Legal Requirements for Industrial Doors

You may have noticed that we have recently started to expand our product offering, moving on from just plastic strip curtains to more specialist industrial products such as crash doors as well. Entering the world of industrial doors means that we have become more aware of the legislation surrounding them.

The UK Government has put in place many laws aimed at safeguarding workers and members of the public. These measures are also enforced with fines to ensure that everyone takes the measures seriously, and keeps on top of maintenance and repairs. Here are some of the pieces of legislation that cover industrial doors:

BS EN 12635:2002 Industrial, Commercial and garage doors and gates - Installation and use.

This legislation relates to the safe installation, operation, use (including maintenance and repair) of barriers, doors and gates which are installed in areas that are within reach of people, and for which the main intended use is to give safe access to goods and vehicles in commercial, industrial and residential premises. There is also a supporting regulation that provides guidance on documentation, maintenance and standardised labels which apply to motorised doors and roller garage doors, and this law is called BS EN 13241-1:2003. The documentation included in this regulation also consists of a mandatory logbook for each door which helps to create a paper and digital trail for maintenance purposes.

Regulation 18 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 have been put in place by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in order to cover a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues. Regulation 18 corresponds directly to doors and gates & is based on research that correlates the regular maintenance of industrial doors with reductions in accident rates in the workplace.

Regulation 5 of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)

This regulation covers the maintenance of doors and places the responsibility for scheduling this maintenance with the employer or the owner of the commercial facility. It is a general regulation which applies to all work equipment but it does specifically include motorised industrial doors.

Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005

This Order reforms the law relating to fire safety in non-domestic premises and stipulates that it is the responsibility of employers and landlords to maintain the working order of fire doors and exits. The employer/ landlord must also be able to provide proof of the maintenance records and be able to evidence any necessary repairs that have been made to the doors.

Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992

This regulation is the first one to cover industrial doors that are manually operated, as well as powered ones. Again, this regulation states that all doors on a commercial premise must be maintained, and a thorough record kept of any maintenance or repairs on said doors.

It is important to remember that all manufacturing standards and maintenance procedures have been developed over several years in the interest of safety, many of them have also been developed in direct response to accidents in the workplace as well. Therefore, whenever you purchase any equipment for your workplace, be it a crash door or some plastic strip curtains, you can rest assured in the knowledge that a lot of people have worked together to make them the safest they can be,

If you are looking for some PVC crash doors, or strip curtains for your commercial premises, then please give the friendly team at Strip Curtains Direct a call today on 0333 999 7171 or send us an email to sales@stripcurtainsdirect.co.uk