Garage door safety guide

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Specifiers and installers continue to download a Door & Hardware Federation Best Practice Guide designed to raise safety standards of powered garage doors...

Specifiers and installers continue to download a Door & Hardware Federation Best Practice Guide designed to raise safety standards of powered garage doors.

The Guide, which has been endorsed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), is available from www.dhfonline.org.uk. The DHF has produced the guide to remove the risk of death or injury caused by poorly designed powered domestic garage doors. It will enable specifiers, manufacturers and installers of powered garage doors to ensure there are adequate force limitation safeguards built in to the doors. These safeguards include a safety edge on the door leaf or a safety device incorporated into the drive system. These measures will eliminate the danger of any door striking or crushing a person with a degree of force that could cause injury.

The DHF, which represents the leading UK manufacturers and installers of garage doors, produced this definitive guide in the wake of a number of cases in the UK where users of automatic doors and gates, including garage doors, have been killed or injured.

The HSE has officially endorsed the DHF Guide to Force Limitation for the Safe Use of Powered Garage Doors. Nick Ratty, the head of HSE's services, transportation and safety unit, said: "HSE believes that following this industry guidance will help manufacturers and suppliers to comply with the relevant product safety regulations." This, he said, would lead to "the prevention of serious accidents involving powered garage doors. I am pleased to support its publication."

The DHF guide details the requirements for the force limitation for the safe use of vertically moving powered garage doors of all types including canopy doors, retractable doors, sectional overhead doors and rolling shutters. It describes the standards covering garage doors, and includes a checklist that can be used by customers when selecting a garage door supplier. Said DHF general manager and secretary Michael Skelding: "It became clear that some domestic garage doors were still not being safeguarded adequately against the risk of a door striking or crushing someone with enough force to cause injury, which led us to produced the Guide. "In most cases where accidents had arisen it was clear that a properly designed and installed product would have prevented or mitigated the injury, even where the user - often a child - was misusing the product. We're confident that correct use of the DHF Best Practice Guide will go a long way towards eliminating any further tragic accidents." The DHF Guide to Force Limitation for the Safe Use of Powered Garage Doors is available for free download from the DHF website: www.dhfonline.org.uk