Case Study
December 22nd 2019, Zhongshan, China. The whole 24th and 25th floors of an apartment building caught on fire around 2 am. The situation was extremely severe, local witnesses reported that ‘the flame had already emitted out of the windows.’ ‘the glass was broken, the external unit of the air conditioner was also burning.’ From some pictures that the witnesses posted, showing that even the walls of the top floor have burnt to tar black, and even the window frames were distorted because of the high temperature.
The local fire department took action quickly after receiving the reports at 2am. The fire was put out around 3 am. But unfortunately, a 6 member-family was found dead in this dreadful accidence, including a couple, their elder mother, their son and two daughters.
The real culprit of this event is still under research, the local government has established a special group to operate the investigation. But now we are in the season with high possibility of fires, we should raise our awareness of the fire prevention.
What Is The Role Of Lock In Fire Prevention
For the fire prevention, multiple scopes we should pay attention to, but as a lock manufacturer we are going to share some knowledge of how to prevent the spread of the fires by choosing a right lock.
As a fire proof door lock, it should be equipped with the high-temperature resistance capability, so that it could keep the fireproof door tightly closed, to prevent the fire from a massive spread.
How can we tell if a lock have high-temperature resistance capability?
Now more and more people would install smart door lock at home. And of course, they should also be officially qualified as fireproof products.
A qualified electronic door lock system should be launched in the market after critical test in professional lab. And different countries have different methods and standards for this, for example, in American market we will have UL & CUL standard, while Europe will have the EN1634-1 standard. Before you choosing the lock you can check if the electronic door lock system have relevant certificate or not. And that is the quick way to make a correct choice.
As a door lock manufacturer for more than 26 years, HUNEreckoned that we have the obligation to offer our user a qualifiedelectronic door lock system which would meet up with different fireproof standards, and that is why we spend so much energy and funds to do all the tests, such as UL, CUL and CNAS.
The Fireproof Capability of our products
With all the efforts that we put in to guarantee the fire proofing performance. Most of our products have earned multiple fireproof certificates. Also our UL test is a 3 hours test instead of normal 90 minutes test.
You may say you don’t trust or value the certificates, so now we shall show you a video in which we performed a quite intuitive test, by that, we should better understand the fireproof capability. You can find in the screen shots that we have raise the temperature up to 500℃(roughly 932℉), and you can still unlock the door from inside without any stress.
FAQ
Q: If I were locked inside when the fire happen, can I still unlock the door?
A: As the video showed, yes, the conclusion is that the unlock function remains intact under the high-temperature environment. But if you found yourself stuck in such situation, please don’t be nervous at that moment. HUNE lock is using qualified mechanical mortise in our digital smart lock for different countries. (ANSI/ Europe/China standard).
This mechanical mortise would still need artificial operation, because it is not controlled by any electronic part. Under the context of unlocking from the inside, they are no different from all the traditional mechanical door lock. The latch, the deadbolt are all mechanically controlled by our hand movement.
Some electronic mortise will also have the automatically unlock program for the fire escape. But is not for fire prevention function.
Q: Actually what does a fireproof lock mean to us in the reality or real scenarios?
A: Once fire arises, the most imminent subject and priority is to keep yourself away from the fire as far as possible. And here’s where the fireproof door lock and fireproof door come into play. The door must be strong enough to block the fire. And the lock must be strong enough to keep the door shut as tight as possible. That is why we need the latch, dead bolt cannot be retracted without artificial operation, and also the latch and deadbolt cannot get any form of distortion during the fire at least for 90 minutes. So this combination of the lock and the door could block the fire behind them. So that the spreading of the fire would be held and people will have enough time to wait for the fire fighter to rescue.
Q: So how is your door lock able to hold its shape or free from distortions under the high temperature situations?
A: Actually HUNE fireproof electronic door lock system will use stainless steel as panel material. Averagely, stainless steel can handle the temperature nearly 800℃(roughly 1472℉) without bending or having any form of distortion. Besides, HUNE engineer shave put an awful amount of endeavor to the fireproof mortise part and that is why we can earn lots of fireproof certificate such as UL and CNAS. Lastly, the lock mechanical structure and some crucial part material are also the key reasons of our qualification. Details and sense of responsibility is the reason lock can face and conquer these challenges.
The unbreakable principles in the industry
This tragedy is a lesson for the society. All of us should be alerted that making qualified product for the market is the responsibility of any enterprise. Life should be the most valuable to the society. Launching a product sometimes is to show respect to life. And that is also the faith of HUNE.
Lifethreatening situations or accidenceis happening everyday every moment. And at the position we are, we ought to try to do more, to reduce the rate of tragedies. So, here comes the unbreakable principle: Safety first. It sounds cliché, and many people can hardly remember its force and true meaning that it should. But staying vigilance should always be the price that we ought to pay. Safety is no joke. Given the tremendous potential of endangerment of some situations.
HUNE will always honor this principle and put the safety of our customers on the top of all priorities.
