[{"category": "ballistic-resistant", "text": "

Bullet Resistant Doors

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What are bulletproof doors?

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From a strictly technical evaluation, there is actually no such thing as a bulletproof door or a bulletproof security door. The term bulletproof means that 100% of the time a round from a firearm will not penetrate the door or window. In reality, with the right caliber weapon and/or enough rounds, the protection will eventually fail allowing the bullet to penetrate the barrier. Because of this, the correct term we should discuss is ballistic resistant door also called a bullet resistant door.

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What are bomb proof doors?

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For the same reasons, bomb proof doors should be described more correctly as blast resistant doors. The Protogetic Filter helps you search for both ballistic resistant and blast resistant doors easily and effortlessly...

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Why is ballistic resistance important?

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It may sound like semantics, but it is important for safety and design requirements to thoroughly understand that the product you are installing is not actually a bulletproof door but a ballistic resistant door. In the protective design and security profession, architects and engineers equip entryways with the level of protection required by the likely threats encountered by the building and its occupants.

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How are bullet proof doors rated?

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Bullet resistant doors, also called ballistic doors for short, are tested similarly to what many people erronmeously call bulletproof windows. These rigorous tests employ a number of criteria, including different types of firearms, the ammunition’s caliber, firing distance and number of shots fired. UL 752 ratings are the gold standard in measuring a bullet resistant door. UL 752 ranges from 1 to 10 (from lowest to highest protection).

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For example:

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UL 752 Level 1 means a 9mm handgun was fired 3 times from 4.6 meters and no penetration occurred.

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UL 752 Level 5 means an AK-47 was fired 1 time from 4.6 meters without penetration.

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UL 752 Level 10 indicates that a 50 Caliber Rifle was fired 1 time from 4.6 meters resulting in no penetration.

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What materials are bullet resistant doors made of?

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Not surprisingly, many bullet resistant doors are made from cold rolled steel. Despite this extremely strong material, this door type still cannot be called a bulletproof steel door. High caliber weapons can penetrate metal. For this reason, these doors are properly described as a ballistic resistant steel door or a ballistic steel door. Such doors are very popular because they are both effective and affordable.

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Are bullet resistant doors made of other materials?

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Bullet resistant doors can also be made from special glass, polycarbonate or acrylic materials. An advantage of acrylic ballistic resistant doors is they provide a similar aesthetic to glass but are often stronger and lighter weight.

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Can bullet resistant doors have windows?

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Yes. A window in a door is called glazing and comes in various sizes depending on the manufacturer. For a door to be truly secure, this glass needs to have a UL 752 bullet resistant rating as well. Otherwise, the glass can be shot out and the door unlocked, allowing entry to the building. This is a vitally important consideration when dealing with active shooter incidents. Preventing access into the building is essential as part of crisis architecture.

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Are there bullet resistant doors that are all glass?

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Yes. These aesthetically pleasing doors come in a variety of configurations and ratings. Protogetic offers some of the leading manufacturers of all glass ballistic resistant doors. You can even search by their UL 752 ratings.

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Are there bullet resistant wood doors?

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Yes. It might not be intuitive that a wood door can stop a bullet but there are many varieties of bullet resistant wood doors. These are typically made with a wood core laminated with a veneer covering of bullet-resistant fiberglass or other composites.

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Are door frames ballistic resistant?

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Regardless of material, it is important that the frame and the door leaf be made of bullet resistant material. Some doors have aluminum frames that hold ballistic glass windows. While the glass will stop penetration, the aluminum frame may not unless it, too, is UL 752 rated. This is yet another reason why occupants of a building should not be lulled into a false sense of security by believing they are shielded by a bulletproof door.

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Where are ballistic resistant doors used?

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Banks and government facilities have employed ballistic resistant doors for a long time. Unfortunately, the world has become more dangerous in what had been our traditionally safest spaces – churches, schools, hospitals, shopping malls and workplaces. More and more, ballistic resistant doors are being utilized as they form a first line of defense against active shooters even entering the building. Because they are more durable and require less maintenance, large buildings and retail stores are installing ballistic doors more frequently as they also provide a cost savings.

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Do ballistic resistant doors protect against forced entry?

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The stopping power of a bullet resistant door often translates to forced entry protection as well by slowing or preventing the integrity of the door from being breached. Many models will also have an ASTM F3038 Forced Entry rating.

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These ratings are a timed test of how long a door can withstand attack using a standardized set of heavy breaching tools like sledgehammers, wedges and crowbars. The designation FE 5 means the door held for 5 minutes under attack. The highest rating is 60-minutes - ASTM F3038 FE 60.

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Does Protogetic have bullet resistant doors with ratings?

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Protogetic carries ballistic resistant doors, with or without windows, in a variety of materials that are searchable by ratings and threat type such as hurricane, tornado or even blast protection. The Protogetic Filter provides results in mere seconds, saving you time and money. Visit Protogetic.com and sign up for a free account today!

"}, {"category": "fe-br", "text": "

FEBR DOORS

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What is FE/BR?

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FE/BR is an abbreviated version of the term Forced Entry and Ballistic Resistant or Forced Entry and Bullet Resistant. It is used to describe the qualities of a number of building products including doors. These FeBr doors are tested by the U.S. Department of State and then classified by standardized ratings that describe how they withstand various levels of force exerted upon them by people and breaching tools as well as how capable they are at protecting against firearms.

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What is a FEBR door?

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FEBR doors are designed to protect against two categories of threat – people, machines, or tools attempting to forcibly open the door and projectiles fired from weapons with the goal to penetrate the door. Non-FEBR products may protect against one of these threats but not both.

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What materials is a FE/BR door made of?

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FEBR doors are typically made of metal but may incorporate other materials as well, including wood, aluminum and composites like fiberglass. The gauge of the material, the thickness of the door, and the qualities of the hardware all determine the length of time an entry can withstand a given threat.

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What’s the difference between forced entry and FE/BR?

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FE/BR doors use heavier gauge metal and more robust hardware because they must resist greater force that can be exerted by humans with simple tools. Additionally, they must also undergo ballistic resistant testing to withstand the force of a bullet without penetration. This two-fold protection makes FEBR doors more appropriate for use in government, military, and other buildings at greater risk of becoming targets of hostile attack. The additional materials required for such protection make FEBR doors more expensive and sometimes less aesthetically pleasing than alternatives more suitable for retail and office building applications.

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How are FEBR doors rated?

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FEBR doors are rated by the U.S. Department of State (US DOS), ASTM (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials), and UL (formerly Underwriters Laboratories). Within the US DOS standard SD-STD-01.01 Rev G (amended), doors are confirmed to have withstood assault by a specific weapon for a particular duration of time. ASTM and UL also have levels of protection determined by how long a door can withstand force from specific weapons and quantifiable force for a length of time.

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Is attack resistant the same as FE/BR?

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No. Attack resistant doors are tested differently, focusing less on stopping a bullet and more on being able to continue to operate properly and secure the doorway AFTER being shot multiple times (up to 60 rounds). Simply put: does the door still work and remain locked to prevent entry by an intruder.

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FE/BR doors are tested to determine not only how long they can withstand a 6-man attack using breaching tools, but also undergo the same tests used for ballistic doors – namely, how effective they are at resisting penetration by a firearm discharge. Simply put: does the door prevent a bullet from penetrating and how long will it hold off attack using various breaching tools such as crowbars, wedges, saw and sledgehammers to name only a few. Given these testing requirements, one can readily see that FEBR doors are far more protective than the attack resistant product.

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Protogetic.com is a valuable tool for architects, designers, and security professionals to easily and efficiently find the FE/BR products that fit their protective design requirements. Users can easily search for products that meet their exact specifications and choose among many vendors who can fulfill their project’s requirements. Protogetic.com search tools save valuable time and with one click you can begin messaging with a manufacturer representative to ask additional questions or get a free, no obligation price quote.

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"}, {"category": "fire-rated-door", "text": "

Fire Rated Doors

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Protective design is not just about preventing or minimizing the tragedies of terrorist attacks or active aggressor events, it’s also about protecting building occupants from fire and smoke hazards. Protogetic proudly partners with the world’s leading door manufacturers, offering the most comprehensive selection of fire rated doors of any protective design marketplace.

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What are fire rated doors?

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Fire rated doors or fire resistant doors are specially designed and constructed to slow and even prevent a fire from spreading to adjacent areas of a building. The key to these fire doors is creating ample time for egress so people can escape danger safely. These doors are rated in time increments of 20, 45, 60, 90 and a maximum of 180 minutes after being exposed to temperatures up to 1,925 degrees.

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What are intumescent strips?

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Fireproof doors have several component requirements. They must have an intumescent strip that expands when exposed to heat. Intumescent strips are vital to a door’s safety performance as they prevent smoke incursion beyond the door opening. This allows people to breathe better and longer as most fire deaths occur from smoke inhalation. It also aids occupants in better visibility during escape so they do not mistakenly walk into the fire’s path.

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What is positive latching?

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Fire resistant doors must also be self closing and positive latching (this means the door utilizes an active latch bolt that automatically latches when the door closes). This legal requirement of a fire door is frequently inconvenient for building occupants as commercial fire doors are often heavy and cumbersome to open. This has led to numerous instances of residents and workers wedging open fire resistant doors, leading to unchecked spread of a fire as well as more injuries and damage to the building than otherwise would have occurred.

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Who tests fire rated doors?

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These door assemblies and components are tested to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 252, ASTM E2074 and UL 10 B or 10 C. In the United States, there are several main testing & certification facilities for fire rated doors, including Underwriters Laboratory, Intertek testing Services and QAI Laboratories.

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What assurance is there for rated products?

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While Protogetic does not test products ourselves, we do require that every rated product from vehicle barriers to ballistic resistant windows to fire-rated doors all have supporting documentation to verify the validity of their advertised rating. In most cases, you can download the actual testing documentation.There are no exceptions to this rule so that architects and engineers can be 100% confident in every rated product on the Protogetic site.

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Do I need a fire rated door?

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Commercial properties, apartment complexes, schools, theaters, arenas and dormitories obviously require fire safety doors more rigorously than residential structures where typically building codes only require fire proofing doors to garages or utility/furnace rooms. Commercial fire rated doors are tested and rated similarly to residential fire doors. Depending on the jurisdiction, fire rated commercial doors often have slightly different building code requirements than residential.

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Why do fire doors open outwards?

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Because commercial properties and apartment buildings are occupied by larger numbers of people, another essential requirement of a fire rated door is that it opens outwards in order for occupants to evacuate the premises quickly. Inward opening doors create a choke point for a crowd of often panicked people because the onward surge to the exit makes opening the door inward nearly impossible. A good rule of thumb is a fire door should open in the direction of exit.

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What is a panic bar?

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A chokepoint is precisely what happened in 1903 at the Iroquois Theater fire, the deadliest fire in US history that claimed 604 lives (twice the Great Chicago Fire’s fatalities). Unable to open the door inward due to the forward press of the mob, hundreds of people died mere feet from a safe escape. This is also why many fire doors incorporate “panic bars” rather than traditional door handles to facilitate a safe and expeditious escape. Panic bars prevent entry from the outside for security, but also allow much faster exits by simply pressing on the door bar rather than operating a door latch and handle.

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What are fire rated doors made of?

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The most common fire safety door materials are wood, steel or aluminum. There are composite materials also available. New technologies and techniques blend form and function to make aluminum and steel fire doors as aesthetically pleasing as most wood fire doors. Whether commercial or residential, fire doors can be solid or have window inserts, called glazing, to provide natural illumination as well as aesthetic design considerations. However, far more importantly than doors looking pretty, large glass windows allow fire fighting personnel and first responders to quickly see inside rooms and hallways in order to make life-saving decisions more accurately.

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Can fire rated doors have windows?

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Yes. Fire door window glazing requirements are nothing if not complicated as there are multiple testing requirements including impact safety, radiant heat transmission and window opening restrictions based on the duration of a door’s fire rating. Overly simplified, the longer the fire door rating (60 – 90 minutes), the allowable window size gets smaller, with a 90-minute rating mandating no larger than 100 square inches. The exception to this code allows for larger glass inserts IF the door window is made out of fire-resistant glass that meets or exceeds the ASTM E-119 rating.

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What door components need to be fire rated?

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Ideally, in addition to using tested and rated glazing, all the components of a door from its frame to the hinges, to the lock and handle set should all be fire rated. It is important when purchasing doors to make sure you are buying a tested, rated fire door. Industry practice in the United States is to affix rating labels to the hinge edge of the door. These designations are based on time duration to resist a fire: FD20 = 20 minutes, FD30 = 30 minutes. Other fire door rating increments include: FD45, FD60, FD90, FD120 and FD180.

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What is a passive fire protection system?

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There are two types of fire protection systems for building and occupant safety: Active and Passive. Passive fire protection separates and compartmentalizes the building premises, thus making it more difficult for the fire to spread. Fire resistance is achieved using inflammable or heat resistant building materials for walls, floors and fire doors.

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What is an active fire protection system?

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Active fire protection typically utilizes automatic systems like fire sprinklers, smoke detectors and fire alarms. Manual components of an active fire system include the use of fire extinguishers and most urgently and aggressively… fire fighters.

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What is the difference between active & passive fire protection systems?

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The easiest way to understand passive versus active fire systems is: Passive fire systems contain/control a fire. Active systems are engaged to stop a fire. Along with active fire suppression systems and sprinklers (primarily required for commercial and apartment buildings), fire proof doors are an essential element in a passive fire system. Fire resistant doors help minimize damage to other parts of the structure, but more importantly they save lives by not only providing ample time for people to escape the fire itself but also aiding safe escape routes by minimizing smoke inhalation and poor visibility.

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Do fire rated doors have to be inspected?

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Absolutely. Per NFPA requirements, all fire rated doors should be inspected annually to certify they are in optimal working condition. Property owners are typically required to arrange and keep accurate records of inspections. Consult your local building and/or fire department for jurisdiction and your specific codes and inspection requirements.

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How many fatalities are caused by structure fires?

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According to 2018 NFPA fire data, nearly 3,000 civilian lives were lost in the US, costing just under $26 billion dollars in property loss and damages.

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Protogetic considers that number exactly 3,000 too many. The modern day challenge when it comes to fire prevention is similar to Crisis Architecture, the study of how building design can help protect people facing active shooters. Modern building design often helps killers shoot people more efficiently and quickly. Similarly, modern households actually help fires spread faster due to the prevalence of combustible synthetic materials in the home.

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How much time do you have to escape a home fire?

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Underwriters Laboratories estimates that in the 1990s building occupants had on average 14-17 minutes to escape a house fire. That figure today is down to a slim 2-3 minutes, with even a small fire accelerating to life threatening within 30 seconds. Like active shooter events that average just over 9 minutes, a fire can consume an entire home in approximately five minutes.

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How to find the best fire rated doors

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It is far better to build with quality fire-rated products than to call 911 for the fire department. Whether you seek a wood, steel or aluminum fire door, Protogetic has gathered the top manufacturers under one roof to provide fire ratings to fit your specific project’s requirements. Everything you need is available in a fast, easy, completely searchable database using our game-changing Protogetic Filter. Save time and money. Begin your search today by creating your private user account at Protogetic.com

"}, {"category": "single-leaf", "text": "

Steel Single Leaf Doors

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What is a single leaf door?

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A leaf refers to the panel of a door or, to put it more simply, it is the part of the door that swings open and closed. Even simpler, it often has the handle or door knob on it. A single leaf door is what one typically thinks of when you mention a door. It is a one panel, traditional door that you see every day in most homes. An easy way to identify a single leaf door is it has hinges on only one side of the doorway passage. A double leaf door or what we all call a “double door” will have hinges on both the left and right sides of the doorway.

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What materials are used to make single leaf doors?

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There are four primary materials for single leaf doors: wood, metal, PVC and fiberglass. The most common metal doors are made from steel or aluminum. Specialized, custom doors can be made with more expensive materials depending on where they will be installed and operated.

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What are the advantages of steel single leaf doors?

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In general, steel single leaf doors are less expensive and more durable than their wood or fiberglass counterparts. Most importantly, steel single leaf doors provide better protection and security, particularly against forced entry threats. This explains why they are frequently called security single leaf doors.

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The standard for testing forced entry protection is ASTM F3038-14 or SD-STD-01.1. These are timed tests. ASTM attacks the door with six personnel armed with heavy tools, like sledgehammers, battering rams, saws and pry bars. When a test object can be passed through the breached opening, the timer is stopped. Ratings are given for 5-minute, 15-minute, 30-minute and 60-minute results.

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Are steel single leaf doors unattractive?

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Steel security doors sound like they would be overly industrial looking and thus unappealing in residential or even professional office environments. However, many brands are available in a wide variety of colors and finishes compared to raw or stained wood doors. As a result, these doors are now considered more “modern” looking and thus more applicable to contemporary building designs.

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Is a steel single leaf door better than an aluminum single leaf door?

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This answer really depends on a number of criteria like weight, thickness, security level, and corrosion resistance. Aluminum single leaf doors are typically less expensive than steel doors and are better at protecting against corrosion. However, an aluminum single leaf door does not protect as well as a security single leaf door against threat types like forced entry. When security is a primary concern, steel single leaf doors are one of the best choices you can make.

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Where can I find security single leaf doors?

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Protogetic’s protective design marketplace represents a comprehensive security single leaf door catalog of the industry’s top manufacturers. You can do a simple search for security steel doors by brand or leaf configuration. Or perform a much deeper dive by using the Protogetic Filter to identify threat types like forced entry, hurricane, tornado, ballistic resistant or fire-rated doors. For the highest level of protection, Protogetic also has a searchable database of rated and tested, blast resistant doors capable of protecting occupants from explosions.

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