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One thing that owners of Safes often overlook are the internal threats to their valuables. If a fire overtakes a home or office and burns everything, there is little ordinary safes can do to protect the goods within them. For that reason, fireproof safes are growing in popularity by the day.
Fireproof safes are specially designed vaults that insulate and protect their contents even when they are subjected to extremely high external temperatures. They are made of special industry-grade materials like ceramic fiber, asbestos and concrete, all arranged in different layers and thicknesses. These safes can offer protection to items stored inside them from anywhere between half an hour to four hours, depending on their temperature-bearing capacity. Fire resistant safes are placed in different classes depending upon their capacity to withstand extreme temperatures for different periods of time before breaking down, melting or compromising their contents.
These types of safes may be rated for impact resistance should the safe fall during a fire. Underwriter Laboratories (UL) in the United States is a world leader in both the writing of standards and the actual testing of safes.
Under the UL classification system fireproof safes can be given one of three classifications with the classification given dependent on the maintained internal temperature and internal humidity when subjected to at a designated furnace temperature. Dependent on the safe’s construction and the test parameters the UL time rating label indicates the time the safe can maintain the internal temperature and humidity at the furnace temperature for which the safe is being tested.
The three classes UL uses to classify fireproof safes are Class 125 (maintains an internal temperature of 125 degrees F and humidity not exceeding 80%), Class 150 (maintains an internal temperature of 150 degrees F and humidity not exceeding 85% ) and Class 350 (maintains an internal temperature of 125 degrees F and humidity not exceeding 85%) and are used in conjunction with UL time rating labels. UL time rating can be for half an hour at a furnace temperature of 1700 degrees F, one hour at a furnace temperature of 1850 degrees F, two hours at a furnace temperature of 1850 degrees F, three hours at a furnace temperature of 1920 degrees F or four hours at a furnace temperature of 2000 degrees F. Having three different internal temperature classifications combined with five time ratings allows fireproof safes to be classified according to the type of records being protected.
The majority of business safes are used to secure cash, paper documents and proprietary files. For businesses the industry standard fireproof safe is a UL Class 350 1 hour rated safe. Because paper begins to burn at 420 degrees F and most fires are extinguished within twenty minutes a Class 350 1 hour rated safe will provide the majority of businesses with the fire protection they require. Cash and valuable papers will not burn because of the built in safety margin between the flash point for paper, 420 degrees, and the interior temperature of the safe which will not exceed 350 degrees for at least an hour.
Whether you are looking for a safe for home or business using the UL class ratings in combination with the type of products to be protected will give you a good start in selecting the fireproof safe to suit your needs.