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Depending on the state you are located in and your research area, your laboratory will have very specific construction requirements. This is something of particular importance to private labs, especially when the dividing line between lab and workshop blurs. Private enterprises develop prototypes and perform proprietary research according to a profit motive. That means they need safe labs for a reasonable price. RDM Industrial Products’ lab tables and other laboratory furnishings are designed to be part of the solution.

The University System of Georgia’s Design Criteria for Laboratories presents a comprehensive set of guidelines for safe lab furnishings. Every state has its own specifications, but this is a good example of what you should consider when furnishing even a modest lab. Even if your “lab” is really more of a production facility that uses specialized chemicals and materials, think of the following typical requirements:

Lab Furnishing Surfaces: Our lab furniture surfaces page discusses the options we can provide for custom and prefab lab furniture. We recommend Trespa’s TopLab Plus™ as an excellent general purpose surface for lab tables and countertops. It’s heat and chemical resistant, hygienic and can be worked like hardwood, to accept grooves, sinks, cup sinks and fixtures. We also offer more specialized surfaces in stainless steel, galvanized steel, resin, laminate and more.

If your furnishing requirements are less formal, you may want to consider our industrial workbench line.

Lab Furnishing for Ventilation: If you work with gasses, anything that might create gasses in the event of an accident or materials that can contaminate the air in dust or droplet form, you need ventilation systems capable of routing containing them. As you can see in the USG’s guidelines, laboratory fume hoods are some of the most important safety fixtures in any lab where air quality is a concern. We offer standard and custom models to fit your specific applications.

Lab Storage Furnishings: Half of lab safety is safe storage. Proper supervision can cut accidents in the lab, but if your materials are stored improperly misfortune can strike long after everyone’s gone home. Storage cabinetry and casework needs to be sturdy and secure. After that, the requirements depend on the materials being stored. Our general purpose lab cabinets are excellent for nonspecific materials storage. Build of 18-guage steel, they won’t be bent or broken in typical accidents. We also have special chemical resistant cabinets and flame resistant cabinets. All of our cabinets support many additional custom features including rollers, peg boards and multiple surface options.

The three areas above are not an exhaustive exploration of lab requirements. You should always consult state and federal regulations and guidelines for lab furniture. When you know what you need, please Contact RDM; we have the expertise to provide solutions for any sized lab.

Every workplace needs to support a steady pace without cutting corners in order to maximize productivity. The ability to do this is one of the foundations of both productivity and safety. This means that workers need to have confidence in their surroundings – and for that, you need reliable industrial-duty furniture.
Most businesses tend to focus on staff, rather than equipment. Industrial furniture is part of the initial outlay of expenses, but payroll tends to be the recurring issue. Nevertheless, these should be thought of as separate and equal concerns. You need a reliable environment with industrial furniture to keep your efforts performing at a maximum safe pace.

Take workbench tables as an example. They come in several styles and grades, ranging from garage hobby workbenches through office-grade tables, and up to our specialized, industrial quality benches. If you plan to take your manufacturing business up a notch from the “part-time” level to a more “full-time” commercial production run, it’s time to leave your light duty furniture behind. An individual craftsman working at a slow pace can often work around the limitations of hobby-style or low end workbenches, but once you graduate your business to include additional workers, longer production times and a production quota, there’s no time to deal with your current furniture limitations. If you plan to stay with or acquire lower end furniture, this gives you two choices: Slow your production rate, or risk an accident.

Obviously, you want to prevent accidents from happening, which is why it’s in your best interest to get your workplace furniture right the first time. Contact RDM with a description of your requirements and we’ll help you find the industrial grade furniture solution that works for you – and if we do not have it, we will design it for you.

At RDM, we strive to live up to our motto of QUALITY – SERVICE – TIMING. We attempt to treat our clients to the highest level of quality and service that is so difficult to find these days.

One thing we’re proud of at RDM is the ability of our craftspeople to turn out functional, strong products. Their talent is almost a problem, because they can manufacture so many specialized industrial workbenches, lab tables and other workstations that we’re never sure what merits the spotlight. It’s all quality work. The great thing about this blog is that we can shift focus from month to month, so to take advantage of that we’re inaugurating our Gallery Spotlight feature.

First up: industrial workbenches. They’re probably our most diverse product offering, made even more so by the fact that as the manufacturer, we can produce customized versions of virtually every standard model we offer. Here are a few of the attractive, reliable workbench models we offer:

Model Style LM-110P – Large Shelf Workstations

This tough, multifunctional model features twin adjustable shelves. Clients often use them to hold or mount large monitors. The base shelving provides room for a CPU or AV equipment, while casters ensure easy mobility from place to place. The picture shows it in basic black, but we offer a wide variety of color finishes.

Model Style T-101P – Double Sided Workstations

This space efficient model provides everything you need to run several computers from the corner of a warehouse or an office where space is at a premium. Each side of the station includes an upper shelf and a light boom. Heavy duty support arms keep the work area stable enough to handle heavy packages.

Model Style A-109P – Flat Top Tables

This particular unit is a customized version of one of our core models. This tough station comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. We picked this image because its small size and bright green color really make it stand out. It’s kind of cute, by industrial furniture standards, but the important thing is that it does the job!

See something you can use? See something you can almost use, as long as we make some custom adjustments? Contact us to see what RDM can do for you.

A garage-style workbench is fine for somebody who wants to fix a bike or saw through a few planks at home, but once you go into business you’ve got to step up from hobby equipment. If you think your business is small enough to get away with off the shelf consumer benches, think again; they are not designed to withstand regular use.

Our industrial workbenches are designed around durable, time-tested, reliable frames because they need to support extended use and exceptional stresses, compared to a hobby workbench. We also offer custom features. Here are four reasons why you should consider using RDM industrial workbenches for even the modest industrial work.

Durability: An industrial workbench needs to be tough – period. Even if a consumer model workbench can stand up to a given task every once and a while (like when you tinker in your garage on Sundays) that doesn’t mean it can stand up to the performance required to perform 8 to 24 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a weak. Many of the added features that are offered on our competitor’s typical workbenches may represent weak points in their designs. Their durability is compromised by adding lower-grade enhancements. (With RDM workbenches, you can add adjustability as an option; however, they’re a little more expensive since they are made of sturdier stuff.) Our competitor’s workbenches will eventually give out under repeated use and stress. In even a small scale manufacturing environment that represents a ticking time bomb. Do you want a bench leg to fail when you’re working with acid? Fragile electronics? Glass? Safety demands durability.

Ergonomic Features: An industrial workplace lives or dies on a consistent workflow. Every station needs to support the quick, efficient execution of a task. This isn’t the place to be switching out tables or chairs every five minutes. If your current furniture setup requires this, then your productivity is suffering. Our industrial workbench selection includes designs that are suited to serve many tasks. Correct ergonomics should be available for every task, and they can be found throughout our industrial workbench selection. RDM workbench adjustable properties do not compromise function or clash with other features. Our hydraulic lift tables are an example of how we incorporate flexibility into your workbench processes.

Heavy Support Options: As a rule, you should always overestimate the potential weight and stress your workbench needs to support. Purchase accordingly. Industrial workplaces are dynamic; therefore, heavy objects shouldn’t be thought of as static weight. What if your product or equipment slips on the work surface? What is something falls against the side of your loaded workbench? Most of our competitor’s weight capacities do not match up to their listed specifications? Be aware of similar workbench designs that claim to support loads greater than our units. These claims do not take live loads into consideration. Nothing beats our fully welded frame designs. Our fully-welded workbench frames are the most durable solution on the market, above all of our competitor’s bolt-together, knock-down frames. While we do have light duty workbenches that ably support smaller shop tasks, our standard models can take on extremely heavy live loads without compromising integrity. We also offer workbench designs for large size projects as well as large size loads up to 20,000 lbs.

Workspace Clutter: This issue is so basic that many people don’t even think of it, but failing to consider how to keep a workbench space clear is a major cause of lost productivity. A cluttered white collar desk is the sign of a creative mind, but a cluttered workbench is a hint that somebody’s eventually going to have an industrial accident. Our industrial workbenches have plenty of options to help avoid this, from table models with elevated shelving to articulated platforms that suspend monitors, documents and other peripheral elements away from the main workspace.

Keep these four tips in mind when it’s time to procure workbenches for your business. Avoid the temptation of lesser grade consumer models, because replacing them and dealing with lost productivity will claw back any savings you may initially experience. Once you know what you want, take a look at the industrial-grade workbenches we have to offer. We’re ready for your order and look forward to hearing from you.