Door hinges that ‘engineer out’ crime can be a simple, cost-effective way to prevent break-ins as part of the Secured By Design approach to housing
Recent data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) and other publicly available sources paints a contradictory picture about whether domestic burglary levels are historically low and stable, or on the rise once again.
The latest crime figures for the year ending June 2018 from the ONS reported a 2% increase in burglary offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, taking the total to 432,267.
Data from individual police forces suggests that initiatives like Secured by Design (SBD) must continue to drive housing design and specification in order to keep burglary levels down.
However, the Metropolitan Police Crime Data Dashboard presents cause for alarm, as it shows that dwelling burglaries in their region were up 12% in November 2018 compared with the previous year.
Choosing an enhanced security specification for doors is a small premium to pay to protect households and save police resources when budgets are thinly stretched.
The resources demanded to follow up burglaries is clearly posing problems for police forces, with the Metropolitan Police declaring in its own data that only 5.5% of burglary cases are solved, compared to 13.2% for all offences.
In this context, the security level of doors and windows is vitally important given their vulnerability. The CSEW reports that where the offender entered the domestic dwelling, they gained entry through a door in around 70% of cases and through a window around 30% of the time.
This is why SFS invests in developing and testing premium quality door hinges that enable specifiers to ‘engineer-out’ burglary risk. A doorset is only as strong and secure as its weakest point, and all too often that can be the hinges.
Without focusing on the design and manufacture quality of the door hinges, all the other efforts undertaken to create an SBD-licensed doorset will be seriously undermined.
Remember too that hinges must also offer consistently high performance throughout the duration of the door’s service life, not just to satisfy initial PAS24 and Secured By Design testing, without anything more than minimal maintenance as part of a ‘fit and forget’ approach.
It is for these reasons that the SFS Dynamic family of hinges has provided such effective SBD-compatible solutions for more than a decade.
The range is suitable for doorsets built with PVC-U, timber and aluminium outerframes, and it offers consistent performance and excellent aesthetics regardless of the door’s construction and style.
Dynamic 2D, the first hinge in the family, was purpose-designed by SFS to be able to surpass the testing requirements of PAS24, mainly for PVC-U entrance doors. In testing, it actually performed to a standard double that of what PAS24 required by withstanding a force of 9kN on a PVC-U doorset.
To date, this hinge has featured in thousands of SBD-licensed doorsets. The robust platform on which it was created from the outset enabled the development of additional hinge versions for other framing materials – the Dynamic 2D-A for rebated aluminium doors and the Dynamic 2D-C and 2D-F to suit timber and composite doors.
Engineering often provides solutions that can change lives by improving safety and security and delivering peace of mind. In the case of improving door security for Britain’s homes, choosing a precision-engineered hinge like Dynamic 2D can make a big difference and deliver far-reaching social benefits as part of a holistic crime reduction strategy.
Vincent Matthews
Marketing Manager
SFS Group Fastening Technology Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)113 2085 500
