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Mag locks

lyledunn

A tad off the beaten track but I would be grateful for opinion.

I look after fire safety compliance in over one hundred social clubs. Anyone who has been to one will know that many have a main entrance with an electrically controlled door entry system that allows the door to be opened from behind the bar or similar. Now there are all types of electronic locks in use, some require power to open others are just flat retaining electro-magnets that release on the circuit going open. 
It has never been a good idea to have doors with fastenings of any kind on escape doors but in the past, providing the doors met a category A designation in accordance with BS 7273 2015, (effectively meaning a fail safe arrangement connected via the fire alarm), they were accepted by local authorities for licensing purposes.

Now at least one Fire and Rescue Service have stipulated that in premises where entertainment will be held and/or intoxicating liquor is to be consumed, if these entrance doors are to be used for escape, which, invariably they will, they cannot be held closed by any “electronic” means irrespective of Category A compliance.

I completely respect their stance. I investigated several arrangements and found that they had the usual green breakglass beside the door and the doors opened on activation of the fire alarm. Unfortunately, because the normally closed contact was used on the fire alarm, removal of both normal and back up supply left the doors closed although the green breakglass unit was still available.

I want to put a case to FRS to allow the use of the flat plate type means of retaining the doors and to ensure that they are completely fail safe.

Can any one conceive of a situation where the interruption of power to the electro-magnets might not occur and how that might be overcome?

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    Do they mean they are prohibiting electronic, as in computers, networks, logic and all the scope for error that gives, or also pure electro-mechanical where a switch contact, or ideally two of them both operated together, really is in series with the actuator/lock  (E-stops that are for use in safety of life cases have two force -guided contacts that are mechanically arranged that the failure of one would be reported, but not prevent the power being cut.)

    Personally I'd be surprised if anyone who understood the problem would not accept a variant of the second as being a lot safer than the first. I'm wary of things where the push button by the door calls some central controller, and that in turn issues some network commands to release the doors.

    Mike.

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  • 0

    Do they mean they are prohibiting electronic, as in computers, networks, logic and all the scope for error that gives, or also pure electro-mechanical where a switch contact, or ideally two of them both operated together, really is in series with the actuator/lock  (E-stops that are for use in safety of life cases have two force -guided contacts that are mechanically arranged that the failure of one would be reported, but not prevent the power being cut.)

    Personally I'd be surprised if anyone who understood the problem would not accept a variant of the second as being a lot safer than the first. I'm wary of things where the push button by the door calls some central controller, and that in turn issues some network commands to release the doors.

    Mike.

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