High-value stock and hazardous materials are a constant concern in busy warehouses and industrial facilities. You need to keep them secure, easy enough to access for authorised staff, and stored in a way that supports your wider safety strategy. A properly designed storage cage does all three – but the detail of how you specify it is where things are won or lost.
What Needs to Go in a Secure Cage?
Every site is different, but certain items almost always benefit from being kept behind mesh or solid panels. High-value stock might include branded goods, electronics, tools and specialist components that are particularly attractive to thieves. Hazardous materials often include aerosols, gas cylinders, chemicals, oils and flammable products that must be segregated and controlled.
Trying to manage all of this with a standard store room or a single locked door rarely works for long. As operations grow, storage cages give you a clear, physical boundary that defines who can go where – and makes it obvious when someone is somewhere they shouldn’t be.
Planning the Location and Layout
A secure cage works best when it fits naturally into the flow of your building. That means thinking about where staff approach from, how pallets are moved, and where fire exits and pedestrian routes are located.
- Close to the action, not in the way: Ideally your cage sits near the areas that use the stock most often, but not in a position where trucks, pedestrians and doors are constantly clashing.
- Enough footprint and height: Billington’s storage cages are built from modular mesh or solid panels, so they can be configured to suit awkward corners, low ceilings or tall racking runs.
- Think vertically: For high-value stock especially, adding a mesh roof helps prevent access from above and creates a more secure envelope.
Mesh vs Solid Panels – and When to Use Each
Billington Safety Systems supply storage cages and enclosures in both mesh and solid steel panel systems, with different security levels depending on the application.
Mesh panels allow light, air and sprinkler water to pass through. They do not attract dust and make it easy for supervisors to see what is stored and whether doors are closed correctly. This style is usually preferred for general high-value stock, cylinders and many types of hazardous goods because it supports ventilation and easy visual checks.
Solid panels come into their own where you want privacy, impact resistance or an enclosed environment. For example, sensitive products or high-value branded goods may be better kept out of sight, especially in shared warehouses where multiple businesses operate in the same building.
Both styles can be combined within one project – solid panels where you need privacy, mesh where airflow and visibility matter most.
Doors, Locks and Access Control
The door is almost always the weak link in a cage, so it deserves more thought than a basic padlock and hasp. Billington’s systems can be supplied with single or double swinging doors, sliding doors and larger openings that work with roller shutter or fast-acting doors where frequent pallet movements are needed.
For high-value stock, it is usually worth stepping up from a simple padlock to a more controlled system – for example digital keypads, lever locks or doors tied into your card access system. That way you can restrict access to trained staff and keep an audit trail of who has been in and out.
Where hazardous materials are involved, access control is as much about safety as it is about security. You want to be confident that only staff with the right PPE, training and permits can enter, particularly if chemicals or flammable aerosols are stored inside.
Special Requirements for Hazardous Materials
Hazardous goods bring their own set of design considerations, and this is where purpose-designed aerosol cage enclosures and similar systems start to make a lot of sense.
- Ventilation: Mesh walls and, in some cases, open or louvred roof sections help prevent the build-up of vapours and support compliance with relevant guidance.
- Fire strategy: Sliding doors can be held open during normal operation and linked to the fire alarm so that, when the system activates, the doors close automatically to contain the risk. Emergency push-bar exits on the rear of the enclosure allow operatives to escape quickly if needed.
- Segregation: Incompatible materials should be kept apart. Cages make that easier by giving you clearly marked, physically separated zones that support whatever segregation rules apply on your site.
Rather than trying to retrofit safety around an existing store, building the cage around your racking from the outset helps you make the most of vertical space while still keeping a high level of protection.
Why Work with Billington Safety Systems?
Billington Safety Systems specialise in storage cages, mesh partitioning and aerosol enclosures for warehouses, factories and industrial sites across the UK. Their modular systems are built from galvanised steel mesh or solid panels, with multiple security levels and door options, and can be tailored to awkward spaces, existing racking and specific operational needs.
Because they also supply machine guarding, anti-collapse mesh, decking, safety barriers and other warehouse improvement products, they can help you look at your facility as a whole rather than treating the cage as an isolated add-on. That usually leads to a solution that feels more natural to use – and is more likely to keep your people, and your most valuable assets, safe.
If you are reviewing how you store high-value stock or hazardous materials, now might be the time to look at a properly designed storage cage. Talk to Billington Safety Systems about your layout, the products you need to protect and the level of security you are aiming for, and they can help you turn that wish list into a practical, compliant solution. Contact us today