A Drive for Safety

Jan 1, 2004 12:00 PM

Because of the sensitive issues involved and the competitive nature of the automotive industry, it is important to control access to training areas that include safety-related and production equipment. Large groups of people are often in attendance in these training areas, so personal life safety is also important, and clear egress paths and protection from fire and smoke are necessities.

So it is at the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources (CHR), a non-profit organization established in 1984 to develop and administer joint education and training activities, as well as specific services for UAW-represented GM employees.

In 2001, the CHR moved into a new headquarters building in downtown Detroit. The 400,000-sq.-ft. facility includes a four-story training center, an eight-story office tower and a 390,000-sq.-ft. underground parking garage. The new facility was designed to educate the trainers, who, in turn, teach the lessons to the UAW-represented work forces at individual GM plants in the United States.

Focusing on health and workplace safety issues and a variety of computer-based and training modules, the CHR has working equipment for hands-on training in material handling, hazardous materials, electrical and other types of safety, as well as 36 classrooms and other meeting rooms. Typically, more than 400 UAW International and GM employees and CHR staff employees work at the facility, with another 250 to 300 people in attendance for four-day class sessions each week.

Blending Security and Safety Needs

Visitors to the CHR are controlled by a number of factors. Many arrive in groups, bused from local hotels for training sessions. When groups arrive, exit devices on the main doors are dogged down (latches held in the retracted position) to allow easy entry. At other times, all doors are locked except one that offers access to the disabled. Visitors arriving by automobile must register at a guarded gate before being allowed to park in the garage beneath the CHR. Since most individuals come to the lobby via elevator from the parking garage, few people enter through the main entrance. A staffed security reception desk monitors traffic.

In the lobby area, six pairs of exterior doors are equipped with pneumatic door operators that also can function as “blow-open” devices for the dual purpose of ventilation and safe egress. If the building's smoke and fire alarm system is activated, the LCN 2614 pneumatic door operators open automatically.

“The doors will blow open if there is a fire, and we have a big rooftop exhaust that will remove smoke and allow air in to create a safer environment so people in the lobby can get out,” project manager Harold Rogers says.

To provide access for the disabled, one pair of the doors also can be activated with pushbuttons located inside and outside. All exterior doors are equipped with Von Duprin 35 Series exit devices, which stay locked from the outside while allowing for safe exit. If the “blow open” door operators are activated by the alarm system, the exit devices release automatically and allow the doors to open.

Several fire-rated doors lead from corridors into the main atrium area, and they are normally held open by LCN 4040SE Sentronic closer/holders. However, if the fire alarm system is activated, electrical current to the devices is interrupted and the door closes automatically to partition the area. Von Duprin INPact exit devices recessed into the Steelcraft doors provide safe egress when the doors are closed.

Each classroom is equipped with an additional set of pass-through doors that can be used for serving refreshments during breaks. These short doors are unlocked from the outside and give access to a counter area on which the refreshments can be set up. A wood overhead door on the opposite side leads to the classroom, allowing the instructor to open the counter area from inside as needed, which eliminates the distraction while a class is in session. Glynn-Johnson overhead holders/stops help control the outer doors.

Von Duprin 98 Series exit devices are equipped on stairwell doors leading from the lobby. While the exit devices in most buildings would be located on the stairwell side, they are on the lobby side at the center because the stairwell is in an egress path that leads downstairs and out to the parking garage.

LCN and Von Duprin are divisions of IR Security and Safety. The architect for this project was Arcadis, Southfield, Mich., and the door hardware was furnished through Doring Inc., Detroit.

For the record

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

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Glynn-Johnson	25
IR Security and Safety/LCN	26
IR Security and Safety/Von Duprin	27

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