Tread on Me
Our inventory includes many structural and safety features, including ramp clamps, safety chains, and tow bars.
Among these, diamond plate stands out. Technically, it’s called a “steel floor plate with diamond tread” or “aluminum diamond plate” (depending on your choice of metal).
Yes, the serrated grating that composes the majority of any given loading dock is vital: its open design prevents buildup of debris and water, and it provides excellent traction for your forklift.
That said, diamond plate—dually positioned both at ground and top-elevated levels of your loading dock—provides additional benefits. Much like The Yard Ramp Guy proudly works in the background to contribute to thousands of businesses and dozens of industries nationwide, diamond plate is a workhorse that functions without complaint and is largely unheralded…until now.
Consider the seemingly simple yet brilliant composition: the forge takes a steel or aluminum sheet and creates a raised, symmetrical pattern that’s designed to self-drain and allow for easy cleaning. Our manufacturers order to spec and then weld and/or rivet diamond plate into position. Its placement—top and bottom—essentially secures and bookends the entire loading dock.
While the serrated grating may well command more real estate, diamond plate is positioned literally at the critical junctures—the points for your forklift operator’s arrival and departure.
You know the scenario: whether empty and rolling for a load, or full and looking to offload, the forklift requires and receives extra safety—in the form of that diamond plate’s heightened traction—as it transitions from an angled movement to the horizontal plane.
The same principles apply to those on your team who access the loading dock on foot. The raised pattern’s uniform design provides that additional measure of non-skid security, no matter where his/her boot is positioned around a 360-degree radius.
Our friend at Bluff Manufacturing, one of The Yard Ramp Guy’s highly-respected manufacturers of loading docks, helped simplify the complexity:
“That steel floor plate with diamond tread is constructed to maintain capacities. So, your rear apron is touching the ground, and your front apron is either touching the dock or the truck. The grating is going to be suspended.
“On the front apron, in order to allow that lip to lay flush on dock or trailer, we put a certain bend into it. Which we can’t do with the grating. And the attachments to allow portability are also positioned there. All of this is dictated by the actual construction of the ramp, from the specifications, for the thickness of the floorplate.”
Chances are good that your local gym or playground has some equivalent of diamond plate. Ambulances use them, as do fire trucks and many of the trailers that bring and send your inventory.
From design, engineering, and functional perspectives, diamond plate is a remarkable feature. There’s a reason why we chose that design for the left and right backgrounds of our website.
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Quotable
Our man McCoy Fields believes he’s cornered the blog-specific quotation duel. McCoy, it’s a bull market:
