Safe

For other uses, see Safe (disambiguation).

A typical home safe

A safe (also called strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal (such as steel) or formed out of plastic through blow molding.

Specifications

Specifications for safes include some or all of the following parameters:

• Burglar-resistance
• Fire-resistance
• Environmental resistance (e.g. to water or dust)
• Type of lock (e.g. combination, key, time lock, electronic locking)
• Location (e.g. wall safe, floor safe)
• Smart Safes as part of an Automated Cash Handling system

Opening a safe without access to the key or knowledge of the combination is known as safe-cracking. This is a popular theme in heist films.

A diversion safe or hidden safe is a safe that is made from an otherwise ordinary object such as a book, a candle, a can, or even a wall outlet plug. Valuables are placed in these hidden safes, which are themselves placed inconspicuously (for example, a book would be placed on a book shelf).

Fire resistant Record Protection Equipment consists of self-contained devices that incorporate insulated bodies, doors, drawers or lids, or non-rated multidrawer devices housing individually rated containers that contain one or more inner compartments for storage of records. These devices are intended to provide protection to one or more types of records as evidenced by the assigned Class rating or ratings; Class 350 for paper, Class 150 for microfilm, microfiche other and photographic film and Class 125 for magnetic media and hard drives.

These types of enclosures can be rated for periods of 1/2, 1, 2 and 4 hour durations.

In addition, these enclosures may be rated for their impact resistance.

Burglary resistant safes are rated as to their resistance to the type of tools to be used in their attack and also the duration of the attack.

The attack durations are for periods of 15 min., 30 min. and 60 min.

Safes can also contain hardware that automatically dispenses cash or validates bills as part of a Automated Cash Handling system. A number of companies offer safes with automated cash handling, including Alpha CMS (Cash Management Solutions) and De La Rue.

Room-sized fireproof vaults

For larger volumes of heat-sensitive materials, a modular room-sized vault is much more economical than purchasing and storing many fire rated safes. Typically these room-sized vaults are utilized by corporations, government agencies and off-site storage service firms. Fireproof vaults are rated up to Class 125-4 Hour for large data storage applications. These vaults utilize ceramic fiber, a high temperature industrial insulating material, as the core of their modular panel system. All components of the vault, not just the walls and roof panels, must be Class 125 rated to achieve that overall rating for the vault. This includes the door assembly (a double door is needed since there is no single Class 125 vault door available), cable penetrations, coolant line penetrations (for split HVAC systems), and air duct penetrations.

There are also Class 150 applications (such as microfilm) and Class 350 vaults for protecting valuable paper documents. Like the data-rated (Class 125) structures, these vault systems employ ceramic fiber insulation and components rated to meet or exceed the required level of protection.

In recent years room-sized Class 125 vaults have been installed to protect entire data centers. As data storage technologies migrate from tape-based storage methods to hard drives, this trend is likely to continue.

Fire-resistant safes

A fire-resistant safe is a type of safe that is designed to protect its contents from high temperatures or actual fire. Fire resistant safes are usually rated by the amount of time they can withstand the extreme temperatures a fire produces, while not exceeding a set internal temperature (e.g. less than 350ºF over 30 minutes). Models are typically available between half-hour and four-hour durations.

An in-floor safe installed in a concrete floor is very resistant to fire.

Both the standards witting for fire-resistance and actual testing of safes is performed by Underwriters Laboratories in the USA.

References

Sources consulted

• Locks, Safes, and Security: An International Police Reference, published by Charles Thomas Publishers, Springfield, Illinois, United States. (2000) ISBN 0-398-07079-2.

Endnotes

See also

• Access control
• Concealment device, an inconspicuous object used to hide things
• Gun safe
• Lock, a mechanical fastening device
• Manual override, opening a safe without cracking it
• Physical security
• Safe-cracking, opening a safe without the combination
• Safe deposit box, a lightweight safe
• Security
• Strongroom, a bank vault

  Advance Fire Safes