The company’s Model 400 bollard already met US standards for vehicle security barriers and tests have now demonstrated that it conforms to British Standards Institution PAS 68:2007 specification.
The K12-rated bollard was developed by APT’s partner company Intelligent Perimeter Systems (IPS) using a US Department of State research grant. The Department supplies companies with the money to help them develop new high-technology systems for perimeter and area protection.
British tests were conducted at the Transport Research Laboratory in Berkshire, home to many of the UK’s highways testing facilities. Two PAS 68 tests were carried out on the bollard on the same day.
The first was undertaken with a 7.5 tonne two axle rigid vehicle; ballasted to 6.8 tonnes with an additional 0.7 tonnes of sand bags. The vehicle impacted the bollard at 40 miles per hour- before stopping dead- with zero penetration of the load carrying part of the vehicle.
The bollard was then lowered to allow vehicle debris to be cleared, and then raised again for the second test of the day. An 18 tonne two axle rigid European vehicle meeting the requirements of PAS 68 hit the bollard at 50 miles per hour, and again the bollard was successful in stopping the vehicle- with a penetration distance of just 4.5 metres for the load carrying part of the lorry. The bollard continued to work satisfactorily.
The product has a self-contained, 24V DC-powered independent hydraulic actuating system, eliminating the need for a bulky central pump station or high voltage power. ATP say that as no additional civil works are required, the bollards are easy to install, operate and maintain.
APT are confident that the Model 400 is particularly effective when tackling vehicle-borne attacks. The bollards can be fully deployed in five seconds in normal operation mode, and in less than one second when in emergency operation mode, which ATP feel makes it the ideal solution for airports, embassies and military bases.
Commenting on the results, Tony Girard, Managing Director of APT Security Systems said:
“After achieving the highest K12 rating in the U.S. against DoS specifications, APT is working with UK government authorities to refine the performance with European vehicles, to which end APT ran this series of tests at TRL.”
