PRODUCT TESTING
Helping specifiers make more ‘informed choices’
Elsewhere in this issue of The Network two senior personnel from Polar NE describe their positive experience of taking one of the company’s newer windows for use in mental healthcare facilities for ‘pre-testing’ under the jointly developed BRE and DiMHN Informed Choices testing standard for products destined for mental healthcare use. As demand for formal testing and certification begins ramping up, The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, recently spoke to three of the BRE staff involved in the testing and certification process to discuss what it involves.
Informed Choices – the new testing standard partnership between BRE and DiMHN – is designed to assess ligature risk for vulnerable people in the mental health built environment. The aim of this article is to provide information and help for planners and specifiers to see how they might apply the new standard. Trigger warning: Ligature methods are referred to in the article. Please use your judgement in reading. As no one is immune for the need for a content warning, we have included the contact details for the Samaritans helpline and the Zero Suicide Alliance below. If you find yourself triggered by reading, contact: Email:
jo@samaritans.org T: 116 123. Training on suicide prevention is available at:
https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com
Speaking to me recently by ‘Teams’ about the DiMHN / BRE testing and certification scheme for products designed for use in mental healthcare settings were Gary Timmins, head of the Building Products and Compliance team at BRE, and his colleagues, Construction consultant, Sean Taylor, and Certification manager, Laura Critien. Gary Timmins explained that he looks after a number of testing labs at the BRE site in Watford – including the full-scale structural testing lab, the materials testing labs, acoustics labs, and weathertightness, strength, and robustness testing labs. He explained: “We have a dedicated rig for the BRE / DiMHN testing in one of our lab spaces here at our Science Park in Watford. It has overhead gantry cranes for lifting products into place, while the test rigs consist of movable steel ‘C’ sections used to clamp the product
securely. We then use impact bags hanging off supports or cranes to apply the various impact loads, and hydraulic rams to apply static loads. There is also a kit of a wide range of tools that Sean uses to test each item for ligature resistance.”
Different impactors Gary Timmins explained that Sean Taylor runs and undertakes the actual testing under the BRE and DiMHN scheme. The latter said: “I first got involved in the testing scheme as Gary took it on as part of his remit about two years ago, and started connecting up with some of our first clients, and undertaking the testing ‘proper’, rather than just coming up with the concepts and elements behind the associated guidance. I’ve taken it from there, having been involved in all the first commercial testing we’ve done under the scheme to date.” Sean Taylor explained that he
“With the ligature testing, you will essentially end up with a matrix – a test result which looks at how much load we can hold on the ligature against which test wire types,” Gary Timmins explained.
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undertakes both manual and mechanical testing of products. He explained: “As Gary mentioned, for the impact testing under the BRE and DiMHN scheme we have a number of impactors that we use. For
MAY 2023 | THE NETWORK
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