Cold Room Shelving Improved
A Los Angeles-area diagnostic laboratory conducts medical testing for hundreds of thousands of southern California residents. In response to an urgent need to process more COVID-19 tests, a new lab was constructed in only two months by building out 30,000 square feet of shelled space inside the existing 150,000-square-foot facility. When looking for help with optimizing cold storage in their facility, Spacesaver’s mobile shelving was the go-to choice.
The existing lab was processing 7500 tests daily, and its capacity will increase by approximately 50,000 more tests per day when the addition is fully operational in early 2021.
From Static to Mobile Storage
To support all the supplies and materials required to maintain a six-fold increase in capacity, the lab needed three compact shelving systems from Spacesaver: one system for materials management and two lab cold room shelving systems for storing test kits in refrigerated rooms. With these systems in place, optimizing cold storage was made simple and easy.
The Spacesaver high-density shelving systems in the refrigerated rooms feature aluminum tread flooring on a “false floor” that is easy to clean and will allow the system to be moved in the future if needed. To improve visibility into the specially treated wire shelving, staff opted for half-height end panels with clear plexiglass extending to full height. The plexiglass ensures that items won’t fall off the ends while also allowing quick visual inspection.
Due to this project’s extremely tight deadlines, our partner Spacesaver shipped the rails to the construction site while factory workers were still manufacturing the rest of the order. This allowed the local installation crew to keep pace with the lab’s rapid build-out.
The resulting layout of mobile shelving on rails optimizes every cubic foot of space in the lab’s walk-in cold rooms. Staff can easily open and close aisles using hand cranks, and the system is clean and safe. Most importantly, area residents are able to get their COVID tests & results more quickly due to the lab’s increased capacity.
Contact Us for All Your Cold Storage Needs
If you want to learn how we can get more out of your existing cold storage and lab space, contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.
