IRONMONGERY & SECURITY
MAKING THE GRADE FOR
MECHANICAL LOCKS
There’s a new grade 5 for BS 8607, the standard for mechanical push button locks. BMJ finds out what it covers, why it has been introduced.
M
echanical button locks are used all around the world, to help protect assets and people. However, it is an uncomfortable truth that
these products very rarely offer any real level of security. They are, in fact, generally more a means of access control. Yet, for many years now, mechanical push button locks have been purchased as a means of securing valuable goods or information. This is a commonly-held misconception of the purpose a push button lock should serve.
That’s according to Craig Birch, product cateory manager at Union, who says that, in fact, mechanical push button locks are vulnerable to physical attack, but it is typically burglaries from opportunistic thieves that these products need to protect against. “A strong shoulder charge or kick would likely force open most traditional push button locks. This is obviously not ideal for a device that is thought of by many as a security product.
“This is because the locking device typically used with traditional push button locks is simply a tubular latch. This can be easily pushed back and does not offer any sideload resistance.” Birch says that BS 8607 – a standard for mechanically operated push button locksets – offers a series of grades that these locks can meet for strength and robustness. Introduced only recently, grade 5 is the newest and most stringent level for delivering assured security and access control.
“The British Standards Institution (BSI) states that BS 8607:2014 specifies the requirements
34
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net August 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
