Building safety – protecting people and assets

If buildings have automatic doors and windows, the operator is responsible for their traffic safety. According to the European standard EN 16005 on safety in use for automatic doors, measures are needed to protect hazardous areas by:

• using sensors to avoid crushing, shearing and impact during opening and closing (sensors for presence detection)
• maintaining safe distances to prevent crushing and being drawn in
• limiting the leaf forces

According to German Federal State building regulations, structural systems must be planned, erected and maintained to provide sufficiently fire protection. Structural fire protection primarily involves the use of components and building materials, as well as the planning and construction of adequate escape and rescue routes for people and animals.

People use escape routes in the event of danger – for example in there is a fire or a situation of panic – to leave a building safely and quickly. These routes must already be defined during the planning of a building. A smaller building with less through traffic has different demands than, for example, a large shopping centre with a lot of through traffic. Masses of people need more space and flee differently than just a few people.

All doors along escape and rescue routes must be designed as escape doors or emergency exits. They must be marked accordingly and fitted with escape door locks in accordance with European standards. They must be fully usable at all times. Escape routes must be clearly and visibly marked and signposted for orientation.

The building regulations and special building specifications regulate whether and where fire protection closers (fire protection doors) are necessary in buildings. Their key task is to secure openings in fire-retardant or fire-resistant walls against the ingress of fire. They must therefore always be closed, or at least be closed in a controlled manner in the event of fire.

If fire protection doors are also to serve as escape routes, they must be able to be opened at any time. To simultaneously fulfil their function as fire protection closers, they need special locks that automatically close the doors after opening and also keep them closed – even without electricity - to prevent them from failing to open and thus making escape impossible. Or all of them opening and allowing access to burglars.

Escape and rescue routes must be as smoke-free as possible in the event of a fire so that people can move to safety and the fire-fighters can tackle the blaze. In the event of a fire, smoke and heat extraction systems (RWA) remove heat, smoke and toxic combustion gases from the building and keep them away from escape routes. Mechanical smoke extraction systems discharge the flue gases via fans. Natural smoke extraction systems use the thermal buoyancy principle to transport smoke directly to the outside via openings or windows.

Building safety also means protecting buildings, rooms, data and property against unauthorised access. It means granting only authorised persons access to certain areas in buildings or protected areas, usually sensitive areas such as computer centres, clean rooms, company areas, airports, banks, etc. The operator determines who is allowed to go where and when – even at specific times.

In an emergency, everyone must also be able to get out – but not everyone must be able to enter. This is where emergency exit protection systems come in: they manage the balancing act between controlled access and emergency opening with alarm (via emergency button) in the event of an emergency.

Although access control already keeps many unauthorised persons out, building safety is also about mechanical burglar resistance. Doors and windows must provide adequate protection against burglary, for example. Depending on the goal in protecting a particular area, decisions can be made in terms of the appropriate design of doors and windows.

According to DIN standard EN 1627:2011-09 "Doors, windows, curtain walls, lattice elements and closures - Burglar resistance - Requirements and classification", the components are classified in resistance classes (RC). Doors according to the RC1 to RC4 classifications offer higher protection against burglary due to their stability.

A safety concept is completed by detecting and monitoring measures. These ensure that both damaging events and accidental or intentional attempts to overcome protective and safety measures are detected as early as possible. For example, smoke detectors can detect fires at an early stage and trigger corresponding alarms. Burglar alarm systems, for example, show break-in attempts, while door guards at emergency exits draw attention to unauthorised use by means of an alarm signal.