Accredited Physical Security Solutions
Water, power, transport, telecommunication and other parts of the Critical National Infrastructure set the bar when it comes to securing assets, writes Michael miles, general manager of Technocover.
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Their Security Remit
Covers the spectrum of risks: from theft, vandalism and misadventure to the severest security threats – terrorism and espionage. With government dictates on security acting as a major driver, Critical National Infrastructure industries have embraced the use of physical protection equipment certified to rigorous third party approval systems. These include Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) certification, as internationally respected approval system gaining increasing status for high security applications in all areas, from infrastructure and the public sector, to retail and commerce.
LPCB approves, façade elements, such as access covers, doors, shutters and grilles, to a robust dedicated standard, LPS 1175 (specification for testing and classifying the burglary resistance of building components, strongpoints, security enclosures and free-standing barriers). A widely recognised strength of LPCB is that products are subject to on-going appraisal; approval is not just based on a one-off test of a sample design.
Compliance
Through regular audits, LPCB certification ensures that the product continues to comply with the regime’s prevailing standards and revisions. This assures the specifier and end-user that the product on the market embodies the exact design and quality as the product that was originally tested and approved.
This cannot be said of products certified through type testing – the rest results are no guarantee that future products will provide equivalent performance.
Another strength of the LPCB test regime is that it accounts for intellectual strategies that could be used to break through a product’s defence, as well as physical attack.
Government testing regimes, which are based on type tests, have been the traditional source of approval for high security equipment for infrastructure projects. Now, the benefits of LPCB’s on-going audit are being recognised, and it is gradually being endorsed within many sectors as an acceptable alternative.
Accredited
These aspects of LPCB provide the basis of a very sound and dependable security approval system. Not only is it trusted for the most demanding applications such as infrastructure, it also gives the experienced manufacturer scope to realise cost savings without compromising performance.
Sentinel and UltraSecure products from Technocover, the security and structural support specialist, provides a good example of this. In July 2010 Technocover launched the first security door to achieve testing and certification to LPS1175 (issue 7) security rating 5, with a single rather than three-point locking device, providing a cost saving to end-users.
The development is down to the integrity of the LPCB testing regime and Technocovers particular design blueprint that has produced one of the most extensive ranges of LPCB approved security products. These include LPCB access covers, doors, cabinets, louver vents, mesh cages, partitions and panels, cylinder clamps, enclosures and buildings serving different sectors of the security market through the group’s specialist brands:
Technocover (utilities), TechnoRail (rail) and the Technocover security portfolios for buildings and transport. This demonstrates the importance of specifying doors and locks that have gained third party approval of security performance in combination, and not just as independent systems.
High Security Door Options
In this case, Technocover’s LPCB 5 door and the particular design of single point lock used have created a unit that has stood up to LPCB level 5 testing during the certification programme. It introduces the idea that three-point locking is not necessarily a prerequisite for LPCB approval.
In all, specifiers can choose from a possible 90 options forming part of the certification programme for the new Sentinel UltraSecure LPCB level 5 doors.
This is based on three door types – entry only, exit only, entry and exit – each are available with 30 different ironmongery options (key and lever handle, solenoid, punch-pad, thumb-turn and lever, full width panic bar, etc)/. The single lever lock is also available on LPCB approved level 3 and 4 doors from Technocover, bringing further cost savings for the security industry from performance-assured products.
Technocover are exhibiting at Counter Terror Expo 30th April – 1st May, 2014 Olympia, London – Stand B70.
For More Information
Technocover, provides accredited access solutions in physical protection and structural support for infrastructure, buildings and landscaping through its sector brands.
Further information on products and services available can be found at www.technocover.co.uk
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