The Four steps to perform a locking-arrangement assessment and correction plan include. Discuss, Determine, Document and Identify:

• Discuss the goal of providing the security on the door with the stakeholders.
• Determine which sides of the door (if any) are required for egress.
• Document existing conditions at the door, such as which sides are secured, the types of patients or employees who utilize the area, presence of exit signs, manual-release devices, motion sensors, signage and similar conditions.
• Identify which locking arrangement appears to be installed and review building code to ensure that all features are provided.

When determining which doors to need to ensure compliance, only doors that are required for egress must meet one of the locking-arrangement approaches. Sometimes the simplest fix for what was thought to be a noncompliant locking arrangement is to remove the exit signage, because doors that are not required for egress are permitted to be secured in any manner. A complete egress analysis should be performed to ensure that all other egress requirements are in compliance. Doors often have several features that do not meet all requirements from a single-locking arrangement. In this case, it is recommended to determine which locking arrangements are permitted by code and estimate the cost for each approach to bring the door into compliance.

There is a significant amount of information to gather to perform a comprehensive, locking-arrangement analysis so documenting all the existing conditions is important for a successful outcome. Once you have all doors required for egress documented and areas of compliance issues identified, A cost and correction analysis can be completed to frame the steps and requirements to achieve compliance. Have questions or need help with the process, give us a call (866) 500-5265.

To provide economical choices when selecting the right hardware for an application, most BHMA standards include a system of three grade levels to be assigned depending on the product’s ability to pass increasingly rigorous test requirements. Grade one is the highest performance, followed by grades two and three. The ANSI/BHMA grading system is useful for ensuring the most appropriate hardware is specified for each application. The expected usage and necessary security for the installation should be considered when deciding which grade will be needed. To better understand how the grade of a given product is determined, it might be helpful to know some details of the process and requirements. For this illustration, we will use ANSI/BHMA A156.13 for Mortise Locks, a product typically used in commercial and institutional facilities. In this standard (and in most other lock standards), the tests are grouped into six categories:

• Operational
• Cycle
• Strength
• Security
• Material Evaluation
• Finish

The tests are all done in carefully controlled laboratory conditions with defined methods. Each is discussed below:

Operational

This includes tests that make sure the door will latch easily when pushed closed—all grades must be a maximum of 4.5 pounds force. Another test measures the force to retract the latch by lever, ensuring accessibility—all levers are required to retract with 28 inch-pounds or less rotational force.

Cycle

In this test, the lockset is installed on a mechanically operated test door and operated until the required cycles are obtained and then re-checked for operational compliance. The grade one test runs for one million cycles, grades two and three for 800,000.

Strength

Strength tests are meant to ensure the trim, latches, deadbolts, and lock mechanisms hold up to daily abuse, such as excessive forces on a lever, and still operate properly. For all the tests in this section, all grades must meet the same minimum of 360 pounds applied on top of the lever.

Security

This array of tests could be described as attacks to gain entry. The differential between the grades can be fairly significant for them—for example, the test using a ram to impact the cylinder face is:

• Grade 1: 75 ft.-lbf (100 J) 10 Blows
• Grade 2: 75 ft.-lbf (100 J) 5 Blows
• Grade 3: 75 ft.-lbf (100 J) 2 Blows

Material Evaluation

The trim must meet requirements such as an impact to the rose with a pointed probe. Here grade one is a little more “heavy duty” than grades two and three:

• Grade 1: 0.075 inches (1.9 mm)
• Grade 2: 0.100 inches (2.5 mm)
• Grade 3: 0.100 inches (2.5 mm)

Finish

Tests This is a set of tests that ensures the lock will look acceptable after exposure to various environmental conditions. As is typical for most BHMA standards, all grades must meet the same requirements. In the Mortise Lock Standard, it is permitted for a model to designate an Operational Grade (the minimum level met by all tests except security), which is different from the Security Grade.<p?

Closing

With BHMA standards representing 42 types of hardware, differences in the requirements with respect to grading could be expected, but the preceding examples are fairly representative. Because these are laboratory tests, there is no absolute correlation to actual field performance, i.e. a product’s life span. However, BHMA standards are meant to ensure their respective builders hardware products are evaluated to meet the most challenging expectations in the built environment, and grades are provided to provide choices depending on the role of the hardware in the building.

The term PLENUM refers to the area set aside for air circulation of a heating or air conditioning system. As wire and cable are often installed in the air handling spaces, the industry has adopted the term to refer to wire that is made of specialized materials that have low smoke and low flame characteristics.

The term CATEGORY CABLE refer to cable that is primarily used to connect computer networks and phone equipment within an office building or residence. It can also be used in data centers and for video equipment.

When should it be used

The simple answer is that if your local building code calls for Plenum rated Category Cable it should be installed. Outside of building codes, if there is any concern about combustibility then Plenum Category Cable is the way to go.

Where is it installed

If you are installing cable in any air handling space Plenum Category Cable is the safe choice. Air handling spaces include above a drop ceiling and below a raised floor or riser.

Why should you install it

It is safer. In the event that a fire occurs, PLENUM will burn at a lower & slower rate. Although the increased cost of the raw materials do make the price of Plenum Category Cable higher than alternative materials, the increased safety features make it worth the investment.

Need further assistance

Give us a call at (866) 500-5625 and we can help design a solutions to meet your needs

Our touchless request-to-exit lineup provides an easy solution for access control egress in situations where no pre-approved method is needed and with the added convenience of no-touch technology. Simply wave a hand in front of the unit to activate the relay.

They are ideal for use with exit gates and doors where no credentials are required. Because they feature a variable relay output time, they are also ideal when used in conjunction with magnetic locks and door strikes.

Touchless door entry readers are ideal for request-to-exit situations where a sanitary environment is desired such as healthcare facilities, restaurants, restrooms or labs. 

Actually, given the current environment, touchless buttons are the future for entrance and egress systems. 

Wave to open readers are affordable and can be used to replace existing push-to-exit buttons. 

At maglocks, we are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and working tirelessly to serve the needs of businesses and individuals who are quickly adapting to new ways of life as we all pull together to curtail this outbreak. In response to the virus, we’ve implemented updated best practices in our workplace to help ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers.

Putting our Employees and Customers First

In accordance with New York’s recent statewide stay-at-home order, most employees in our Amsterdam distribution service are now working from home. We have temporarily limited on-site business operations to essential staff in our warehouses to ensure fulfillment and delivery of customer orders with minimal interruption, especially those relying on maglocks to deliver critical security components other necessities. These essential employees adhere to recommended hygiene and social distancing practices, and we’ve increased cleaning services to preserve a clean, healthy work environment.

These precautions are designed to ensure customer orders are picked, packed and shipped by healthy employees. Once a package leaves our warehouse, it’s entrusted to one of our shipping partners. A large percentage of these orders are delivered via UPS or the US Postal Service, both of which are taking steps to ensure the health of their employees and safe parcel delivery. UPS published its specific COVID-19 response (link is provided below), while the USPS is following guidelines published by the CDC (link is provided below). maglocks and its fulfillment partners are pulling together to deliver the highest, healthiest level of service to our customers.

Fair Pricing Commitment

maglocks is committed to fair pricing. While, supply chain fluctuations are placing unprecedented pressure on the e-commerce platform. We continue to hold pricing unchanged from our pre-emergency levels.

Looking Ahead

The COVID-19 situation remains fluid, and maglocks is committed to helping customers manage through this difficult time. We will continue to monitor and respond to federal, state and local health authorities to protect our employees and serve our customers safely, and with minimal disruption.

Sincerely,

Todd Gravino

President, maglocks.com

As many of our customers have contact on a day-to-day basis with public or multiple use computer equipment, we wanted to provide a recommendation (based on our discussions with Apple) on how best to clean and disinfect the computer keyboard, mouse and related system components.

In fact, our computer keyboards, according to a University of Arizona study, including laptops, have 400 times more bacteria then the typical seat of a toilet, which means, let's make sure we know how to properly clean and disinfect it.

So, in addition to the importance of keeping your hands washed and cleaning your smartphone screen, which are also items we use continuously, it is vital to keep your keyboard and mouse clean and disinfected.

Apple’s recommendations are:

• Before you start: turn off the device and unplug it from the power outlet
• Prepare a lint-free cloth with 70% isopropyl alcohol. The cloth should be damp, but very slightly, not wet and above all it should not give off drops of water or alcohol.
• Prevent moisture from entering any opening in or around the keyboard keys.
• Your keyboard is now nice and clean, but don't forget your mouse. It's also teeming with germs.

Apple also provided us with some additional comments:

• Never use aerosols, solvents, abrasive substances or cleaners that contain hydrogen peroxide.
• Microfiber cloths are a good product for cleaning not only the keyboard and mouse, but they are also very good for screens (monitors and smartphones), as well as the exterior of laptops and computers.
• Please ensure the power is off before you introduce liquid to your computer equipment. In this way you can clean and disinfect the keyboard, mouse and components safely without fear that it will end up damaged or stop working.

As stated earlier, it is important to wash your hands several times a day as a preventive measure in addition to cleaning your commonly used devices.

The same process can also be used to clean keypads, entry readers and other security components that are used by multiple people day-to-day.

“These devices became points of ingress from which the actor established a presence on the network and continued looking for further access,” officials with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center wrote in a post. “Once the actor had succe

ssfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the network in search of higher-privileged accounts that would grant access to higher-value data.”

After gaining access to each of the IoT devices, the actor ran tcpdump to sniff network traffic on local subnets. They were also seen enumerating administrative groups to attempt further exploitation. As the actor moved from one device to another, they would drop a simple shell script to establish persistence on the network which allowed extended access to continue hunting. Analysis of network traffic showed the devices were also communicating with an external command and control (C2) server.

Microsoft researchers discovered the attacks in April (2019), when a voice-over-IP phone, an office printer, and a video decoder in multiple customer locations were communicating with servers belonging to “Strontium,” a Russian government hacking group better known as Fancy Bear or APT28. In two cases, the passwords for the devices were the easily guessable default ones they shipped with. In the third instance, the device was running an old firmware version with a known vulnerability.

“While much of the industry focuses on the threats of hardware implants, we can see in this example that adversaries are happy to exploit simpler configuration and security issues to achieve their objectives,” the report noted. “These simple attacks taking advantage of weak device management are likely to expand as more IoT devices are deployed in corporate environments.”

Please ensure your device passwords are changed from the manufacturer default and periodically ensure the device firmware is the current manufacturers recommended version.

Upgrading security measures may involve spending, but they are often needed. Crimes do take place around laundry facilities, even if they are not directly in the store. And equipment mishaps can be costly, because of both insurance payments for any injuries that take place and purchasing upgrades for the broken washers and dryers.

Here are some ways to make sure customers are safe and secure within your store:

Modern lighting

More laundry facilities are going to the 24-hour model to appeal to busy customers. Being open all hours of the day and night can bring people to your store that you otherwise may not have expected. It can also lead to the occasional trouble. Having a comprehensive lighting system is important. Both inside the store and outside, a lighting system gives customers the freedom to come and go without fearing they are in danger. Ensure your business is equipped with environmentally friendly lights to improve safety while reducing costs.

Automatic Locks

Automation is a great way to improve security and reduce manned operation. Many manufacturers offer specifically designed laundromat locking systems some of the advantages of automation include;

Systems with a 24-hour 7-days a week timer programmable timer can automate unlock & lock times for each day of the week, these timers also have a manual override button to put the system in a permeate locked or unlocked state.

The systems can also include Exit devices to ensure patrons are never trapped inside your facility when the system goes into the locked state. The systems are designed with both a motion sensor and push button will allow two forms of egress. Most building and fire codes will require redundant forms of egress.

In addition, many systems include a heavy-duty vandal resistant keypad to allow for after-hour bypass or to provide emergency codes to locked out patrons. By placing signage on the door, a locked-out customer can give you a call for an emergency code over the phone, this prevents a drive to the laundromat in the middle of the night. These systems can be further customized to suit your needs. Just add a CC-3800 keypad/proximity reader or an FPR-1000 fingerprint/proximity reader to provide keyless entry for after-hours use or to provide late night access.

Security cameras

Cameras can also play an important role in improving safety. Recording what goes on both in and outside of a business not only helps identify criminals who cause trouble but also discourages people from acting out. A study from the Urban Institute found that crime is reduced when security cameras are present, as people are less likely to commit an illegal act when they are being watched. However, the study found that results were dependent on how the system was set up and how closely it was monitored.

When creating a safety system with upgraded lights, automatic locks and cameras, make sure your customers know that you have their security in mind. Informing patrons of your new security upgrades can be a selling point in convincing them to return to your business, as well as informing any potential troublemakers.

Stay up to date

The inside of a laundromat can also pose risks to your customers. Outdated equipment can be dangerous, from old washing machines with loose hinges to steel doors that are difficult to open. Not everything in your business must be modern and brand new, but the materials inside the laundromat should not be old and falling apart either.

Over the years access control systems have become more and more sophisticated. Today, the term access control system most often refers to a computer-based, electronic card access control system. The electronic card access control system uses a special access card, rather than a brass key, to permit access into the secured area.

Access control systems are most commonly used to control entry into exterior doors of buildings. Access control systems may also be used to control access into certain areas located within the interior of buildings.

The purpose of an access control system is to provide quick, convenient access to those persons who are authorized, while at the same time, restricting access to unauthorized people.

If you have further questions, please give us a call or email and we would be happy to assist.

Toll Free: 866.500.5625

Direct: 518.843.3322

Email: Customer Support

Access Cards

The access card may be thought of as an electronic key. The access card is used by persons to gain access through the doors secured by the access control system. Each access card is uniquely encoded. Access cards are generally the same size as a standard credit card, and can easily be carried in a wallet or purse.

Card Readers

Card readers are the devices used to electronically read the access card. Card readers may be of the insertion type (which require insertion of the card into the reader), or may be of the proximity type (which only require that the card be held in a 3 inch to 6 inch proximity of the reader. Card readers are usually mounted on the exterior (non-secured) side of the door that they control.

Access Control Keypads

Access control keypads are devices which may be used in addition to or in place of card readers. The access control keypad has numeric keys which look similar to the keys on a touch-tone telephone. The access control keypad requires that a person desiring to gain access enter a correct numeric code. When access control keypads are used in addition to card readers, both a valid card and the correct code must be presented before entry is allowed. Where access control keypads are used in place of card readers, only a correct code is required to gain entry.

Electric Lock Hardware

Electric lock hardware is the equipment that is used to electrically lock and unlock each door that is controlled by the access control system. There are a wide variety of different types of electric lock hardware. These types include electric locks, electric strikes, electromagnetic locks also known as maglocks, electric exit devices, and many others. The specific type and arrangement of hardware to be used on each door is determined based on the construction conditions at the door. In almost all cases, the electric lock hardware is designed to control entrance into a building or secured space. To comply with building and fire codes, the electric lock hardware never restricts the ability to freely exit the building at any time.

Access Controllers

Access control panels are installed in each building where access control is to be provided. Card readers, electric lock hardware, and other access control devices are all connected to the access control panel. The access controllers are used to process access control activity at the building level. The number of access control panels to be provided in each building depends on the number of doors to be controlled. For example, a four-door access controller would control up to four doors. Additional controllers can be added and linked together to support additional doors.

If you have further questions, please give us a call or email and we would be happy to assist.

Toll Free: 866.500.5625

Direct: 518.843.3322

Electrical equipment sometimes must be installed in areas where combustible vapors and gases are used or may be present. These are commonly referred to as hazardous locations, and are defined by the National Electrical Code (NEC) in the US, or the Canadian Electrical Code (CEC) in Canada. When equipment must be installed in hazardous locations, there are strict requirements for the construction of the installation, including materials and design requirements. To prevent inadvertent ignition of flammable gases and vapors by electrical equipment, the two most common methods of protection are  Intrinsically Safe and Explosion Proof.

• An intrinsically safe classification and design means that an electronic circuit and it’s wiring will not cause any sparking or arcing and cannot store sufficient energy to ignite a flammable gas or vapor, and cannot produce a surface temperature high enough to cause ignition. Such a design is not explosion proof, nor does it need to be. For permanent installations, such an installation may include intrinsically safe barriers that are located outside the hazardous location, and limit the amount of energy available to the device located in the hazardous area.

• An explosion proof classification for a sensor or transmitter means that the housing has been engineered and constructed to contain a flash or explosion. Such housings are usually made of cast aluminum or stainless steel and are of sufficient mass and strength to safely contain an explosion should flammable gases or vapors penetrate the housing and the internal electronics or wiring cause an ignition. The design must prevent any surface temperatures that could exceed the ignition temperature of the gases or vapors covered by its Group rating.

We carry a full line of Intrinsically safe products and Explosion Proof products.  View the links below or call us direct at (518) 843-3322 or toll free at (866) 500-5625 to discuss your project requirements.

A magnetic lock is a magnet that is created when an electrical current is passed through a wire with multiple coils around an iron core, or a solenoid (single coiled wire wrapped around a metal core). When the electrical current is disrupted the metal wire is no longer magnetized. Because of the very nature of an electromagnet, it can not be fail-secure, which means that in the result of an emergency or power outage, the doors will unlock. The built-in feature of unlocking in the result of a power outage (referred to as fail-safe) is the basic operating premise of the electromagnet or maglock. 

When there is no emergency or power failure to disable the locks, the magnets can be manipulated with a push-button, keypad, or card reader that temporarily interrupts the electrical current. After a few seconds, the current will return, and once the door has closed it will magnetically bind the door to the door frame. This lock set up is constructed by fixing a plate of magnetic metal (usually iron) to the door, and the electromagnet to the door frame.

Pros

• The lock will open in the case of an emergency (fail-safe).
• The lock can be made to open with any electrical signaling method (key code, swipe card, motion sensor, biometrics, etc.)
• Electromagnets are available with a large selection of holding force options.  Commonly, from 600 pounds to 1,200 pounds or more of holding force.

Cons

• The security can be overcome by interrupting the electricity in the building (referred to as fail-safe).
• The door may be able to be pried open depending on the gap between the door and frame (force required is based on the magnetic lock holding force).

We utilize our product knowledge to design access solutions that work as a comprehensive system to provide the end-user the best access security at a fair price. Convenient distribution centers with great products, in-stock and ready to ship. Our component and project design specialists will work with you to compile a solution to meet both your requirements and your budget. 

Listen, Learn, and Deliver. That is why we are in business.