Door Industry Journal - Summer 2021

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 38 THE door industry journal summer 2021 Industry News Preventing Accidents Caused by Domestic Garage Doors and Gates: DHF (Door & Hardware Federation), represents all the key players in the locks and building hardware, doorsets, industrial doors and shutters, domestic garage doors and automated gates sectors. Its ongoing objective is to maintain and raise quality standards throughout the industry. In addressing safety in the home environment, and in particular, with domestic garage doors and powered gates, the federation’s General Manager & Secretary, Michael Skelding, emphasises the importance of selecting the right product and the right installer in order to ensure safety. Introduction A smart new garage door, and perhaps an automatic gate, can enhance convenience and security, as well as improving the appearance of a domestic property. The cost need not be excessive and the upkeep should be reasonable. The internet is crowded with advertisements for garage doors and gates, competing vigorously to offer a low price and trouble-free installation. What could possibly go wrong? Ahead of ‘taking the plunge’, it is important to be aware that the durability and even, sadly, the safety of a new purchase is not necessarily guaranteed; caution must be exercised to ensure that a home enhancement does not become a source of worry and expense. Hazards associated with domestic garage doors and gates • Structural failure This can be caused by failures of the door’s components, such as cables, chains, springs, endplates and hinges; poor installation, including using the wrong fixings or using them incorrectly, or failures in the supporting construction including brickwork and, for gates, foundations. Even a domestic garage door, particularly a double door, is heavy enough to cause death or serious injury if it falls onto someone. Gates have been responsible for death and injury, including a tragic case where a domestic sliding gate derailed and pinned the owner to the ground. European standards do address the issues of component failure, essentially by requiring that (except where the product is so light that it is not considered a danger) any suspension component that could fail is protected against failure, either by the design of the suspension system (e.g. garage doors with multiple springs) or adding a separate safety device which prevents the door or gate from falling dangerously following component failure. In both cases, it is important that either the failure is clearly visible to the user or that further use of the door is prevented until repairs have been undertaken. Poor installation or failures of supporting structures are more difficult for the manufacturer to manage. Installation instructions are required by law but are not always clear and are often ignored. Manufacturers may supply fixings but cannot anticipate every possible situation on site. A site survey by the installer should reveal any problems with the supporting structure or other potential hazards. Remedial measures required may range from the use of specialised fixings to repairing damaged structures or re-routing buried cables. Some of these may require the intervention of specialised tradesmen. • Crushing and impact by powered doors and gates Any powered door or gate has the potential to cause injury by impacting or crushing someone. The terms are used to describe the result of a moving part of a door or gate making contact with someone; impact describes a contact where the person can be pushed aside; while crushing describes a contact where a body part is likely to be caught and crushed between two parts of the system or a part of the system and the surroundings. The European standards offer three possible ways to control this hazard when caused by the main closing edge: The door or gate is controlled by a trained operator using a ‘hold to run’ switch, which requires the switch to be held in by the operator throughout the movement. Releasing the switch causes the door or gate to stop moving immediately. For this to be safe, the operator must not be standing in a dangerous position and it must only be possible to operate the control from a position that allows a full, direct and permanent real-time view of the door or gate. Most remote controls can operate out of sight of the door and are therefore not acceptable as a hold to run safety system. In commercial and industrial settings, a keyswitch mounted on a wall near the door is the usual approach. The door or gate is made ‘pressure-sensitive by equipping them with sensitive edges, or by using a drive system that can detect contact with obstacles (the latter is often described as ‘inherent force limitation’). In either case, the door or gate stops automatically, typically reversing as soon as contact with an obstacle is made. In some circumstances, these forms of obstacle detection require a photobeam to be added for additional safety. (Note that the single photobeam cannot be used on its own but is intended as an enhancement to an already safe door or gate). By removing any possibility of contact by using technology (such as scanners or light curtains) to detect an obstruction in the path of the door or gate, it can stop without making contact. (Note that this is not achievable with a single, fixed, beam).