Barriers.

Barriers.

A barrier, as is known, is one of the most common peripheral actuators for controlling the movement of vehicles within the framework of a general security system at a facility, for example, an ACS. At the same time, in parallel with the security market, this device is no less popular in the market of automatic gates and doors (gate automation).
In this segment, barriers sold to consumers are self-sufficient devices designed to block entry/exit from any areas (cottages, garage cooperatives, courtyards of residential buildings, etc.). As a rule, they are equipped with control systems without user personalization, most often using radio key fobs. This market in the country was formed earlier than the security systems market, and the turnover of inexpensive barrier models on it is even greater than on the TSB market.

But our topic today is a review and approaches to classifying barriers that perform the function of actuators in technical security systems. Here, in my opinion, it is necessary to consider such main categories as the reliability of the device, its design and, naturally, the price range. Because the design of a modern barrier is, in general, not complicated: an electric motor with a gearbox and an electronic control unit, driving a boom of a certain reach. The price of the product, as a rule, fully reflects the quality of execution of all these units: the motor, the gearbox, the functionality of the control electronics.
At the very beginning of the development of this market, and its age, according to most experts, is a little more than 10 years, several inexpensive brands of Italian barriers appeared in Russia (including Novotecnica and GiBiDi). Around the same time, the CAME brand appeared on our market.
The first two brands belong to the segment of the cheapest electromechanical barriers. And, as often happens, they largely predetermined the level of understanding by the then client of what a barrier is. In part, this fact was not always to their advantage, because they tried to install these barriers everywhere, including at sites with very high traffic. Naturally, the resource of these devices did not allow them to function for a long time in such an intensive mode. These brands are presented on the market today in their niche, being the optimal solution for restricting access to courtyards of residential buildings, small office parking lots, at the entrances to cottage villages, etc. Their cost is about 700-900 euros.
The largest sales turnover of barriers for technical security systems, the most noticeable steps in promotion and, accordingly, the greatest competition today are observed in the price niche up to 1200-1500 euros. Of course, these are primarily products of Italian manufacturers, who have been constantly upgrading the mechanics and improving the design of models for several decades, which in the understanding of the average customer (and not only in Russia) are optimal in terms of price/quality ratio. Among the brands of this level, we can name CAME, BFT, NICE, Genius (Casali). Here, in addition to such important factors as price and reliability, we can note the right marketing moves and competent promotion of products on the market by distributor companies.
The most striking example of this is the promotion of CAME barriers. The policy of relations between the distributor and the manufacturer, the dealer network throughout the country, the organization of logistics, advertising campaigns, a toll-free support hotline — all this allowed this brand to take a leading position with approximately equal quality indicators of products of competitors.
However, the requirements for equipping large transport and warehouse terminals, emerging and restored industrial production facilities with barriers are significantly higher than the performance characteristics of products in this range. Higher-class barriers are used at such facilities. One example is hydraulic barriers costing up to 2,000–2,500 euros. Their design is an electric pump and a hydraulic cylinder with a control unit.
Under certain climatic conditions, these devices are reliable, operate silently, and the speed of raising and lowering the boom, which in addition to the operating life is one of the main characteristics for barriers, is quite high.
But at low temperatures in winter, problems may arise in the operation of hydraulic barriers, due to the fact that the oil in the system becomes too viscous. In fairness, it should be said that today the leading manufacturers of hydraulic barriers claim that a special all-season oil has been developed for Russian conditions.
The same upper price range includes electromechanical barriers, which differ from their cheaper analogues, first of all, in the quality of the mechanical part and control electronics, which is often a control controller, the functionality of which is several times greater than the functionality of simpler devices. The control unit of barriers of this class usually has a lot of additional functions that expand the scope of its application. Among them are special additional inputs for controlling traffic lights (including three-color ones), additional inputs for installing a second magnetic loop detector, 220Vac sockets for connecting external consumers, etc.
Such products are intended for use at sites with high traffic of vehicles, their service life is calculated in millions of openings. The main brands on the Russian market in this class are MAGNETIC and ELKA, as well as Automatic Systems.
One of the most important quality characteristics of a barrier is the ratio of the boom extension length and its opening time. In an inexpensive electromechanical barrier, the boom extension is slightly longer than the opening time. A four-meter boom opens in 5–8 seconds. In products of a higher price range, the same boom opens in just over 3 seconds.
A separate group of barriers are the so-called fast barriers, intended primarily for toll roads, where the intensity of work is very high. These products, with a maximally reinforced electromechanical part, usually have a simple control unit, which determines its reliability and ease of control of external control systems, a short boom reach — up to 2.5-3 m, its opening time is less than a second. Such devices are present in the product lines of almost all leading companies of the upper price level.
Another option is industrial barriers, for example, to block highways, tunnel entrances in case of emergency situations, opening the entrance/exit of heavy-duty vehicles at large cargo terminals or to aircraft hangars. The boom reach of such barriers can reach 12-15 meters. The design of such a barrier also differs, primarily in the method of attaching the boom to the body and the presence of a special counterweight inside the body in addition to powerful balancing springs, since the boom itself has a very large mass and windage. Another design option for barriers for this area of ​​use is sliding barriers with boom movement in a horizontal plane.

It should also be noted that a good barrier is also a fairly simple installation. All you need is to hang the boom, connect the power supply and configure the required operating algorithm for this facility. Everything else was made at the factory.