Ban Air, United Kingdom

Ban-Air is a manufacturer and supplier of high-quality, durable storage and handling solutions.  Headquartered in the United Kingdom, they have been expanding their range, spreading throughout Europe and to the US starting about 15 years ago.

Recently while providing some of their air pallet rack systems to a client in Virginia Beach, VA, they decided to add access platforms to them.  They contacted The Mezzanine Company about supplying stairs for them to attach to their platforms.

The rack and access platforms were all being built outside meaning that any material we provided had to be weatherproofed.  Also, we would have to design these stairs to match up exactly with their structure and in such a way that the two could be safely attached to each other to create one unified system.

Working closing with both Ban-Air and our manufacturer, we custom designed 8 galvanized u-shaped staircases that would match up with their air pallet racks. We chose to use galvanized stairs for this project as the galvanizing process makes the metal suitable for outdoor use.

We recommended the U-shaped design for the stairs as this would limit the extension away from the rack needed to reach the required height of 10’-6”. The size of the top landing was custom sized as to create a better connection point between the stairs and the rack’s access platform.

Lastly, we used open face diamond grip treads for the stairs and open face bar grating for the landings to ensure that no water would get stuck on them; thereby making them safer than standard closed treads.

As for the delivery and installation of the stairs, Ban-Air chose to handle those aspects themselves. Our team was available to assist them throughout the installation process, making sure they knew when the material was ready to be picked up and supplying installation guides and timely feedback.  This was made a little more challenging due to the time difference between the U.S. and the UK, but our team is always up for a challenge. The result was a successful integration of their rack system and our stairs into one complete storage solution.