I.e. UK's SEMA, EN, or similar?
The Canadian building code says that you need to respect the design code for steel structures (S16-19), while on the American side, they’ve had a design specification for more than 30 years. It used to be a recommendation by the Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI), but in 2012, it became an American approved National Standard (National Standard ANSI MH16.1 : 2012), and since then it’s been referenced by their own building code, which is the international building code IBC 2012.
While these codes outline the standards for rack design, not much information is given for damage assessment. Their recommendation for a damaged rack is typically to unload, mark off and call a rack engineer to assess and recommend a course of action.
Checking for “conformity to code” usually means checking undamaged states like out-of-plumb, presence of anchors, proximity to the building, and other design-code requirements.
For damage assessment, we mostly base our priority level categorization on our 30+ years of experience in the rack industry, recommendations from OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and government health and safety organizations across Canada, the US and Europe such as Quebec CNESST (Commission on workplace standards, fairness, health and safety), Ontario MOL (Ministry of Labour), Worksafe BC, RMI, and FEM (European Materials Handling Federation).
We have also adapted inspections to clients’ internal regulations in cases where they want to enforce stricter guidelines than what is commonly accepted.
To learn more on rack compliance and how to get ready for an OSHA inspection, download your own copy of the Rack Compliance Ebook: https://www.damotech.com/rack-compliance-ebook-lp