SAFETYgrip offerings for load safety

Foundational research

As a specialist for packaging solutions, Isernhagen-based company Nordpack offers a variety of concepts in load securing. The SAFETYgrip offerings, distributed under the MULTI-Cargo label, play a special role in this.

Anti-slip mats are today rated as a panacea for performance assurance in freight haulage. Comparatively cheap to procure and universally flexible, these can be tailored to the actual cargo and are easy to handle and use. This has led to their widespread use in the transport sector. These anti-slip mats often form the proverbial foundation especially in combination with other devices.

Widespread use of anti-slip mats
Previous systematic development has resulted in a sophisticated composition of materials while simultaneously delivering a considerable increase in the achievable coefficients of friction. Naturally, the Nordpack project manager pays tribute to this and in particular to the fact that the slip-inhibiting effect of this all-purpose safety device has led to its widespread distribution in the transport sector.
The distribution of the North German packaging and safety products has made him appreciate the fundamentally identical challenges of load safety around the globe.
Nordpack became aware of a special peculiarity regarding waste treatment via a customer exporting to Japan. Japan with its limited resources of space and raw materials combined with a high population density realised early on that protecting the environment requires reducing unnecessary production of waste and on the other hand high recycling rates for the waste that is produced.
What has that got to do with anti-slip mats?

High Recycling Rate
Through export, several tons per annum of the rubber underlays reach the land of the rising sun. These are classed as waste in Japan and should not be imported into the country. So at some point, Nordpack drew the conclusion: “It goes without saying that this was and is not very environmentally friendly. There must surely be another, more environmentally friendly alternative.”

It quickly became obvious that previous anti-slip mats from rubber granulate are disposed of as general household waste and thus have an impact on the environment. Therefore the idea for a recyclable anti-slip mat based on cardboard and paper with a slip-inhibiting latex coating was born.

This intelligent combination thus not only provides the desired load safety, but is also completely recyclable – MULTI-Cargo is even able to advertise that SAFETYgrip can be disposed of as environmentally friendly waste paper.

Different Varieties
The day-to-day requirements of loading practice have led to further development and by now to numerous varieties of the product that are all based on the same principle.
Thus, MULTI-Cargo offers SAFETYgrip soft, an anti-slip mat with a soft core. In contrast, SAFETYgrip board is based on (solid) cardboard.
Finally, SAFETYgrip wave is a classic corrugated board product open on one side and with anti-slip latex coating on both sides.
Incidentally, depending on requirements, an overall covering of the carrier with the natural product may not be necessary; for simpler applications, MULTI-Cargo offers the variety stripe, that, similar to a zebra crossing, only covers a part of the anti-slip paper or cardboard.

In view of the comparatively simple carrier material, the objection of the nevertheless cost-intensive one-way use may now be raised. But the product manager is only waiting for this argument in talks with prospective clients. Because this is exactly where he thinks there is misplaced trust in conventional anti-slip mats. The product manager does not deny that brand new anti-slip mats meet the securing criteria attributed to them.

“However,” he argues “these qualities can no longer be guaranteed even after first use because the surface becomes compromised by dirt.” Defined discard criteria like those existing for belts or chains are stated in VDI standard 2700 part 15 but are difficult to implement in practice. “How can the end user determine the discard criteria, function-impairing dirt?” asks the product manager. A complex procedure for determining the coefficient of sliding friction is described in VDI standard 2700 part 14 and for multiple use, the man at the ramp should feel if the value is still at µ 0.6.

“Until now, none of the load safety experts could explain how that is supposed to work in practice. We ourselves tested used anti-slip mats and determined that the coefficient of sliding friction is sometimes significantly lower,” the MULTi-Cargo product manager explains.
And indeed: Whoever has examined the state of the anti-slip mats present on commercial vehicles will realise quickly that multiple use is of course common practice – but that just like Nordpack argues, ultimately no exact prediction as to the efficacy of every single mat or part thereof can be made anymore. This is at the expense of safety and in favour of profit.

Inspiration through discussion
But the flexible carrier material of SAFETYgrip offers further possibilities for load securing. Thus, for the securing of a pallet or a barrel, a larger product may be used, while securing of single boxes or of entire layers of containers can take place with SAFETYgrip paper. Thus, the individual cargo unit is secured internally, offering a certain protection against unintended shifting.
Even if these arguments are clearly in favour of the use of SAFETYgrip, the product manager still has to work hard to convince potential users and others involved in the transport sector such as the police or driving schools. But Nordpack sees another positive aspect in these discussions, separate from the natural vested economic interests:

Some very special requirements for load securing only become apparent in talks with the end users – and awaken Nordpack’s desire to develop further versions of the SAFETYgrip concept.