ACCESS CONTROL
Meeting important fire safety standards for ironmongery and hardware
Paul Campbell , Technical , Quality , and Sustainability Manager at Codelocks , outlines the importance of CE marking for fire door hardware and how Codelocks is filling a gap in the regulations .
» FIRE DOORS HELP TO compartmentalise fire to stop it spreading so the hardware and ironmongery attached to them must not undermine their ability to keep fire contained . To ensure any attachments are reliable and can withstand prolonged fire conditions , products must be tested to certain regulatory standards , including the British ( BS ) and European ( EN ) standards , and CE marking .
However , it can often be difficult to discern what fire door hardware needs what certification exactly . For example , while CE marking is required for locks and latches attached to fire doors , there are no specified requirements for full access control assemblies that contain locks and latches as components . For specifiers , the absence of harmonised European standards for CE marking for complete assemblies has created a ‘ limbo ’ or grey area where the components and the entire assemblies they compose have different requirements on paper .
In practice , this can lead to components that can ’ t be guaranteed to have been sufficiently fire tested , and certainly not tested together – crucial to fully ensure the fire safety of a complete assembly – being swapped out or replaced .
The issue of inconsistent requirements is felt acutely by building owners and contractors who are ultimately liable for ensuring that fire doors have their correct certifications . Failure to guarantee that the door components are certified is not only a shortfall of having the right paperwork , but also negligence with the potential for fatal consequences .
To avoid this issue , both assemblies and their components must be rigorously tested to consistent standards to close the gap between them and remove any potential inconsistency or grey area .
Codelocks closes the gap CE marking is the highest rated standard available . At Codelocks , we have developed our locks and latches while investing heavily in independent fire testing to ensure we have the largest range of access control assemblies with CE-marked locks and latches .
‘ All Codelocks assemblies have undergone 30-minute and 60-minute fire testing in both directions ’
To bring more clarity to the grey area of access control solutions for fire doors and introduce consistency and assurance , Codelocks tests locks and latches to the performance standard , BS EN 12209 , before fire testing the full assembly to BS EN 1634-1 . In doing
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OCTOBER 2024
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