For a long time the bollard has been used as a barrier on factory floors. It has been assumed that a bollard designed to stop a slow moving vehicle could also be used to stop a forklift truck travelling at speed. However this is not the case.
The problem with using such a bollard to protect a warehouse is that it has been designed to stop slow moving vehicles such as cars, and to protect a static object such as a post. In a warehouse environment the largest dynamic load is likely to be a forklift truck. These vehicles are designed to be maneuverable at slow speed and thus have a large amount of kinetic energy stored in them. The impact of such a vehicle hitting a steel bollard at slow speed can cause the bollard to collapse under the load. In every case where a bollard has been specified as part of a warehouse design, the bollard has been destroyed by the impact of a forklift truck travelling at slow speed. This has been the case even when the bollard design looked adequate on paper. In every case the calculated dynamic load on the bollard has been greater than the bollard was designed to take. The calculated dynamic load on a 1.5tonne forklift travelling at 2.5mph is greater than the dynamic load of a 2tonne vehicle travelling at the same speed. This is a deceptively modest number but the physics behind it is not.
The major advancement in the development of safe factory floor barriers has been the structured impact classification given to various types of static barriers by the European PAS 13 framework. This has led to EN Standards for various types of warehouse and industrial static physical protection systems being created and implemented.
Workplace Safety Barriers is covered in more detail at https://www.emtek.co.uk/safety-barriers/workplace-safety. There is a useful background explanation of separating pedestrians from moving vehicles.
For workplace safety barriers specified to these standards see.
What the classification system does for you is give you permission to stop guessing.