5 replies to this topic

[reen]

Hello,

I know similar questions have been posed in the past, but hoping for further guidance regarding air curtains and dock door compliance for SQF. We work in an older building that has a garage door for unloading and loading in our warehouse. The parking lot is not big enough to build an enclosure to try to satisfy the requirements of SQF. We've had contractors quote us on air curtain solutions for the dock door, which are cost prohibitive.  The same contractor advised that since we do not have open product in the warehouse, we could have an air curtain installed in the doorway between the packaging area and the warehouse based on other large scale manufacturing facilities they've been in. I'd like to hear thoughts regarding whether this would satisfy an SQF auditor (bolstered with a pest management risk assessment and trend data.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TimG]

While you don't have open product in that warehouse, do you have boxed finished goods or ingredients stored there at all (even for staging)?

I feel it would be a hard sell to an auditor if so. Why? Birds flying in and pooping on your boxes of product (salmonella transfer), rodents getting in and scurrying/pooping on your product (black plague, no not really but lots of bad stuff).

 

Have you looked into dock seals? We use them just fine. There are even types that adjust for the doors you might get random size box trucks in.

[jfrey123]

@reen, I'm a little unclear about the setup you're describing, but I can share a story of having to do something similar.

 

I've discussed this before, but I had a client with a ramp that led from their back lot to their warehouse through a roll up door.  It was next to dock doors that could be used for truck receiving, but the ramp was utilized to forklift items between a second building next door.  The door led to an internal storage/staging warehouse room with the same restriction that nothing could be opened in this room. 

 

The door was rebuilt with a rapid opening and closing mechanism, and incorporated an air curtain that ran before and through the end of closing.  Checking the door worked correctly was added to the internal PC audit, extra ILTs were added near the door, and while the SQF auditors didn't love seeing it they couldn't articulate a true hazard based on the trending information from the PC and EM programs.  To my knowledge it is still heavily scrutinized by auditors but still in service.

[reen]

The companies we've asked for quotes have told us that a dock seal isn't feasible with our set up, since the warehouse ground is the same level as the parking lot. I was rather taken aback that the latest contractor told us that having an air curtain in the doorway should suffice, but since that would be far and away the most cost effective solution, I'm doing my due diligence. I've attached a (very) rough sketch of the setup if that's at all helpful. 

 

 

Attached Files

•  Warehouse Sketch.jpg   28.08KB   0 downloads

Edited by reen, Today, 06:46 PM.

[SHQuality]

If you have an air curtain installed in at the door between the warehouse and packaging area, all sorts of pests could get free range of the warehouse area. 

You need to do something with the dock door. I don't have a clear mental image of what your dock door looks like and how it works, so I hope someone else can offer helpful solutions.

 

Don't install the air curtain at the inner door only. It would be costly and not actually help you be compliant.

[SQFconsultant]

I don't understand why a rapid boom drop door with bottom sealed gel pack would not work.

 

Some can work with existing garage door rails and some just need a retrofit.

 

I've seen enough birds and other pests in buildings during inspections to push away any sales rep that tells people a simple air curtain at an interior opening would be acceptable.