MAINT ENANCE AND RE FURBI SHMENT

Be penny wise not pound foolish

By Bob Perry, Chairman of the Door & Hardware Federation

C

ompanies are cutting costs ruthlessly as they battle for survival during the economic turndown.

Worryingly, one of the first casualties can be routine maintenance of industrial doors and shutters. In every well-run industrial

and commercial concern, preventative maintenance programmes protect key elements of the manufacturing and processing lines. This ensures production is not halted prematurely by unexpected mechanical failure. But there is a machine in industrial premises that needs regular maintenance, too. For failure can result in catastrophic consequences. The neglected machine in question is the door. Power operated industrial

and commercial metal doors and shutters, are classed as machinery. This places a responsibility on the building owner/occupier, and the designated maintenance manager or facilities manager, to ensure the doors and shutters are regularly and competently maintained. Yet it is estimated that that

only 15 – 20% of the UK’s industrial premises have preventative maintenance programmes for metal doors and shutters in place. And this

proportion could actually be falling as the recession continues to force company owners to cut costs. Owners and managers of

industrial premises have a particularly poor record when it comes to maintaining and testing fire doors. We estimate that between 85 to 90% of industrial buildings have no fire door maintenance and testing procedures in place whatsoever. So what are the

consequences of neglecting vital maintenance of industrial and commercial doors, and what should building managers be doing? Failure to carry out preventative maintenance impacts in four ways: financial loss, real danger, breaking the law and running the risk of wiping out insurance cover.

Financial loss

We all know that if a car is not serviced regularly it is more likely to break down and incur high repair costs for the owner. An industrial door or shutter is no different. Like any machine, a breakdown costs money. Typically, the cost of sending out engineers with parts to repair a jammed or failed door would be very little compared with the considerable cost incurred should your business be brought to a complete halt. Consider if a typical

production line starts with a goods-in entrance, and a goods-out exit, and it is brought to a complete halt by one of those doors jamming shut, then the cost in terms of lost production could run into many thousands of pounds. Recently a DHF repair and

service member attended a job where a shop-front shutter had collapsed at the dummy end, having dropped through the bottom flange of the hood. It was hanging down below the stops but was still secured at the tube motor end. When the hood was removed, various faults were found, including a wholly inadequate grub screw arrangement. Regular servicing would have identified this fault long before the shutter collapsed and the retailer would not have lost significant takings whilst the shop was closed to allow repairs to take place. Poorly maintained industrial

doors constitute a real danger. It takes only missing rollers on a sectional overhead door, or frayed cables, or a failed spring, to run the risk of a half tonne metal door crashing down at speed in occupied areas of the factory.

Breaking the law

Under current workplace legislation, building owners are liable to ensure all machinery, including power operated industrial doors and shutters, is fit for purpose, is in good repair and is subject to a monitored programme of maintenance. This maintenance must be carried out regularly by competent persons,

in

accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, and a written record must be kept. Carrying out this maintenance ensures managers are meeting their obligations under the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations, Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations and Workplace (Health and Safety and Welfare) Regulations. It does not need to be an accident

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involving a door that alerts the authorities to non-compliance under this legislation. When health and safety inspectors visit a factory after any workplace accident they are very likely to want to inspect the whole building, including doors and shutters. Fire resisting doors are designed to close quickly when fire breaks out

to

compartmentalise the area and prevent fire spreading, so saving lives and preventing valuable stock and property being destroyed in flames. They need servicing and operational testing regularly. There is now an even more pressing need for building managers to familiarise themselves with the location of fire doors and to ensure regular maintenance procedures are in place. Now, fire officers no longer certify buildings. Instead there is in place a self- certification obligation on the building owner where he must declare

that correct

maintenance procedures have been followed. But maintenance and testing of fire doors just does not happen in the vast majority of the UK’s industrial and commercial premises. It is believed that lack of awareness is the main reason for this worrying shortfall.

Insurance

There is growing evidence that insurance companies are tightening up on companies that do not fulfil their maintenance obligations on doors

and shutters.

Increasingly the insurance companies are asking for written

evidence of

maintenance records in the wake of a fire in the workplace. The inability to produce written evidence could lead to a claim being rejected. The first step for the factory manager to take should be to obtain a list of competent door maintenance specialists who are members of the repair and service group of the DHF. All DHF members work to the

standards set out in the recently extensively updated DHF Code of Practice for the Repair and Maintenance of Industrial and Commercial Doors, a detailed document prepared to meet the needs of specifiers, end users and safety enforcement authorities. Each DHF repair and service

group member works through a checklist which details the sequence and scope of required maintenance work which is tailored to each type of door: hinged, folding shutter, high speed, roller shutter door, fire roller shutter and sectional overhead. Typically, a service takes a

maintenance team one hour, depending on location and accessibility of the door. If the door

manufacturer’s

maintenance instructions are not available the DHF member will recommend the correct frequency for door maintenance to the factory manager. This could be once or twice a year for a door which is operated 1,000 times a year. The service frequency depends on the

number of door operations and the environment in which the door is situated. For example, a door will need servicing more frequently if it is in a foundry or paintshop where dust in the air penetrates the lubricated parts of the door. A service usually comprises: lubrication of all moving parts, checks that all nuts, bolts, screws and cable clamps are tight, and that all wear and tear items, such as end locks, rollers and hinges, do not need replacing. Depending on the type of door, other areas of scrutiny include lift cables, clearances, and alignment of gears, sprockets and chains. The message is clear. A small expense to ensure the reliability and long life of each industrial door and shutter in the factory is, in fact, a valuable investment, even more so in this current economic turndown. It will save money, ensure you keep within the law, reduce danger and ensures you will be able to rely on your insurance company if the worse happens.

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