The standard to which vehicular gate openers are designed, manufactured and tested is UL 325; Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Standard for Safety: Door, Drapery, Gate, Louver, and Window Operators and Systems. In addition to the 325 standard, vehicular gate operators must also be tested to UL 991; Tests for Safety-Related Controls Employing Solid-State Devices.
The UL 325 Standard has undergone significant revisions over the past several years. The purpose of the revisions is to create entrapment prevention criteria for vehicular gate operators and systems, and to increase over-all safety of the product.(please visit http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/corporate/standards/ for additional information.)

The standard also calls out for specific construction specifications for the vehicular gate itself (see ASTM F2200-02). The revised standard was first published September 18, 1998, and went into effect March 1, 2000.

Keep in mind that this and other safety standards are written for YOUR protection.   UL has developed more than 1,000 Standards for Safety. These Standards for Safety are essential to helping ensure public safety and confidence, reduce costs, improve quality and market products and services. Millions of products and their components are tested to UL's rigorous safety standards with the result that consumers live in a safer environment than they would have otherwise.

Your professional GTO Access System installer will provide you with a safe gate operating system. To insure this safety, and to comply with the manufacturer's installation instructions and industry safety standards, your installer will present you with different options of certain safety devices that he feels is necessary to insure a safe gate system. We STRONGLY suggest that you discuss these options with your installer and heed his recommendations regarding entrapment prevention devices and gate construction criteria. You should also refer to the manufacturer's installation manual for more information on the safety provisions and requirements of your vehicular gate system. Some (but not all) of these safety devices and gate construction criteria are listed below.

One of the most important considerations you will have, when looking at automatic gate operators, is that of SAFETY.
The following information will help you understand what the industry in general, and GTO specifically, is doing about gate operator safety and why all GTO operators are systems certified by ETL to be in compliance with UL 325 5th edition. Quality and safety should be high priorities to manufacturers of gate operators, but it is your responsibility to learn the facts in order to protect end users and reduce legal liability. Automatic vehicular gate operating systems provide convenience and security to the end user. In some applications, gate operators must use high levels of force to move gates. If a system is not properly specified, installed, used and maintained, serious injuries or death can result to someone in the vicinity of a moving gate.

Some situations that can lead to a possibility of serious injuries or death include:

• Secondary entrapment prevention device or devices are installed in areas where an entrapment hazard exists. These devices include contact (electric edges) and non-contact (photo-electric) sensors.
• Warning signs are placed in an area where they are visible from each side of the gate.
• Gate controls are installed in such a manner that a person operating the controls cannot come in contact with the gate or gate operator.
• The gate operator is appropriate for the construction and class of the gate.
• Rollers are guarded.
• Pinch points are eliminated or guarded.
• All openings in slide gate systems are guarded or screened from the bottom of the gate to a minimum of 48-inches above the ground to prevent a 2.25-inch diameter sphere from passing through the openings anywhere in the gate, and in that portion of the adjacent fence that the gate covers in the open position.
• Refer to ASTM-F2200-02 for more information on the construction of the gate and associated hazards.

You should never install, or have installed on your property, a vehicular gate operator that does not carry the "MARK" of a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) such as ETL or UL. This assures you that the gate operator has been tested by an independent third party testing laboratory and has met all the safety requirements of the UL 325 safety standard. GTO/Access Systems vehicular gate operators have been designed to not only meet the above requirements, but have been designed to exceed these requirements so that we are providing our clients with the safest vehicular gate operators on the market.

Federal Law 29 CFR 1910.399, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that all electrical equipment used in employee workplaces be listed, labeled, and system-certified by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL). The equipment in question must meet all applicable product safety standards which, for gate operators would be UL 325 Fifth Edition. This means that without exception, all gate operators and gate operating equipment destined for employee workplaces must be tested and certified to the specifications of UL 325. While compliance to the revised standard remains voluntary for residential applications, it is important to note that in certain situations (a gardening service on the premises, a routine maintenance visit by an HVAC professional) OSHA may consider a residential environment a workplace environment - transferring the same legal requirements and liability to what was believed to be an "indemnified" gate system. In addition, given the recent scrutiny of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), it is highly likely that the standard will eventually become mandatory for residential applications. So, for the moment, while residential systems' compliance to UL 325 certainly makes excellent business sense from a liability perspective, in business settings it is the absolute letter of the law as far as OSHA is concerned.

Specifically, gate operator control mechanisms along with the integral wiring systems are covered by UL 325 Fifth Edition. In some cases, additional testing for performance certification will be required under standard UL 991 which is cross-referenced in UL 325. Under UL 991, the controls will be separately evaluated for their applicable use. It is important to note that simply using listed components within a gate operator will not by default produce a listed gate operator system. Some manufacturers, despite using recognized components and listed products, are still unable to secure product listing for the collective system because they do not meet all the safety and performance requirements of the standard.

There are three major components to your automated vehicular gate system: the access control system, the gate operator and the gate. UL 294 sets the safety criteria for the access control system while the UL 325 standard sets the safety criteria for the gate operator. The standard to which automated vehicular gates are designed, manufactured and installed is ASTM F2200-02: Standard Specification for Automated Vehicular Gate Construction . This standard, published in September 2002, was written by an Ad-Hoc committee consisting of members from the following industry trade associations.

• American Fence Association (AFA)
• Door and Access Systems Manufacturers Association (DASMA)
• National Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metals Association (NOMMA)

This standard compliments the UL 325 safety standard and was written to eliminate or guard against pinch points, entrapment areas, harmful protrusions, etc. It also requires positive stops to prevent gates from traveling past their design limits, methods to insure gates cannot fall over if they become detached from their supporting hardware, etc. Keep in mind that this and other safety standards are written for YOUR protection. As such, you should heed your professional GTO Access Systems installer's recommendations regarding entrapment prevention and gate construction criteria. To insure this safety, he will check to determine if your gate meets the criteria of the ASTM F2200 standard. Some of these key points are listed below.

For a full copy of the ASTM Standard, please contact ASTM directly at 610-832-9585; or email service@astm.org or visit their web site at www.astm.org.

Some (but not all) of these gate construction criteria are listed below.

Slide Gates

• Weight bearing rollers are guarded or covered.
• All openings in the gate are guarded or screened from the bottom of the gate to a minimum of 48-inches above the ground to prevent a 2.25-inch diameter sphere from passing through the openings anywhere in the gate, and in that portion of the adjacent fence that the gate covers in the open position.
• Gaps between the gate and fence, or other stationary objects do not exceed 2.25-inches.
• Smooth bottom edges.
• Positive stops to prevent the gate from sliding past its design limits.
• Insure that the gate cannot fall if it becomes detached from its supporting hardware.

Swing Gates

• Designed and installed so as to not create an entrapment area between the gate and other fixed objects.
• Installed in such a way so that the pillar or column covered by the swing gate when in the open position does not exceed 4-inches.
• Smooth bottom edges.
• Insure that the gate cannot fall if it becomes detached from its supporting hardware.

When an automated vehicular gate system is installed on a property in general access applications, there must be a method to allow emergency vehicles (fire, police, ambulance) access to the property without the gate hindering their entry. The access system must allow for entry through the vehicular gate under three different and unique situations: The system is working properly and under normal operation, A power failure has occurred and battery powered convenience open systems are employed, or A power failure has occurred and the convenience open system has failed (dead or low charged battery. There are many devices that can be integrated with the vehicular gate system to allow emergency vehicles access to the property. When any of these devices are activated, the vehicular gate(s) is commanded to open and remains open until the device is deactivated. Typically, the emergency vehicle access device will by-pass the primary access control device (telephone entry system for example) and is wired directly to the gate operator open input. Some of these devices are listed below.

• Click-2-Enter: This system consist of a special radio receiver that allows Fire Departments, Police Departments and Ambulance companies to open the access gates by using their two-way radio installed in their trucks / cars.
  
  
• Special Keys and Key Switches: With this system, emergency vehicles each have a special access key that that activates an emergency override key switch. These key switches are typically labeled FIRE DEPT and are installed in a location at the gate that is visible and easily accessible.
  
  
• Lock Boxes: Lock boxes are essentially the same as the key switch option in that a special padlock (that only emergency vehicles have a key too) is placed on the lock box to lock it shut. When the padlock is removed (or cut off), the lock box automatically commands the gate to open and will hold the gate open until the lock box is re-closed and locked. Lock boxes are typically labeled FIRE DEPT. and are installed in a location that is easily visible and easily accessible.
  
  
• Siren Sensors: These devices detect the "yelp" mode from an emergency vehicles siren. When the yelp is detected, the gate will open.
  
  
• Strobe Light Sensors: These devices respond to the flashing strobe light from the emergency vehicle. When the strobe light is sensed, the gate will open.
  
  
• Wireless Transmitters: Like garage door openers, wireless transmitters open the gate from a distance of 75 to 100 feet. These transmitters are specially encoded with a code that is unique to emergency vehicles. Because of the many different devices available, the city building department should be consulted to determine which method of entry is preferred by the local authorities.

If a power failure has occurred and battery powered convenience open systems are working properly.

Many manufacturers of vehicular gate operators now offer battery powered convenience open systems that provide a method to open the gate when primary (AC) power is removed. GTO Access Systems offers this type system in many of its gate operator products. This type of system is completely self-contained in the operator and is completely independent from the primary drive system. In essence, this provides a redundant drive system when the primary AC power is removed.
Note: If your operator does not employ a battery back-up system, please refer to situation 3 below.

Operators equipped with a battery powered convenience open system typically operate in one of two different methods. 1) When a power failure occurs, the system immediately commands the gate to open and remain open, or 2) when a power failure occurs, the system remains in a stand-by mode until a command from either a wireless transmitter or manual switch is received to open the gate. In the second option, it is important to note that the radio receiver is powered from the batteries which allow the receiver to remain in operation during a power failure. This design feature assures that any emergency vehicle using the wireless transmitter method of entry will be capable of commanding the gate open even during power outages.

Battery powered convenience open systems in vehicular gate operators provide a trickle charge to the batteries during normal operation. It is advisable that maintenance personnel and property managers check these systems on a monthly basis to assure that the batteries are in good condition and have enough power to open the gate. Batteries in these systems are good, on average, for about two years before they will need to be replaced.

A power failure has occurred and the convenience open system has failed (dead or low charged battery).

This is the "worst case" scenario that must be addressed during the design of the vehicular gate access system. In other words, system designers and installers must assume that at some point in time there will be a primary power failure and the battery powered convenience open system will fail to open the gate because of dead or low charged batteries or because of some other system component failure. Under these circumstances, the gate operator must assume a FAIL-SAFE mode.

Simply stated, the operator "fails" in a safe condition allowing the gate to be manually pushed open without the need for any keys, cranks, or other mechanical devices. This is an essential feature for both emergency and non-emergency vehicles. Obviously, emergency vehicle personnel cannot waste time looking for keys, cranks, or attempting to force the gate open with bolt cutters, the "jaws of life" or other mechanical devices. They also cannot wait for maintenance personnel to arrive to activate gate release mechanisms that are typically located on the inside of the gate. Likewise, apartment and gated communities cannot allow a situation to develop where residents are "locked" out of their homes. Many Fire Department regulations require that "fail-safe" gate operators be installed to allow emergency vehicle access during power outages.