Responsible companies wanting to protect their property and staff from external threats such as explosions (whether detonated accidentally or deliberately) and armed attack, would do well to investigate the range of ‘Enhanced’ systems available from Schueco UK. With over thirty years’ experience in this field, Schueco has the products and technical expertise to provide the secure solutions they need.

Over the past year, Schueco has been reviewing its existing ‘Enhanced’ range – comprising blast- and bullet-resistant façades, windows and doors – and has undertaken a comprehensive development and testing programme aimed at making the systems easier to specify and more cost-effective to install.

As part of this exercise, Schueco tested four ‘Enhanced’ blast-resistant product types – two façades, FW 80+ XR and FW 60+ XR, one window, AWS 90 XR and two doors, ADS 90 XR – at RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria. A thorough analysis of the results showed that the systems’ performance fully supported the claims made for them in terms of protecting property and human life.

An important factor is their unobtrusiveness in use since they appear all but identical to ‘ordinary’ Schueco systems. This means that customers do not need to choose between realising the architect’s vision and building-in security: by specifying Schueco, they can achieve both.

In addition to steadily increasing commercial sales – the London Olympics provided the company with a major boost – Schueco ‘Enhanced’ products have a long history with government departments and NGOs, including the MOD, the FCO, the Home Office, the British Council and the American GSA.

As well as the ‘XR’ designation, Schueco UK also supplies AWS 90 windows and ADS 90 doors in a ‘BR’ (bullet-resistant) format. Depending on the glazing, fittings and accessories used, both ‘BR’ systems can be specified for bullet resistance or high burglar resistance to EN 1627, RC4.

The sensitive nature of the market, together with the crucial importance of installing each individual system correctly, means that Schueco UK is introducing a new fabricator approval scheme for its Network Partners. Known as SABRE (Schueco Approved Blast/Bullet Resistance Expert), it is designed to ensure that customers will feel completely confident when specifying products from the ‘Enhanced’ Systems range.