Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Warehouses and Industrial

This post is the last of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  This post will discuss bollard use in industrial manufacturing plants as well as warehouses.

Pedestrian Protection

No matter the work setting, anywhere that moving vehicles have the potential to injure workers and guests alike, adequate protection is required.  Simple safety training of fork lift operators, delivery truck drivers, and plant personnel is often not enough to ensure pedestrian safety.  Accidents with heavy vehicles are often catastrophic and require additional safeguarding to protect people from injury.  A line of bollard or bollard fencing in high traffic area is key.  It is also especially important to protect operators and workers in areas where they may not be able to see oncoming traffic, such as when performing work related tasks.  Break areas are another important area to consider as workers are often inattentive while on break.

Many businesses choose to use surface mounted steel plate bollards in these applications, as the speeds of vehicles is often low and this is adequate to stop incidental contact with forbidden areas.  Cored or embedded bollards can leave a factory owner with a Swiss cheese plant floor, especially given the flexibility required of the modern factory.  But because welded plate surface mounted bollards can quickly come loose and fall into disrepair, rebounding type bollards are recommended for their ability to absorb impact and avoid damage and lost truck loads.  These can also be used to assist in proper positioning, as it is acceptable to use them as a positive stop without a jarring impact of a traditional bollard.

Loading Docks and Doors

It’s no secret that warehouse loading dock areas take a beating.  Delivery trucks are very large and very heavy, and maneuvering them can be difficult even for the most experienced driver.  In order to protect building walls, loading ramps, and high bay doors, savvy warehouse managers install strong bollards to protect their facilities from damage due to repeated low speed impacts from heavy vehicles.

Related to this is the interior plant doorway made for vehicle traffic.  An inattentive driver can strike the interior walls causing a potentially dangerous situation, especially for a cinder block wall.  Bollards strategically placed in the doorway just inside the wall opening can prevent this sort of damage and save the plant from costly repairs.

Pallet Racks

One of the most common workplace fines issued by the Occupations Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is for damaged pallet racks.  Pallet racks are subject to damage because of the large frequency of use by forklifts loading and unloading product.  The slightest impact can damage structural uprights and compromise the load integrity of the rack systems.  There are many devices on the market to protect pallet rack uprights such as cushions and guards, but the most effective is arguable a well-placed bollard.   Corners are an especially important area to protect as forklift can clip the end of the rack cutting a turn.  These tend to be lighter bollards in the 3” class as speeds tend to be low.

Equipment and Automation

Industrial equipment and automation can be quite expensive, not to mention critical to plant operations and business revenue.  It is imperative that such equipment is protected from vehicle traffic to eliminate the possibility of completely avoidable downtime.  Safety fencing is often used to protect personnel from entering dangerous equipment operations areas, but bollards or bollard fencing can serve a dual purpose of prohibiting access from both workers and vehicular traffic.  It is not uncommon to see expensive automation equipment surrounded by a line of bollards with W-rail attached along plant aisle ways.  At other times, simple bollard protection to keep vehicles away from delicate personnel safety fencing may be adequate.

Conclusion

In these days of hyper competitive business environments, the costs from unnecessary interruption to operations from vehicle accidents are intolerable.  Further, the safety of employees is a major goal of most companies.  When viewed from that perspective, the installation of protective bollards throughout industrial operations is imperative and has become commonplace.  Business owners and operations managers should carefully consider areas of vehicle traffic, and especially areas that can be prone to damage or injury.

This post concludes our look at ideal bollard applications.  Although not all inclusive of the many uses of traffic bollard, we have performed a comprehensive look at the most common installations.

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Parking Lots

This post is part three of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  So far I've discussed typical types of bollards, and ideal applications in traffic denial.  Today I’ll discuss typical parking lot bollards, which also includes traffic denial but is more specific to the parking lot itself.

Introduction

There are many assets within a parking lot that need to be protected from the errant driver.  Though parking lot speeds are assumed to be lower than other applications, driver mistakes such as driving forward instead of reverse (or vice versa), contribute to accidental impacts.  The lack of curbing or faded lane striping also contribute to drivers short cutting corners or avoiding driving lanes altogether.   This presents the need to protect certain areas from vehicles, usually cars and light trucks.

Utility Protection

Often shopping centers or other locations require dedicated fire hydrant, gas meters, electrical panels, or other utilities that are located in or near the parking lot.  For obvious reasons, these utilities need to be protected, usually on all sides, from potential accidental impact.  In the gas of natural gas lines, it is of special importance that the area is well protected by strong bollards because of the potential of fire or explosion from impact.

Overhead Signs

Many businesses have overhead signs mounted to large posts near the street.  These posts as well need to be protected from errant vehicles that could potential cause damage significant enough to topple the structure.  Embedded bollards are used when there is danger of catastrophic damage.  However, less expensive surface mounted or rebounding bollards are also used when the danger is less severe and the purpose is to avoid occasion damage.  This is also done at times with large light posts or electronic information signage.

Corners / Entrance Driveways

Malls, grocery stores, and convenience stores are move a great deal of product, and need delivery trucks to frequently re-store their wares.  These trucks need to make wide turns an often accidentally cut corners which can lead to damage to buildings, landscaping, and driveway surfacing.  Lack of curbing within parking lots also contributes to the propensity for drivers to cut lane corners, leading to more potential damage.  Bollards can be used at these corners to prevent these short cutting drivers from damaging important assets.  These can be embedded in the landscaping areas or on the driving surface at the edge of a turn.

Parking Signs

A unique but common application of the bollard is as a protective device for sign posts.  The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates handicap parking spaces and appropriate signage.  Many companies also create preferred parking spaces, such as “employee of the month”, which need signage to identify the space.  However signs in the middle of a parking lot can take many bumps which eventually bend and break the sign.  A bollard can be used in lieu of or in conjunction with a wheel stop to prevent vehicles from impacting the sign post.  The bollard does this through increased conspicuity and a psychological desire not to impact a more foreboding object by the driver.

Recharging Stations

Becoming more popular is the addition of electric vehicle recharging stations which involves especially expensive equipment that must be protected from damage.  This is a similar application to an air fill station that might be found in a gas station.  A couple well placed bollards in front of the equipment is a smart investment.

Access Prevention

A common use of bollards is to prevent access by vehicle to areas intended only for pedestrians.  This could be a small access alley or a restaurant eating location just off the parking lot.  Whenever pedestrian safety is at risk, it is important to adequately protect them from potential run-away vehicles.  A simple decorative gate is simply not enough.  When aesthetics are especially important, architectural bollards are often used, or in lieu of those, large concrete planters can serve the purpose of a bollard if specifically designed for that purpose.

Ice Shacks / Small Out Buildings

It’s not uncommon to find small out building in a strip-mall.  These are often “ice shacks” or small drive-thru building such as an ATM, mailbox, or DVD rental.  Because these areas are in the middle of travel areas of a parking lot, protection around them is desirable and usually occurs in the form of a “picket fence” of bollards completely surrounding the building.

Parking Garages / Public Parking Lots

Public parking garages nearly always have toll shacks or other revenue equipment that require protection from errant vehicles.  Should the station be manned, it is especially important to use strong protective bollards to guard the area.  One case that is unique, however, is the addition of bollards in post-tensioned concrete structures.  The tendons which keep the concrete in compression are extremely important and cannot be damaged by drilling or coring into the structure.  When adding any of the numerous bollards found in a typical parking structure, care must be taken not to damage the tendons.  As well, the bollard should be designed with a shear point either in the anchors used or in the bollard itself, such that upon impact, the structural concrete is not damaged, which could lead to a catastrophic failure of the building.  For this reason, surface mounted bollards are more often used in post-tensioned concrete applications.

Failed Structural Concrete Building

Conclusion

Bollards are used throughout parking lots for numerous reasons.  It’s not uncommon for new parking lot construction to contain scores of bollards and bollards signs throughout various areas.  Proper design and placement of bollard decrease damage to assets and protect pedestrians.

In the next two parts of this article, we’ll look at the following to areas of interest:

Drive-Thru Lanes

Factories and Warehouses

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Traffic Denial

This post is part two of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  Last post discussed four main types of bollards:  embedded, surface-mount, rebounding, and retractable/removable.  In this post and the next three I’ll discuss ideal uses as follows:

1. Traffic Denial (today)
2. Parking Lot Protection
3. Drive-Thru Lanes
4. Factories and Warehouses

Traffic Denial

Although all bollards are used for some sort of traffic denial, this category covers uses that purposely deny access for safety or damage reasons, and are not covered by a more specific use that is described in another area of concern.  In other words, these are general uses.

Security Bollards

This is the grand-daddy application for the traffic denial bollard.  Often K-rated (meaning tested to certain government standards), these bollards are used to absolutely deny access to a building.  This has seen large increase in popularity since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  Government buildings and other high value targets use engineered bollard systems to prevent high speed, high mass vehicles from causing mass harm initiated by ramming through building fronts.

Building Protection

Bollards are often used to protect a building or structure for damage.  Building corners are a typical place bollards are found, especially when a tight turn by a vehicle can actually impact the building.  Self-Storage facilities often use a large number of bollards to protect buildings from vehicles, and often, trailers.

Building Columns

Closely related are sets of bollards placed around a building or roof column to prevent vehicular impact, which could lead to catastrophic damage should a column fall.  These bollards are often embedded or rebounding type because of the importance of protecting the column.

Store Fronts

Many store owners worried about “crash and grab” robberies, or even just worried about driver mistakes, will line the front of a store with bollards to prevent access.  This application has the added benefit of protecting patrons while they walk in and out of the facility.  The tighter the picket, the more protection offers as a vehicle is likely to impact multiple bollards at once.

Gates

Many security gates and use bollards to protect keypad access panels as well expensive mechanical equipment that operates the gates.  Keypad panels must be closely approached by a driver to enter access codes, and therefore need to be protected from driver mistakes.  Often far ends of a gate system will be protected by bollards to prevent damage to motorized equipment, critical pivots, and weak points that might allow a vehicle to ram a gate.  Sometimes these will be simple surface mounted bollards if the security needed is not great.  A large bollard is usually enough to keep a driver from approaching a sub-division access panel too closely.   An unattended storage facility might need a sturdier bollard to prevent night time theft by ramming a gate.

Pedestrian / Bike Paths

This is an application of traffic denial where the path is not intended for vehicles so bollards are used to block off the entrance or exit of the path.  Pedestrians and bicyclists can pass between a set of bollards, however a car or truck cannot.  These will often be simple embedded wooden bollards, but on a busier street might be a steel bollard.

Gas Pump Protection

This is such a common sight, that you probably don’t even notice the bollards, but virtually every modern gas station protects its pumps from vehicles through the use of bollards or very large cements islands (a form of bollard).  These are often embedded into the concrete, for obvious reasons, as accidents with the highly flammable gasoline delivery device would make for a bad day.

Propane Storage

Many convenience and home improvement stores offer propane bottle exchange programs.  For safety reasons, the propane bottles are stored outside of the store and usually have a picket fence of bollards protecting them.   Again, flammable, possibly explosive devices need to be protected.  I’ve seen both surface mount and embedded steel bollards protecting these areas.  I wouldn’t advise surface mount bollards unless they were strong rebounding bollards, as the safety hazard here can be high.  Local conditions of course would dictate the potential hazards by passing traffic.

Gas Utilities

Utility companies often have meters and valve stacks located near the roadway.  Because natural gas is so flammable, it is important that the area is adequately protected with bollards should there be a reasonable chance of vehicle impact.  These will often be surrounded by a set of four or more bollards, usually steel and embedded deep in the ground.

Conclusion

Traffic denial is the main purpose of a safety bollard.   The applications listed here are some of the more popular uses that one will see in their daily travels.  In the next part of this article, I’ll discuss example specific to parking lots.  Some of those applications overlap with general traffic denial, but are specific to parking lots only.

Bollard Types and Ideal Applications

This post will be part of a five part article which describes traffic bollards types and their typical uses.  In this post, I’ll discuss bollard types and introduce the four main uses for traffic bollards.

Traffic bollards come in four main types:

1. Embedded Bollards
2. Surface Mounted Bollards
3. Rebounding Bollards
4. Retractable / Removable Bollards

Each type is specifically designed for its purpose and has its own benefits and limitations.  Within those groups, there are sub-groups which I will discuss as well.  Also, bollards that fit in those categories can also fall into other sub-categories less dependent on function and more on aesthetics.  Architectural Bollards might be any of the above, but are also designed to also include pleasant or unique shapes.  A Lighted Bollard is simply a bollard with a light source built in either to add conspicuity to the bollard or to light the surrounding area.

Embedded Bollards

 

Embedded Bollards are simply bollards which are embedded deep into the ground.  This is usually for added

strength and security.  Embedded bollards can be made out of any common bollard material, be it steel, concrete or even wood, however the bollard will only be as strong as the foundation in which it is buried.

A steel post filled with concrete and buried very deep within a reinforced concrete foundation will be strong indeed.  On the contrary, a wooden post buried in soft sand or dirt will not provide as much protection.

Costs for this type of bollard can be significant when coring out existing concrete or asphalt surfaces.   It also potentially weakens the foundation, and therefore may not even be appropriate in an application such as a structural concrete parking deck.  On the other hand, when placing a bollard in an unpaved area, this is perhaps the least expensive and simplest approach.

Surface Mounted Bollards

This type of bollard uses some sort of anchor system, usually mechanical, to mount the bollard to the surface.  Although this is an inexpensive method of installation, it also is not a very secure method.  Upon impact, the anchors are often the weakest link and quickly give way, leaving a tilted bollard and damaged foundation.  However, when the purpose of the bollard is more to provide a mere presence or psychological barrier, this type of installation is most cost effective.  It also may be necessary to use shear bolts in a post-tensioned concrete structure in order to prevent impact to the bollard to potentially compromise the building.

The next type of bollard, the rebounding bollard, is often surface mounted, but overcomes the strength and damage issues associated with standard surface mounted bollards.

Rebounding Bollards

A relative newcomer to the bollard field, rebounding bollards use energy absorption technology to provide

the strength of some embedded bollards, with the low installation costs and flexibility of surface mounted bollards.  When a rebounding bollard is impacted, it is allowed to tilt as some mechanism, be it an elastomer or spring system, more slowly absorbs and dissipates the energy of the vehicle.  The bollard then ideally returns to its original position undamaged and fully functional.  Some barriers use advanced polymers which do not yield like metal or concrete might under extreme load.

A further advantage of this type of system is that damage to vehicles, passengers and loads is reduced due to the more gradual absorption of impact energy.  Imagine crashing a vehicle into a large concrete bollard.  Since there is almost no give, it is much like hitting the proverbial brick wall; all energy is immediately felt by the vehicle and its passengers.  With a flexible bollard system, that energy might be dispersed over several hundred milliseconds.  While that doesn't sound like much, it makes a great deal of difference to the peak forces felt.

Some bollards in this type are actually not intended to provide traffic denial capabilities at all.  As such, they are used mainly as sign markers and psychological barriers.  These are extremely prevalent in the United Kingdom.

Retractable / Removable Bollards

Not all applications for bollards are intended to be permanent or always prevent access.  As such, retractable and removable bollards have been designed to allow the owner or a potential traveler access the area normally denied by the bollard.

From Wikipedia.org

This is typically done in one of several ways.  The lowest technology is the pipe-in-a-tube method where a socket is created in the ground.  The bollard can then be removed from the socket when access is to be granted.  This is inexpensive, but requires manual intervention to access the area.

A second way is through the use of pivoting bollards.  A locking pin is used to hold the bollard upright under normal circumstances, and removed to allow the bollard to lay flat when a vehicle is to pass over it.   These bollards are generally flat in shape to allow for vehicle clearance.  Often, the pin is locked in place with a padlock to prevent unauthorized access.

Finally, the most expensive method is the automatic retractable bollard.  Usually hydraulic powered, the bollard actually retracts straight down into the ground and becomes flush with the surface during access.  Actuation of a hydraulic bollard can be by any number of methods, from security guard push button to remote controls and toll booth pay systems.

Uses of Bollards

In the next four parts of this article, I’ll discuss ideal uses for bollards for each of the following areas of concern:

1. Traffic Denial
2. Parking Lot Protection
3. Drive-Thru Lanes
4. Factories and Warehouses

Certain types of bollards I discussed today are more or less appropriate for each application, depending on the required function.  I’ll discuss that in detail for each type.

When to Utilize the Safety Bollard

While all bollards are designed to promote public well-being to some extent, a safety bollard is intended specifically for this purpose.  Because of this, its construction is likely to be both permanent in nature and highly resistant to efforts to dislodge it.

While this can be beneficial in many ways, it increases the likelihood of damage to motor vehicles, cyclists, and even pedestrians that strike them.  It can also impede the entrance of emergency responders, such as fire and police units.  Given these facts, safety bollards should only be used when the circumstances warrant.  Such situations include the following:

1. When access to a particular area is likely to be especially hazardous.  A prime example is the typical construction site, where heavy equipment, falling objects, and scattered debris all pose significant dangers to unauthorized persons.  Scenes of recent motor vehicles collisions, places where sinkholes have opened, and areas where industrial accidents have occurred also fall into this category.
2. When ensuring the proper flow of traffic is vital to human safety.  For example, hospital entrances include dedicated lanes that are only meant to be accessed by ambulances.  However, on frequent occasions, misguided motorists drive their vehicles into these areas, preventing emergency vehicles from arriving.  In such locations, the prospect of damage to privately owned vehicles is outweighed by the potential harm caused to the sick and injured.  Hence, using safety bollards is thoroughly justified.
3. When a site is a likely target of terrorists or other criminals.  Nuclear facilities, for example, use safety bollards as well as other impediments to traffic.  This is because tight control of the location’s perimeter is of paramount importance to public safety.  Other locations at high risk of attack include police stations in high-crime areas, military installations, and hydroelectric plants. 

In summary, while a safety bollard is far from an ideal solution in many instances, it can serve a vital role in protecting sensitive areas from unauthorized access.  Use in accordance with sound judgment should be continued.

Find out more about our bollards at www.slowstop.com.

Can the Safety Bollard be Too Sturdy?

Human society can only exist when the need for security is balanced against the importance of allowing free access to facilities and resources.  Lean too far in either direction, and the results can include a police state on one extreme or chaos on the other.  This principle underlies all aspects of civic planning, including the use of the safety bollard.

Safety bollards must protect public safety above all.  However, this task should always be balanced against other considerations, such as allowing access to those with legitimate reasons to be on site.  Additionally, of course, aesthetics play a role in these matters as well.

The tension between security and public appeal in using safety bollards has led to impassioned debates in urban areas such as New York City.  Barriers put in place since the World Trade Center attacks have been criticized for being too utilitarian and foreboding in appearance.

1. Given the delicate balance that civic planners must maintain between these considerations, how sturdy should safety bollards be?  While there are no easy answers to this question, there are some general guidelines to use for specific instances.  These include:
2. Safety bollards should be sufficient to deal with any likely threat.  A 10-meter high stone fence, for instance, would be thoroughly inappropriate at a shopping mall where parking control is the main concern.  On the other hand, a removable “no trespassing” sign mounted atop a flexible bollard would be similarly inadequate at a nuclear power plant.
3. Safety bollards must allow ready access to a location, unless such access poses a credible risk to public well-being.  To illustrate: it’s sensible to erect sturdy bollards to prevent unauthorized entrance to construction sites.  However, such locations must not be so secure as to not allow rapid entrance by fire, medical, or police units in case of emergency.
4. When possible, safety bollards should be erected in such a way as to add to a site’s visual appeal.  For example, bollards can take the form of substantially-sized planters or works of art.  In these forms, they enhance safety and beautify the surrounding area at the same time.

To conclude, so long as the need to weigh security against mobility exists, the issue of safety bollard construction will remain a point of contention.  However, by following common sense principles like those outlined above, these controversies can be minimized.

Find out more about our bollards at www.slowstop.com.

Reducing Damage from Vehicle-Bollard Impacts

Reposted from www.slowstop.com.

ABSTRACT

Bollards are short vertical posts, usually made of steel, typically used to prevent access and to protect pedestrians and assets from vehicle collision damage.  In so doing, vehicles (and their passengers) that impact bollards face damage (and injury) due to the collision, as well as damage to the bollard structure itself.  A new bollard system, known as SoftStop® in Europe and SlowStop® in the United States, solves this problem by allowing the bollard to give slightly upon collision, greatly reducing the maximum impact forces felt by both the colliding vehicle and the bollard system itself.

BOLLARD APPLICATIONS

Bollards are used in a myriad of applications, for one of several purposes:

• Equipment Protection
• Utility Protection
• Building Protection
• Access Restriction
• Pedestrian Safety

 One needs only to keep a sharp eye to see bollards around us every day.  In parking lots, driveways, and drive-thru lanes, bollards are used to protect buildings, teller machines, utilities such as gas meters, electrical equipment and fire hydrants, handicap parking signs, gate entry keypads, and to restrict access to undesired areas.  In factories and warehouses, bollards are important for protecting pedestrians as well as guarding storage racks and capital equipment from fork truck collisions.

Other industries which find a heavy use of bollards include automated car wash facilities, self-storage facilities, gas stations and convenience stores, propane dispensing, and parking garages, among others.

THE PROBLEM

Foundation mounted bollards are typically installed in one of two ways.  The first, least expensive way, is with a plate mounted bollard.  These bollards are steel pipes welded to a flat steel plate that can be anchored to a hard surface using concrete anchors.  This method of installation is quick and inexpensive, requiring the installer to drill four to eight holes in the concrete and bolt down the bollard with expansion or screw anchors.

The downside to this installation method, when used with a rigid bollard, is that the anchors are generally not strong enough to withstand anything more than a minor collision.  The plate anchors often are pulled up and possibly the plate bends, leaving a post which leans and is no longer able to properly serve its purpose.  Plate mounted bollards often require constant maintenance and replacement.

The second method for installing bollards involves using a longer steel pipe and burying a portion of it deep in the ground.  This method gives the bollard far more strength than surface mounted, however it can be very expensive to install if the surface is concrete and already poured.  Installation in this case requires coring a hole in the surface using an expensive diamond bladed coring saw.  These machines and their blades are expensive and require water cooling, creating a mess during installation.  Once the concrete is cored and the bollard is in place, the hole must be backfilled with concrete to secure the bollard.  For added strength, these bollards are often filled with concrete, as well.  Though the bollard pipe itself is relatively inexpensive, this installation method is costly and time consuming.

 

Although very strong, there are significant disadvantages to core installations.  Most importantly, there is no give to this system upon impact.  Though desired in high security applications, any vehicle impacting such a bollard will be significantly damaged and its passengers at risk of injury.  Loads carried by fork trucks can also be thrown given the jarring impact likely to occur.  Further, the bollard or its foundation can be damaged by such an impact, again leaving a tilted and less effective barrier requiring costly maintenance to correct.  Often the steel bollard itself is beyond repair and must be replaced with an entirely new bollard.

 

Another disadvantage of this type of installation is that it is a permanent installation with little flexibility for movement.  In factory applications, equipment is often moved and rearranged.  Bollards used to protect equipment or storage racks which are core-installed are not easily moved.  The concrete surrounding the bollard must be broken out and the large remaining hole filled, leaving a factory floor full of unsightly patches.  If the bollard itself is reusable after removal, the entire expensive installation process is started over at the new location.

Some designs have been created to attempt to solve these problems through the use of plastic or spring loaded bollards, however these designs suffer from a lack of strength.  If the plastic is of insufficient stiffness, the entire function of access denial is lost.  On the other hand, very stiff plastic designs have had difficulty with long term durability.  Minor collisions tend to wear away at such devices, and in outdoor applications UV degradation becomes a concern.

REVOLUTIONARY NEW DESIGN

 

Designed and patented by Belgian inventor Gerard Wolters as SoftStop® in Europe, the SlowStop® Bollard system is a unique design which solves many of the problems associated with traditional foundation mounted bollards.  Simply put, the SlowStop® system uses a compressed rubber base to act as an energy absorbing mass.  This elastomer allows the bollard to tilt slightly when impacted, in the range of 20° from vertical, then return upright while still stopping the colliding vehicle.

The SlowStop® design consists of four major pieces:

• Elastomer
•   Base
• Adapter
•  Post

This system is anchored to concrete using concrete anchor screws.  These anchors affix the base component over the adapter, which pre-compresses the elastomer against the ground.  The base and adapter pieces are made of a special ductile cast iron, which makes the pieces less brittle than typical cast iron, and also has a very low (-40°) brittleness temperature.  The steel pipe which serves as the bollard post is a typical steel pipe inserted into the adapter.  In the US, standard ANSI schedule 40 pipe is used to give the end user the flexibility to weld fencing using standard components if necessary.  Concrete fill is not required inside the bollard pipe, though is permitted.  In fact, sign posts can be inserted into the post and concrete filled in place.

Upon collision, the pipe and adapter are allowed to tilt within the base, forcing the adapter to further compress the elastomer in the direction of the impact.  The elastomer absorbs much of the energy of the impact and lengthens the deceleration time of the vehicle.  The elastomer is of sufficient strength to then rebound, usually pushing the vehicle away from the bollard and returning to an upright position.  The tilt of the pipe is limited to approximately 20° at which point the bollard will become rigid.

 

SlowStop Bollards® are designed in a variety of sizes, each of which is appropriate for various expected collision speeds and masses.  Further, they are available with modular connectors which can be used to create fencing and guards out of multiple base units.  By using multiple base units, the ultimate strength of the rebounding bollard unit can be increased.

PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGES

SlowStop® Bollards utilize the much simpler method of surface installation, greatly reducing installation costs, while maintaining the flexibility to move bollards as conditions warrant.  This is accomplished without the normal disadvantage of lack of strength, as the elastomer within the bollard system greatly reduces the maximum impact forces applied to the base anchors.  This is because deceleration of an impacting vehicle is much less severe than during an impact with a rigid bollard.  Energy is transferred to the elastomer instead of directly to a rigid post.  The chart show below demonstrates the difference in impact forces felt by impacting vehicles between a rigid bollard and the SlowStop® Bollard system.

This leads directly to the most important advantages of the SlowStop® Bollard system and that is the reduction of damage to both offending vehicles and to the bollard system itself.  Direct damage to vehicles is reduced due to the reduction of peak impact force seen by the vehicle.  Not only will this avoid damage to the vehicle, but also the chance of injury to a passenger is likewise reduced.  In the case of a fork lift in a factory or warehouse, the chance of a thrown load is also reduced, avoiding the potential for bystander injury and stock loss.

 

Finally, damage to the bollard and its foundation is reduced.  Because the post is constructed of Schedule 40 steel pipe, it maintains its strength, but because of its forgiving nature, much less force is transferred to the foundation.  This simplifies and eliminates maintenance while preserving an aesthetically pleasing facility.

LIMITATIONS

SlowStop® Bollards must be installed on concrete, as an asphalt surface is not of adequate strength to anchor the bollard system.  Considering the replacement costs of damaged bollards, however, it may be cost effective to pour a concrete pad and eliminate years of costly maintenance and asphalt repair.  As previously mentioned, each bollard is sized for expected loads in terms of mass and speed.  Should that limitation be exceeded, it is possible to break a component of the SlowStop® system.  Most likely that involves the post, adapter, or base.  Fortunately, the SlowStop® system is modular and easily repaired.  Posts can be replaced by loosening several set-screws, removing and replacing, and re-tightening the set screws.  Adapter and Base components can be replaced by carefully removing the concrete screw anchors and replacing the component.

CONCLUSION

The SlowStop® Bollard system is a revolutionary new product which solves many of the problems involved with bollard collisions as well as installation and maintenance issues.  Damage to vehicles, passengers, vehicle loads, and the bollards themselves is greatly reduced due to the absorption of impact energy by an elastomer hidden within the base of the bollard.  This elastomer allows the bollard to tilt when impacted and return upright afterward.  SlowStop® Bollards are quick and inexpensive to install, flexible as they are easily moved, and simple to maintain should there be the need.  Safety fencing and barriers are easily created using modular connectors, avoiding the need to weld pipe together.

Further information can be found at www.slowstop.com or by calling Impact Recovery Systems at 1-800-736-5256 (210-736-4477).