Choosing the right safe is easier said than done. The correct names burglary resistant cabinet and fire resistant cabinet are unfortunately too long for everyday use, and are abbreviated to safe or vault. These are divided into 3 categories: fire resistant, burglary resistant, and fire and burglary resistant.
Our safes selector should make it easier for you to choose the right safe. Firstly, you have to consider what you want to protect? The next question is what do you want to protect it against? Of course we are always prepared to advise you.
Fire
The temperature of a fire is affected by several things such as:
- the duration of the fire
- the materials feeding the fire (different materials burn at different temperatures and speeds)
- Is the fire 'ongoing' or stationary
The fact is that the average temperature of fires can reach 600 to 800 °C. In extreme cases, the temperature may rise even up to 1000 °C
Fire protection of paper or data carriers
Fire resistant products are made to ensure that the internal temperature of the cabinet remains lower than the temperature at which paper or data will be damaged. At a temperature of 175 ° C paper can be damaged, or even perish. The critical limit for digital data carriers is at about 50 ° C, above this temperature it is likely that the data on the data carriers may be lost. In a safe, for example, which is tested against fire for paper, you cannot store CD's. These will probably not survive the fire. As well as protecting the contents against fire, data safes also provide protect against moisture, dust and soot particles. There are several fire resistant cabinets, data boxes available and their combined features gives the perfect protection against fire and theft for your documents and data.
DIN 4102
Safes in the DIN 4102 category are double walled and filled with a fire resistant insulation. DIN 4102 is a construction standard, which means that these units are not fire tested. DIN 4102 cabinets offer protection from fire for paper for a short time.
Fire tests
If you want the very best protection against fire, you should choose one of the tested products. Fire tests take place at independent testing institutes in various countries.
There are several fire protection standards to which a product can be tested. The cabinets are tested at high temperatures. The tests are carried out to make sure the cabinet provides sufficient protection to the contents against fire. Some standards also include a drop test which tests to ensure that the protective effect is not adversely affected when the fire-resistant cabinet falls through a storey floor during a fire.
The fire resistance is expressed in time (minutes) following a P for paper or D for data. This test standard indicates how long a fireproof cabinet protects paper or data in a fire.