THE PERILS OF AUTOMATED GATE KITS

PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR REPUTATION

Installers may find themselves in a situation where a customer confides that they are contemplating purchasing an automated gate kit to transform a manual gate into an automated installation.

Currently, anyone can buy a kit to transform a regular manual gate into a potentially dangerous machine. Protect your business and make sure your customers understand that this is only a job for a competent and suitably trained professional. Here’s your explanation why:

Automated gate kits will contain literature within the box of components and within this, there will invariably be a mention of the fact that these kits should only be installed by a professionally trained installer. However, this important detail is generally only in the small print and can quite easily be missed. More significantly, by the time the purchaser reads this, the kit has already been purchased, presumably with the intention to undertake the works themselves.

The kit may contain an operator, some electronics, a remote control, some metal brackets, and a pair of photocells. It is likely that to create a secure fitting of the ram onto the gate and post that a welder will be required – and if the gate is hung on the back of the posts the metal fittings provided are not even suitable. So, immediately the product is not fit for purpose, but will the customer be prepared to fork out on the cost of someone to weld the brackets? There is every likelihood that the ram will not be fitted correctly and / or that a welder won’t understand the correct positioning either.

One pair of photocells will not be sufficient for any gate, there may be additional risks which need to be mitigated. And how would a member of the public understand exactly where these photocells should be fitted?

Contact safety seems to be omitted from the majority of automated gate kits – and as per the photocells, even if safety edges are included, the untrained consumer wouldn’t know where these should be installed to mitigate all the risks or have the tools to fit them correctly.

Wiring the ram into the control board is not a job for an unskilled person, connecting the controls box to the mains even less so. Yet these kits happily advocate that this should be undertaken by the purchaser.

The kits do not contain all the necessary components – for example, it is unlikely that they will include the clips and fittings for cables to avoid them becoming caught up by a strimmer / mower. Another vital safety consideration overlooked.

There appears to be no guidance on the dangers associated with leaving unacceptable gaps between the gate and the post; recognising the risk of a child trying to squeeze under the gate or the potentially lethal crushing zone created if the gate opens against a brick pillar or similar.

These are just the headline issues associated with automated gate kits, but the over-riding message to customers must be that these kits should ONLY be fitted by an installer who has undertaken a thorough risk assessment of the site and who is suitably trained to understand the potential dangers of an automated gate and how to mitigate against these.

It is also worth mentioning that if a customer has a gate featuring a self-fitted automated gate kit, in the event of a breakdown they will struggle to find a reputable installer who will even consider working on the gate. This means that such gates are frequently only reviewed by unqualified or so-called cowboy trades persons who are either unaware or simply don’t care about the legal ramifications of being associated with delivering an unsafe gate. Resulting in an even stronger chance of an accident or worse.

For further details on how to become a Gate Safe trained installer visit www.gate-safe.org/ training online training with Gate Safe’s Technical & Training Manager runs on a weekly basis www.gate-safe.org