Double gates access control hardware/maglocks

[td5roo]

Hi folks,

 

Not the usual sort of hardware question here I imagine, but it's something I'm having to think about.

 

We have a pedestrian double gate, quite big - the total opening is about 3.3m so you'd fit vehicles through it very comfortably - on our school site which we need to put some form of access control system in place for.

 

We are confident in Ubiquiti in terms of the readers and control hubs etc and are planning on using that for all of our doors across the schools when we replace the ancient Kantech gear we have now, but the gates themselves are posing a bit of a conundrum.

 

Because they are double gates, and so large, the more traditional mounting methods for mag locks (we want fail-safe rather than fail-secure) don't really work, so we would have to mount the mag locks vertically rather than horizontally. We are happy to have only one gate actually in use while the system is active (there will be times when the gates are manually fully open to allow parents in and out), so the right gate (which closes first) stays shut and the left gate (which closes second) is the one used to get in and out. This is helpful as the power will be supplied from the right side rather than the left, so the actual electromagnet can go on the right gate.

 

My theory here is that things are fitted to the right hand gate with enough slack to allow everything to move nicely as that gate is manually opened and closed at the relevant times when the access control system isn't being used.

 

I suppose my real question here though is regarding the maglock itself - based on this vague outline, do any of you have any recommendations for kit you know of or have used before that would be appropriate? Is there anything that should be stopping or discouraging me from using the general Ubiquiti maglocks (obviously the heavy duty one due to the weight of the gates) and just mounting them appropriately for the gates?

 

We are very tight on budget so replacement of the gates or anything like that is pretty much off the cards here altogether, so I am trying to deliver something that works well enough without dumping a pile of cash we don't have into it.

 

Any feedback or suggestions on my rambles would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Roo

 

Edited May 5 by td5roo

[psydii]

How would a maglock hold a double gate? They usually work by fixing one half of the maglock to the frame (that doesn't move). The turning force from a reaspnable shove on a double gate would likely easily overcome a basic maglock.

 

[td5roo]

8 minutes ago, psydii said:

How would a maglock hold a double gate? They usually work by fixing one half of the maglock to the frame (that doesn't move). The turning force from a reaspnable shove on a double gate would likely easily overcome a basic maglock.

 

 

Sorry - the right hand side gate would remain closed with a drop bolt so just the left hand side gate would actually open with the maglock - so the maglock is only to hold the left gate onto the right one, rather than both gates together, if that makes sense. I thought by making it work with only one opening gate and having the maglock and plate on either gate at the point they join would be more effective than doing it on the hinge side of the gate as you've got the whole gate as leverage that way - that also would complicate matters as we'd need to get power across to the opposite side of the path to fit the maglock to the left hand (first opening) gate rather than the right hand one. Both gates would only be open when the system was manually overridden at times when general access is allowed and both gates would be opened by hand.

 

This may allow a little bit of play in the movement of the gates when together but would still be very difficult to force your way through I'd have thought? Obviously, we're not expecting to protect against things like vehicles smashing them, just unwanted pedestrian access when the site needs to secure.

Edited May 5 by td5roo
Clarity

[Jaan]

Our gates are maglocked together when closed. and use electric actuators for opening and closing. We use a mixture of Paxton and Verkarda for authorised users access and/or ANPR.

[3s-gtech]

If the drop bolt for the second, non-maglocked gate can be opened while the gates are shut, you will be able to open them overcoming the lock. Found this by practical experience. We now have the drop bolt inhibited when the gates are closed.

[td5roo]

20 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

If the drop bolt for the second, non-maglocked gate can be opened while the gates are shut, you will be able to open them overcoming the lock. Found this by practical experience. We now have the drop bolt inhibited when the gates are closed.

It's double gates rather than separate ones so they close together and the idea (which I have perhaps explained poorly) is that they would be maglocked to each other. Inhibiting the drop bolt was a definite thought when I looked at how to do this. 100% appreciate the advice - just wanted to double check my potentially mad idea with the modus operandi of the maglock specifically.

[MisterTechMan]

We have one of these to stop the gates being pushed open from the middle when closed.