Because of the frequent down time and greater costs experienced by operators who use typical coil handling and coil storage systems, many businesses are seeking more efficient methods that decrease the occurrence of inner- and outer-wrap damage.  ”Green” coil storage systems have been reported to be not only more efficient but also more sustainable – they are not only manufactured of recycled materials, but they are also recyclable themselves.

Standard kinds of coil storage demand the use of wood, a convention that many industrial professionals regard to be a waste of natural resources.  In addition, because of wood’s habitual absorption of oil from steel coils, this arrangement can result in significant hazardous-material disposal costs.  Wood coil storage systems are also difficult to manage, and if parts are not correctly designed, installed, or maintained, significant safety issues can result. Indubitably, the use of wood in coil storage systems is just a short-term solution that involves very high lifecycle costs for coil storage operators.

Recently, coil storage operators have found relief from hazardous wood coil storage systems in “greener” polymeric coil storage systems.  These schemes, which when designed with appropriately sized parts provide more secure and more efficient coil storage solutions, are made out of various polymeric compounds based on the physical characteristics and lifecycle desired by individual coil storage operators.  One Dutch firm has developed a system that can withstand as much as 100 tons and allow three-high stacking without the need for chains!  The material used in this scheme has been applied to the new RollStop coil storage system, which employs an easy-to-install design with four simple pieces.

The most noteworthy benefit of polymeric coil storage systems like the RollStop system is that they are made of recycled pieces. Furthermore, because these coil storage systems are designed to have 30-year lives, the substance used to create them – material that would otherwise be thrown away or recycled – is removed from the waste disposal and recycling system for a long period of time, thereby saving the time, energy, and costs associated with the lengthy recycling process.

Because polymeric coil storage systems possess benefits such as improved safety, simple installation and maintenance, and rugged, polymeric components that do not split, break, or absorb oil, these systems noticeably outperform their traditional wood counterparts.