Technical Tuesday updates

Failure of any one spring, cable, drive chain, drive gear, or internal gearbox must be protected such that, at the point of the failure, either the door has a resulting static weight of 20kg or less, or the door will not fall back more than 300mm, and be prevented from further use. Some door designs do not need safety devices to achieve this. In the case of automatically operating doors, it is acceptable for the door to close at normal speed and under full control, then be prevented from further use by use of fault sensing systems. For further guidance read TS 013. 

Installation and maintenance companies should conduct and record a compliance assessment and a residual risk assessment and retain them as evidence of due diligence:                                                                                                      - for new installations                                                                                                                                                                                            - prior to taking on reactive or planned maintenance of a system for the first time                                                                - upon modification of an existing system.                                                                                                                              Ongoing routine maintenance should include safety checks to ensure that the system is still safe, but it should not be necessary to fully re-document the entire compliance assessment at every visit.  For further guidance read TS 013 or attend a dhf training course. 

Since July 2013, the Construction Products Regulations (CPR) has required that, before new industrial and garage doors are placed on the market, they must be type tested and declare a performance for structural strength, operating force (powered doors), safe opening (fall back protection for vertically acting doors) and where they will be external, resistance to wind load.  The manufacturer must issue a declaration of Performance and conformity mark the door accordingly.  For further guidance read TS 013. 

The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations, Construction Products Regulations, Workplace Regulations and the Health and Safety at Work Act place responsibilities on stakeholders to ensure that vertically acting doors are safe, which includes fall-back protection. Therefore, installation and maintenance companies should check that vertically acting doors they install or maintain have adequate protection to protect their own and their client’s legal obligations.  EN 12453 (powered doors) and EN 12604 (manual doors) have described the requirements in detail since 2000 with very little change in the last 23 years. For further guidance read TS 013 or attend a dhf training course. 

EN 12453 requires that imprisonment hazards must be prevented whenever a powered door or gate prevents people from exiting a potentially hazardous location in the event of a fault or power cut. Imprisonment hazards and the inconvenience caused when automated systems suffer faults or power cuts can be controlled by providing a manual override in the potential imprisonment area. Where untrained users might need to use a manual override, instructions on its use should be provided in the immediate vicinity. 

However, this may not be sufficient to meet national fire safety legislation; very few powered systems within the scope of EN 12453 could meet the requirements of an emergency egress door. For further guidance read TS 013.