activities. The highly thought-out design ensures both maximum working efficiency and spill containment capabilities.
How Bunding Works?
Bunding prevents the liquid from exiting the area where the spill can be managed easily. The liquid will literally hit a barrier and stop spreading across the room, settling in the containment area fenced-off by bunding.
By keeping the spill in a contained area, bunding allows for easy access, an organised response to the spill, and, most importantly, ensures worker and environmental safety and compliance.
Bunding can also have other purposes, such as the role in machine and vehicle management – a customisable bunding can prevent the uncontrolled spread of oil leaks or hazardous water runoff during vehicle washing and maintenance.
Types of bunding
There are several bunding types available, and each is designed to satisfy a different set of customer’s needs and applications. Although each type’s primary purpose remains unchanged (containing the spill), the specifications – used material, ease of installation, physical and chemical resistance – determines its suitability for a particular working environment.
Here are the main types of bunding:
What is the best type of bunding for a warehouse?
Not all bunding types are ideal to use on a warehouse floor, at least over the long term. Warehouses are usually places where a lot of movement occurs, which means a lot of foot and vehicle traffic. Under those circumstances, bunding that is versatile, customisable and easy to install is definitely advantageous.
We will now focus on one particular type that is a good match for the purpose – the PVC rubber floor bunding.
What is Rubber Floor Bunding?
Rubber floor bunding is a highly durable and resistant PVC style polymer barrier with a gentle, smooth sloping profile, which minimises trip hazard potential and, most notably, allows easy vehicle access.
Of all bunding solutions, the rubber floor bunding is one of the most adapted to industrial vehicle drive overs, even when it comes to heavy-duty machinery – that is why it’s also known as a ‘wash bay bunding’, ‘drive over bunding’, or ‘rollover bunding.’
These features make it ideal for warehouses and other storage facilities where it can provide spill containment without diminishing working vehicle efficiency. It is also highly suitable for vehicle wash-bays, where it will prevent the chemical-laden wastewater from escaping into the environment freely.
Trade Environmental’s Rubber Floor Bunding Pros
Besides its basic working properties described above, using Trade Environmental’s rubber floor bunding has additional advantages.
Rubber floor bunding is chemically resistant
The choice of material for our product was made with chemical spills in mind, making it an outstanding chemical bunding able to contain even the corrosive spills.
Rubber floor bunding is a heavy-duty product
Made from tough Polyurethane, our rubber bunding is designed to be chemically resistant and withstand a lot of physical pressure, lasting for a long time – even with frequent drive-overs. It has an expected life span of up to 25 years for exposure to harsh elements.
Rubber floor bunding is easily customised
Rubber floor bunding is flexible and versatile and easily installed. It can be easily cut to the size you need and can have a wide range of applications. That makes it ideal for large applications such as factories and warehouses, but also for containment in small, limited spaces – e.g., for machinery, drum or doorway leak containment.
Rubber floor bunding is visually inconspicuous
At the end of proper installation, you will get a simple, slightly elevated black or yellow containment area THAT LOOKS TIDY and will not disturb the aesthetics of a particular space.
Rubber floor bunding is easy to install
Installation of rubber floor Bunding is very straightforward, although it requires some simple preparation and power tools. We even offer installation help if it is required.
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Our rubber floor bunding does not contain arsenic, lead, cadmium, barium, mercury, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated Biphenyls, or Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers.
Rubber Floor Bunding Cons
Although driving over rubber bunding is generally a smooth experience because it slopes so gently, it does act as a small speed bumper. If you need bunding in an area where vehicle traffic hast to be maintained at high speed, you may consider other bunding solutions – most notably the Flexible floor Bunding.
Prevention is Better than Reaction
Of course, it is best to avoid a spill altogether. There are several ways to decrease the chance of an accident:
– Regular inspection of drums or other chemical containers for any signs of physical damage or corrosion.
– Implementing a tried-and-tested official procedure when handling dangerous chemicals.
– Training your staff in proper spill response techniques to stop and respond to the accident in a timely and professional manner.
And if a spill does occur regardless of your best efforts, a high-quality warehouse floor bunding is undoubtedly an efficient tool to help handle the spill and prevent damage.
Final Thoughts
Bunding is a barrier that physically stops the spread of any accidental spills, needed in any working area that stores hazardous liquids. Most warehouses are inherently prone to spills since they tend to store items – fluids included – for a prolonged time. That is why warehouses greatly benefit from bunding installment, provided the right type is chosen.
Of all bunding solutions, rubber floor is one of the most highly suited for warehouse application – it is easy to install and customise, is highly durable, and allows for almost unimpeded human and vehicle movement within the warehouse. Trade Environmental’s rubber floor bunding can stand heavy-duty use thanks to its robust polyurethane formulation, which is also ROHS compliant.
Legislation in Australia suggests a bund should be able to handle 110% of the largest most likely spill. e.g A farmer stores bulk oil for his machinery in 50L drums and he has 10 drums on site at any time. His total capacity is 500L and his largest potential spill is 50L meaning his bunding requirement calls for a storage volume of 55L.
A lot of people add up total volume of stored liquids but its not likely that all 10 x 50L drums would rupture at any one time. With that in mind most bunding applications are not hard to solve. Get in touch and let us solve your requirements.
