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The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has recently approved the MH30.2 standard. Bluff Manufacturing has complied with this standard in the manufacture and testing of all its aluminum and steel dock plates and boards. Bluff’s first goal as a business is to manufacture high quality products for the material handling industry, and as always safety is a major concern.
The products of the loading dock industry were historically pretty much the same. The steel or aluminum historically has come from the same domestic sources. Manufacturing techniques and processes were very similar. A lot has changed in recent years in the availability of plate materials. No longer do we have US Steel, Inland Steel, and Lukens as suppliers of heavy steel floor plate. No longer do we have Reynolds and Kaiser as aluminum plate sources. Alcoa has its hands full supplying the aircraft industry. In their place, foreign sources have filled our needs with a variety of aluminum alloys.
It is important therefore to devise standards by which manufacturers can test their products to guarentee that they are as safe as ever.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system.
The Institute’s mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity.
This standard was written by the Loading Dock Manufacturers section (LODEM) of the Material Handling Institute of America (MHIA).
In addition to the test for overall strength, as has been a longstanding practice for dockboard manufacturers, the standard incorporates a test which sets limits for deflection of product while under load. This test insures the integrity of the slope of the ramp. Loss of shape will result in grades which may not be usable for certain equipment.
