It was noisy and sometimes it may even be sneaky, but the testers at the LPCB are only doing what criminals might do, trying to break through physical security products. The LPCB’s ‘test lab’ was part of last week’s International Security Expo at London Olympia; for a second year. The first ‘lab’ was featured in the January 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine. Then as now, the testers certainly drew a crowd of the informed and the simply curious, including teenage police cadets at Olympia from Surrey and Wiltshire, part of an initiative by the Security Institute to interest young people in private security as a career.
While the testers hammered and chiselled away, a commentary explained what the LPCB is about. Briefly, they certify products to various security ratings (SR), from one up. If you fit such products, you can have confidence that the item from the factory is of the standard the LPCB says it is, to give a set amount of minutes of protection before thieves – with the equipment, or combinations of tools, they are expected and known to handle – do break through. A consultant can plan a layered security system, and response to an alarm, accordingly.
One moral of the story; you only get what you pay for. Another; it’s not necessarily any good to have a highly-rated lock, if the doorset is not as highly-rated and an intruder batters his way in through that.
Pictured under the (sledge) hammer on day two of the show are doorsets from Premier Security. On day one, products tested were an automated hinged pedestrian gate from Frontier Pitts; turnstile from Eagle Automation; palisade fencing from Barkers; cabinets and enclosures from Technocover; weld-mesh fencing from Zaun; secondary glazing from Selectaglaze; palisade fencing from Lochrin Bain; padlocks from dormakaba; timber and weld-mesh fencing from Jacksons; and cylinder guards from Surelock McGill. Some tests were repeated on day two.
Background
In full, LPCB is the Loss Prevention Certification Board, part of BRE, the Building Research Establishment, based in Watford. Visit https://www.bregroup.com/products/lpcb/. Fire and security products, services and companies certificated by LPCB to LPS and other industry standards are listed in the ‘RedBook’, downloadable free from RedBookLive.com.
The 2020 Expo runs at the same venue again for two days, December 2 and 3, again alongside a sister exhibition about international disaster response.
