Hi, Dye Hawley here, Dye the Safe Guy to talk about high security safes. But first a little background. Before modern day safes, all they had was steel plate safes with a 1" steel door here and 1" of steel in the body, they were rated by Underwriters Laboratory TL-15. Higher rated safes, TL-30, have a 1 1/2" steel plate in the door and 1" in the body.
About 50 years ago manufacturers came out with composite safes. Unlike steel plate safes we just saw, they also have a 1 or 2 hour fire rating. So the new UL standards (Underwriters Laboratory standards) say that the composite safes have to be equivalent to 1" of steel in the door. As you can see this door is nearly 5" thick with a combination of composite material such as this and steel in the door on the outer and steel on the inner.
Composite aggregate is a special mix of concrete and other high tech materials including fiber glass and metal to stop a burglar attempt, but it also serves a dual purpose. It has anywhere from 3" to 4" of thickness of the concrete and fire retardant material.
The different between composite aggregate in a high security safe is this one is 50,000 PSI of density which is required by Underwriters Laboratory to meet the specification. Your every day burglar fire safe has much lighter less dense composite aggregate. Still good but not nearly as heavy duty as the high security composite aggregate.
Remember at the beginning of this video we showed you the steel plate safes with 1" to 1 1/2" steel in the door and 1" of steel in the body. The new composite safes now are equivalent to 1" or 1 1/2" using that composite aggregate material and steel and the 50,000 PSI, these newer composite safes are equivalent to the old steel plate safes. High security composite burglar fire safes have a 1 to 2-hour fire rating. Be sure to look for the TL-15 metal tab riveted inside the door of all high-security burglar fire safes. You will also find the fire rating there as well.
Now an explanation of what TL means and TR means. TL means tool resistant. TR means torch resistant. If the label says TL only it is only tool resistant. If it says TLTR it is both tool and torch resistant. One common misconception is the 15 for the 15 minutes or the 30 for the 30 minutes means that a burglar can break into that safe in 15 or 30 minutes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 15 means the UL safecrackers (and they are the best in the world) took 15 minutes of tool time on the safe. That means the tool was on the safe for 15 minutes. It could have taken them an hour or an hour and a half to break into the safe.
High-Security Ratings and the content value guidelines*
U.L. TL-15 - up to $200,000
U.L. TL-30 - up to $375,000
U.L. TL-30x6 - up to $500,000
U.L. TRTL-30x6 $1,000,000 and up
*with monitored burglar alarm
We hope this helped you understand high-security safes, give us a call at 800-207-2259 or e-mail us at info@safeandvaultstore.com if you have any other questions.
