High-security gates serve as an important access control solution for many businesses by preventing unauthorised people and vehicles from gaining access . By properly securing your premises and car park, employees and authorised visitors feel more secure at work. This is an intangible benefit for a businesses. Given that there are plenty of other advantages your business will enjoy if you choose to fit high security gate, the question then arises as to which type will make the best fit. Let’s look at some of the main options so you gain a better understanding of the features you will want to look out for to suit your business’s needs.
Opening Widths of High Security Gate
One of the first things to note about security barriers is that they are only effective when they prevent unauthorised vehicular access. Standard width gate barriers are no good in certain situations if drivers can simply get around them by driving through an exit or going over a kerb. What you need from a security barrier, is something that will extend across the entire access route to make it impossible for cars, vans and lorries to enter without permission.
The Avon Cedar gate is a good example of the sort of low-cost barrier you can put in place with a minimum of installation fuss in virtually any setting. Because it comes in a range of different width dimensions, it will suit every kind of site and make open plan car parks much better protected at a stroke. This particular security gate has a manually operated arm that sits horizontally at a height of 90 cm, preventing vehicular access to anything larger than a pushbike.
Ballistic Protection
Of course, a straightforward security barrier cannot provide total protection in high security environments. If you need an additional level of security, then consider a ballistic gate. These can prevent pedestrian access to car parks as well as keeping them free from unwanted and unauthorised vehicles. Essentially, a ballistic protection gate will create a physical barrier between the inside of the car park and the exterior.
Often operated with a sideways movement to allow for authorised entry and exit, ballistic protection gates come with a durable metal section right down to the tarmac so the chances of armed forced entry are reduced. They are fitted with a metal grille at the top of the gate that allows for airflow whilst protecting personnel on the inside of the gate protected from flying objects. These types of gates will usually come with substantial foundations and are tested physically so that they are proven to maintain high security standards when deployed in the field.
Impact Resistance
Impact-resistant high-security barriers are preferable in car parking facilities where there is the threat of someone potentially trying to ram into your premises to gain entry. By using a vehicle as a ramming device, some car park barriers will simply give way under the pressure. This is obviously no good if you have high value items stored on your premises that need to be safeguarded against such a possibility.
What impact-resistant gates do is transfer the force of any impact they receive from a van or lorry and push down into the ground via their spread out foundations. Not only do these types of barrier protect your car park from repeated attempts to force entry but they can also come into their own when an escape attempt is made. In other words, they offer a substantial amount of impact resistance in either direction. When authorised entry and exit is needed, however, these barriers can be lifted with ease and then locked securely in place once more to keep your premises safe and secure from threats.
Armoured Vehicle Protection
In some cases, you may need to provide your car park with even greater levels of security. If you are fearful – or even reasonably expectant – of an attack using an armoured vehicle, then you will need to take the necessary countermeasures. Thankfully, professionally designed armoured vehicle high security gates provide the very solution to these circumstances. Available in different heights and widths, armoured vehicle gates couple a convenient, sideways opening and closing mechanism with extremely durable materials that can withstand a sustained attack.
There a different types of armoured vehicle high-security gates. Many have sections of box steel that allow you to see through them and anchored reinforcements that prevent them from buckling when they’re rammed. Often, these high-security barriers are designed to exceed the standards demanded of them, offering complete peace of mind that, if an attack were to occur, the perimeter of the car park would not be breached. Or course, this means more time for a response to be made and for the authorities to be called.
