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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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  • 0

    I’m not sure it answers your question but on a site I work on they have Paxton access control to most doors. Next to each door is a green push button and a break glass unit. I asked what the difference was and apparently the push button issues a command to the entry system to unlock whereas the break glass is wired directly into the supply to the electro magnet.

  • 0 in reply to Sparkymark

    yes - that is how we do it too - the break glass always works even if the network is lost, while the exit button or keyfob readers rely on the connection to the computer and each entry or exit request is logged before opening.  It is what Paxton suggest for that situation.
    Mike.

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  • 0 in reply to Sparkymark

    yes - that is how we do it too - the break glass always works even if the network is lost, while the exit button or keyfob readers rely on the connection to the computer and each entry or exit request is logged before opening.  It is what Paxton suggest for that situation.
    Mike.

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