Lock-Up Cylinder Cages

A lock-up cylinder cage is a welded angle-iron frame infilled with heavy mesh, built to stand permanently and hold cylinders upright and restrained. It is a different product from a bolt-together mesh enclosure, and the difference is not just how it is delivered — it is what happens to the cylinders inside it.

The retaining chain is the point

Every unit in the Grenadier lock-up range holds cylinders by a retaining chain. That single feature is why this format exists. A cage keeps cylinders in one secured place; a chain keeps them upright and secured against falling, which is what the guidance on cylinder storage is actually concerned with. A cylinder that topples can shear a valve, and a sheared valve on a full cylinder is the failure mode everything else in the storage regime is designed to avoid.

If you are choosing between a plain mesh enclosure and one of these, and your cylinders are large, tall, or handled by several people across shifts, the chained cage is the right answer.

Build and included fittings

• Manufactured in angle iron infilled with tough iron mesh — a welded frame rather than bolted panels, so the structure is rigid from the day it lands.
• Provision for padlock — the padlock itself is not supplied, so add one to the order.
• Complete with a highly flammable sign — supplied with the unit, which removes one item from the commissioning list.
• Base drilled for fixing points — designed to be bolted down.
• Cylinders held by retaining chain.

The one decision that matters: fixed or pallet base

The range splits cleanly in two, and the split is about siting rather than capacity.

Take the fixed, drilled base (CS) where the cylinder store has a permanent home on a slab you are willing to drill, and where being bolted down is an advantage — it is, both for security and for stability.

Take the pallet base (CP) where the store may need to move: leased premises, a site compound, a yard that gets reconfigured, or anywhere you would rather not put fixings into the surface. The trade is a higher price and a unit that can be lifted away by anyone with a forklift, so it wants siting inside a secured boundary.

Depth: 1095 mm or 1715 mm

Depth is the only dimensional variable in the range, which makes sizing unusually simple. Work it out from the cylinder inventory rather than from the footprint you have spare: count the cylinders that need to be in the store at their fullest, including the empties waiting for collection, because empties are what overflow a cylinder store. If the count sits close to the capacity of the shallower unit, take the deeper one — a cage that is full to the door is one where cylinders get moved past each other, and moving cylinders past each other is where they get dropped.

Painted or galvanised

Both depths are available in either finish. For an outdoor store with a long expected life, galvanised is the more durable specification, and cylinder stores are almost always outdoors because that is where the ventilation is. Our guide to galvanised versus powder-coated steel explains how each behaves in exposure.

Delivery

A forklift will be needed to unload these units. They arrive welded and assembled, so unlike a knock-down cage there is no option to carry them in in pieces. Confirm access and unloading before ordering — this is the single most common cause of a delivery going wrong on this product.

Where to go next

If the cage has to get through a doorway or into a walled compound, a welded unit will not — see knock-down gas cylinder cages, which bolt together on site. For the whole range including walk-in stores, see gas cylinder storage, and for secure mesh enclosures for general stock see storage cages.

Siting usually decides the specification, so read gas cylinder storage regulations in the UK before you commit to a position, and choosing a propane and cylinder cage for how the cage formats compare. Where flammable liquids are stored alongside gases, see hazardous storage.