PRODUCT TESTING
A selection of the wires and cables, and a bed sheet, used in the ligature testing process.
instance, to simulate what we dub ‘heavy soft body impact’ – such as somebody in a mental healthcare facility charging at an item such as a piece of furniture, a door, or a window – we use a double tyre impactor comprising two tyres attached to 50 kg steel core, which we raise up and then swing down onto the item being tested. BS EN 12600 defines the impactor used in this particular test. The drop heights determine the amount of energy we’re putting into the impact, which is selected based upon the robustness level the product is being taken to.
Hard body impactors “We also,” he continued, “have hard body impactors, essentially 1 or 4 kg steel balls, which, again, we raise to, and drop from, different heights. The 4 kg ball is used when we need to achieve higher impact energies at lower drop heights. The steel balls are used more to simulate the effect on a product of hitting it with harder objects from around, say, an inpatient’s room, such as a chair leg or shoe.” Also used for the BRE/DiMHN testing of some products, impacting a smaller area, is a small soft body impactor in the form of a sandbag weighing approximately 4 kg. Gary Timmins said: “This might, for example, be used to simulate somebody punching or kicking at a door with a lower impact. It is worth noting, however, that in the BRE / DiMHN testing, we are very much targeting our impacts around
CDs, pins, keys, nails, and paper clips, are among objects that have been used to damage furniture, fixtures, and fittings, in mental healthcare settings.
vulnerabilities or potential vulnerabilities. We will not, for instance, only target a geometric centre if we feel there’s a more vulnerable opportunity to attack the item – such as perhaps a latching point or similar.”
Polar NE’s testing experience Moving to discuss the day Polar NE’s staff spent at the test facility, Sean Taylor explained: “We spent most of the morning on that day in January this year undertaking the ligature testing, and the afternoon on the impact testing. For the ligature testing there’s a very extensive list of objects. We start off with wires of different types and thicknesses, and both high friction – such as electrical cable, and low friction – including some that are more like string, which run a bit more freely, but don’t necessarily catch so easily on certain things. Other items we typically use include anything from pens and pencils to CDs, plastic cutlery, belt buckles, charging cables, sheets, nails, and different items of clothing – from tee shirts to underwear such as bras.” I asked Sean Taylor how products such as the Humber Two window are then graded post-testing. He said: “There will be a grade for the ligature resistance, and also for robustness – although the latter will be broken down by different attacks.” Gary Timmins elaborated: “With the ligature testing, you will essentially end up with a matrix – a test result which looks at how
Whatever tests are undertaken – whether it be the effect on the product of a test on ligature resistance with a boot lace, or impact resistance – it is all photographed and recorded. Most of it then finds its way into the test report to help Laura’s team understand the nature and the cause of any failure
Gary Timmins, head of the Building Products and Compliance team at BRE
THE NETWORK | MAY 2023
much load we can hold on the ligature against which test wire types. That breaks down to a lowest common denominator on that first part of the ligature resistance testing. It’s only really when we move up to the second stage that we look at combinations of tools and the like.”
An ‘R&D’ day Sean Taylor added: “As Gary says, there’ll be a series of two-number identifiers that tell you – for a certain thickness of test wire – how much load can be applied on the particular product.” Gary Timmins interjected: With the testing that Polar NE did, this was an ‘R&D day’, where we were giving them the opportunity to understand the new testing regime, and to show typical examples of what we’re doing. When we are undertaking the testing for real, or to feed into certification of a product, we will spend a lot longer than a day on it – typically perhaps a couple of days dedicated to ligatures, and a further two on robustness. This takes us on to the next part of the process – around certification – which is where Laura, our Certification manager, comes in. Laura Critien explained: “I have been at BRE for 15 years, and this is one of a number of certification schemes that I manage.”
Ensuring repeatability She continued: “The BRE / DiMHN Products for Mental Health Safeguarding certification scheme is a ‘test and declare’ scheme, so ultimately what goes on the certificate shows what was achieved in testing. The additional part that we do is the FPC process – a series of Factory Production Control visits to the location(s) where the products are made, to ensure repeatability of the production process. This is absolutely key on this scheme, as there are very small margins on tolerances for these products, so we need to ensure that everything that comes off the production line is consistent. “We look both at the manufacturing
locations, and the processes in place, to ensure that what is being asked to be manufactured is what comes off the line.
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