On the eve of its fifth ‘Gate Safety Week’ initiative, Tamworth-based trade association, the Door & Hardware Federation, (DHF) is calling for continued commitment to improving industry compliance with regards to automated gate safety. The organisation, founded in 1897, and renowned UK-wide as the leading independent voice of authority on automated gate safety, is reinforcing its on-going message that only by undertaking comprehensive training and adhering to technical specifications and standards, can compliance be achieved when it comes to automated gate installation and maintenance.
The appeal comes following an extremely busy time for DHF. Just last month, it announced that, in line with its continuing commitment to training, it will launch a new one-day Automated Gate Safety Certificate Course, aimed at automated gate and traffic barrier installation and maintenance operatives. The new courses, available to both members and non-members, started on 3rd October 2018 at DHF’s new training academy on the outskirts of Tamworth. The pro-active organisation is also working towards providing an online payment system for training, launching very soon.
In addition, DHF will be supporting a presentation delivered by EasyGates at Fencex, at which its Senior Training and Compliance Officer, Nick Perkins, will take questions from the audience on TS 011:2018. Fencex, on 17th October, falls in the middle of ‘Gate Safety Week’, a DHF initiative that has, over a five-year period, attracted support from heavyweight organisations such as HSE and The British Safety Council.
In 2016, DHF issued the Code of Practice for the Design, Manufacture, Installation and Maintenance of Powered Gates and Traffic Barriers (DHF TS 011:2016) which provides a framework to ensure a gate is safe and therefore complies with the law, with more than 250 pages of legislation and standards condensed to just 17-pages of the 44-page document by their team of experts; all DHF members involved in automated gates or traffic barriers must abide by this. The Code was further updated in January 2018, in collaboration with DHF members and with input from certification bodies.
“On the eve of Gate Safety Week, and as the UK’s leading independent authority on gate safety, we continue to work tirelessly to engage, educate and encourage best practice and improved standards throughout our industry,” says DHF’s CEO, Bob Perry.
“Our enduring message to the industry – and public – is simple: be sure that installers have had the correct training and keep up-to-date on the latest standards, and that your company is working to best practice.”
With now more than 450 members, DHF is widely regarded as a ‘Centre of Excellence’, representing companies working in the locks & building hardware, doorsets, industrial doors & shutters, domestic garage doors and automated gates industries.
It is the ‘go to’ organisation for technical expertise, information, knowledge, advice, and practical help.
For accurate and up-to-date information on training, standards and the importance of legal responsibility, visit
www.dhfonline.org.uk or call DHF on 01827 52337.”
