23.07.07
Reducing the risk of rail crime
Railway crime and terrorist attack together with asset longevity in the face of climate change are amongst the most pressing concerns for the rail industry. Specifiers are looking for more secure, more robust protection for trackside services and vital infrastructure. And they are looking for more resilience and greater durability from trackside installations to cope with extreme weather conditions and local environmental factors such as airborne salt in coastal locations. Technorail, the specialist in high security, physical protection systems for the rail industry, is providing innovative solutions to these problems.
Extensive range
The company’s extensive range of Ultrasecure engineered steel security products is designed to strengthen infrastructure against the risk of theft and malicious damage, even the threat of terrorist attack, on the rail network. Products can also be finished with different grades of post-galvanised protection to provide required service life in line with local atmospheric corrosivity. Technorail manufactures access covers, cabinets, housings, doors, enclosures and buildings for securing trackside services, especially signalling equipment, and stored materials at risk of malicious attack or theft. Technorail’s range includes location apparatus cases, SPAD signal boxes, switch clamp cases, communications enclosures, telephone housing boxes and underline cable crossing access covers.
Third party certification
As well as having relevant PADS approval, many Technorail products also have LPCB (Loss Prevention Certification Board) third party certification, a leading approval system of security performance. LPCB certificated products are designed to resist rigorous testing regimes for attack times and tools employed in the attack. Products are graded according to a security rating – from low to very high risk (1 to 6) – indicating the severity and duration of attack they are designed to withstand. LPCB approval also signifies that products are subject to regular audits to ensure that they continue to comply with relevant standards.
Theft
While vandalism and malicious attack are conspicuous problems, so is theft. Thieves target cable stores, signalling and relay room equipment for scrap from cables. They are removing steel infrastructure, especially stainless steel, for its scrap value. Technorail’s latest innovation for hardening rail assets is the Ultrasecure wrap-around replacement security housing or cabinet. These provide a virtually instant, modular solution to the problem of damaged, outdated or unsecured location cabinets or enclosures for signalling, communications and other equipment. The Ultrasecure wrap-around housing is installed directly around existing structures without the need to dismantle the original housing, disconnect equipment or disrupt services. Lately, stainless steel doors to location cabinets have become a target for thieves. Technorail has been solving this problem by supplying wrap-around heavy gauge mild steel cabinets with a post galvanised finish, to add a high security and durable protective ‘skin’ to the existing installation.
Durability
Finally, the long-term integrity of a physical security performance is reliant on its structural durability. Rail specifiers must pay attention to the protective finish provided on steel products and scutinise any claims of longevity made by the manufacturer. Steel protective finishes should provide demonstrable longevity to meet modern design life criteria, factoring in local atmospheric corrosion rates as required under modern legislation. Steel fabrications galvanized to BS EN ISO 1461: 1999 benefit from the protection of a hot dip galvanized zinc coating applied after manufacture. As well as ensuring a complete, uninterrupted protective finish, the hot dip galvanizing process can be controlled to produce different thicknesses of coating and therefore different degrees of durability according to need. Technorail offers three different thicknesses of Duragalv zinc coating, designed to provide required service life taking into account local atmospheric corrosivity. The highest specification, Duragalv 140, provides a cost-effective alternative to stainless steel for coastal regions and areas of high atmospheric corrosivity.
140 microns
Duragalv 140 provides a minimum 140 microns thick coating, twice the minimum 70 microns required in BS EN ISO 1461: 1999 (Hot dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel articles - specifications and test methods). The Galvanizers Association zinc millennium map of UK atmospheric corrosivity defines five categories of corrosivity for evaluating the level of protection required on steel. The rail industry is increasingly specifying higher grades of post-galvanised coating on trackside security products for extra assurance of system performance. Finally, Technorail backs the engineering excellence of the Ultrasecure range with its total service commitment. Total service provides the customer with on-going support, from site consultation and risk assessment, to installation by fitters accredited with COSS, Lookout and PTS.
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