Never shut a safe door with the boltwork thrown as this could cause irreparable damage.

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European Grade Certifications & Formal Testing

There are a number of Testing Standards that have been developed to officially categorize products depending on your requirements.

Fire Protection Tests

Amongst other tests, the Safes are placed in furnaces and are monitored as to their fire resistance qualities - how long can the paper/media survive the fire?
Suitable Testing Standards include:
VDMA - German standard: SP - Swedish standard: NT Fire - Norwegian standard: UL - American standard: JIS - Japanese standard: KS - Korean standard
Most Independent testing institutes test at high ambient temperatures to 1090 degrees Celsius. Normally the Critical temperature for Paper is 175 degrees Celsius and Critical temperature for Magnetic Media 52 degrees Celsius.
Additionally the products will be subjected to Drop Tests should for example a safe survive if it were to fall through a burning floor.

Burglary Protection

Like Fire Protection, a number of formal testing criteria can be relied on to rate the quality of a Safe designed to protect your valuables against theft. This might include what type of Locking System is employed, the Thickness of the Door and Walls, the Material used and other technical details. Formal tests for Burglary Protection are made by experienced personnel with suitable skills who use specific tools to see how easy or hard it is and how long it takes to open the Safe or Cabinet. The resistance of the safe is monitored so that the higher the resistance, the higher the protection provided.

High Protection Burglary Requirements

When purchasing product to protect against theft of higher amounts of Cash and Valuables we recommend that you choose products that have been independently tested by Institutions. Most High Protection products have a Euro Class or Grade Certification depending on Cash Value required which in turn has been formally assessed.
 
Cash
Valuables
£6,000
£60,000
£10,000
£100,000
£17,500
£175,000
£35,000
£350,000
£60,000
£600,000
£100,000
£1,000,000
£150,000
£1,500,000
£250,000
£2,500,000
For lower Security requirements the European standard 14450 was created in March 2005 to classify lighter Burglary resistant Safes that are more suitable for day storage in Domestic locations. Please note that Safes must normally be well anchored to a Wall or Floor to meet Insurers criteria:
 
Cash
Valuables
£2,000
£20,000
£4,000
£40,000
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