Can stillages be lifted?

Our Metal Cages & Pallets product range is incredibly varied, offering the UK’s biggest stillage range available in many shapes and sizes to suit the operational demands and needs of our customers.

Stillages are often used for the safe storage and handling of awkward, heavy-duty and bulky items, so how can stillages be lifted safely?

How is a stillage constructed to enable it to be lifted safely?

You’d be surprised at the number of shapes, sizes and designs a stillage can take, safely loading a vastly diverse range of heavy duty goods, equipment and products for storage, logistics and handling around a site such as a warehouse, factory floor or construction site.

A purpose-built stillage can be safely lifted as a result of design features including:

• A strong stillage base or floor: Whatever the size and weight of the contents, a stillage will be built around a tough, hard-wearing base, which often needs to be resistant to a variety of atmospheric conditions and other substances with which it might come into contact.
• Upright posts constructed from strong box section steel: As well as giving structural rigidity, sturdy box section uprights help contain loads, and can act as a framework onto which solid or latticed side panels can be welded.
• Mesh steel side panels: Mesh steel stillages are often used where the stored contents are larger and heavier, as the mesh is much lighter than a solid steel side option. Still tough and strong, mesh steel stillages also aid visibility when stillages are stacked in storage or transit.
• Solid steel sides:You may choose a stillage constructed with solid steel side panels. These offer extra protection against any product loss or damage, whilst remaining strong, tough and incredibly durable.

Can all stillages be lifted?

MC&P’s standard stillage range – the biggest in the UK – is designed and engineered by our specialist team to be heavy-duty, withstanding whatever your organisation can throw at it. Although some of our products are designed to be static and cannot be lifted, remaining in place through floor bolts for example, many stillages can be lifted safely with a forklift, hiab or telehandler.

It’s important for our customers that stillages can be lifted safely when needed. The stillages themselves are tough, heavy-duty and may be difficult to be manoeuvred solely by hand, especially when fully-loaded. For health and safety reasons, as well as efficiency in your workplace, standard stillages by MC&P which are fitted with forklift guides can usually be lifted safely mechanically when loaded.

IMPORTANT: If you customise your stillage, this may alter its Safe Working Load and/or its safe stacking height. Please check individual product specifications or contact us for more information.

Can custom-designed stillages be lifted?

If your organisation needs to be able to lift your custom stillages during normal, day-to-day operations, it’s important to let us know during your design process. MC&P’s custom stillages are designed and built around the needs of our customers, and can be engineered so that they can be lifted safely, whether by forklift, crane or other means according to your specification.

Custom-designed stillages by MC&P can be engineered with multiple features which enable them to be lifted safely, including forklift guides, crane lifting eyes and lugs, construction features such as additional bracing for strong bases, and lockable hatches or doors which secure the stillage’s contents during transit.

Protect your goods and your team with custom-designed stillages by MC&P that can be lifted safely, whether by forklift, hiab, telehandler or crane.

How can stillages by MC&P be lifted safely?

Stillages by MC&P can be lifted safely through the incorporation of design features and customisable options, including:

• Forklift guides, enabling the stillage to be safely positioned on the forklift during handling
• Purpose-designed and engineered crane lifting stillages can be lifted safely by crane, tested to LOLER standards by our team and fitted with crane-lifting eyes and lugs
• You may choose to customise your stillage with additional bracing for strength during lifting, whether to the floor, sides or both
• We only use box section steel for the construction of our stillages, and we do not use angle steel. Box section is stronger, giving you a longer-lasting, more robust stillage which can be safely lifted by your team
• Even if you can’t mechanically lift your stillage, your equipment and goods can still be handled and moved safely around your site through the addition of castor wheels, which are strong enough to withstand your stillage’s heavy loads

It’s important to be sure that your stillage can be lifted safely. Whether you need to move goods around in storage and to stack your stillages, perhaps in a warehouse or factory, you’re lifting stillages around a working site such as a construction site, or you’re lifting stillages – whether empty or loaded – on and off road or other forms of transport, standard stillages by MC&P can generally be lifted safely if used correctly, where stillages are not overloaded and where custom-designed stillages are built to an accurate specification.

We always recommend that you ask us if you’re not sure whether a stillage in our collection, or a custom stillage, can be lifted.

IMPORTANT: If you customise your stillage, this may alter its Safe Working Load and/or its safe stacking height. Please check individual product specifications or contact us for more information.

How does MC&P test stillages to check that they can be lifted safely?

MC&P’s stillage collection, where specified and where used safely in accordance with each product’s stated load capacity, can be lifted safely by mechanical means such as a forklift, hiab or telehandler. If you’re not sure whether a stillage can be lifted, please ask our team before you complete your purchase.

MC&P’s purpose-designed range of crane lifting and lowering stillages is thoroughly examined by our in-house authorised testing and examination team to ensure products can be lifted and lowered safely by crane. Following manufacture, our qualified engineers thoroughly examine products in line with the Thorough Examination of Lifting Equipment Accessories, checking components and features including condition and structure, feet, welds, floor plate and lifting points.

Certifying that crane lifting stillages can be lifted by crane, a “Report of a Thorough Examination and Test of Lifting Equipment” certificate is issued in accordance with LOLER regulations. Each crane lifting stillage is given a unique tag which is fixed to the product prior to dispatch.

Can all MC&P stillages be lifted by crane?

No. If you need to lift a stillage from our collection using a crane, please choose products from our Crane Lifting Stillages collection.

Crane lifting stillages can be lifted safely by crane because they have undergone thorough examination. Our standard stillages do not undergo this additional level of testing and examination, and therefore can only be lifted by crane, hiab or telehandler where product specifications state it is safe to do so.

We recommend that stillages to be lifted by forklift are customised with forklift guides where these are not included as standard. Forklift guides aid safe lifting, protecting your team when stillages are being lifted and handled. Where you cannot lift with mechanical equipment such as a forklift, customise your stillage with castor wheels for enhanced ease and safety when handling heavy stillages.

IMPORTANT: If you customise your stillage, this may alter its Safe Working Load and/or its safe stacking height. Please check individual product specifications or contact us for more information.

Why is it important that I can safely lift my stillage?

You only have to consider the variety of items which can be loaded into, stored in, and moved from a stillage, to realise that it’s important you can lift your stillage when needed.

Stillages by MC&P are often used to hold irregular-shaped and heavy items, making them difficult to handle, store and manoeuvre. In order to satisfy multiple workplace health and safety regulations, from the Manual Handling Operations Regulations to Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, it’s important that your people can safely lift, move, store and handle stillages, whether or not they are loaded.

Buy stillages you can lift from the UK’s biggest online stillage range!

UK-based Metal Cages & Pallets has been manufacturing and supplying stillages that are Made in Britain for 35 years.

Our engineering experts have developed a huge range of stillage, cages, pallets and handling products to suit a wide range of industries, stretching across manufacturing, retail, construction, infrastructure, logistics and many other sectors including BAE Systems, Network Rail and Balfour Beatty. We also serve small and medium-sized businesses across the UK, many of which have become long-time customers.

We tackle even the trickiest stillage design challenge, and although we have an extensive off-the-shelf catalogue of standard stillages, we enjoy designing and engineering new, efficient stillages to suit ever-changing business needs.

Order metal stillages that can be lifted safely from MC&P today!

Need safe-to-lift stillages that will last, whatever you throw at them? Order stillages online or get in touch to speak to our experienced team about our metal stillages, cages, pallets, racks and handling products range.

Collect from us in St Helens (10 mins from the M6 junction 23 or 24), or we’ll deliver your metal stillage throughout the UK.

We’re NOT A CATALOGUE COMPANY. Products are manufactured by our in-house engineers, with trade prices offered on our full stillage range. Ordering 40 or more stillages or other products? Contact us for a quote and a 40+ unit bulk-buy discount.