Safety Edge

What are electric gate safety edges?

There are numerous safety hazards with electric gates, and safety edges are the main way to protect your family and visitors from accidental harm.

In addition to infra-red photocells, these devices are placed on the edges of your gates which may come in to contact or pose a risk of trapping or shearing etc.

Safety edges are rubber strips which consist of a daisy chain of ‘through’ and ‘end’ edges which are wired through a transmitter to your gates control panel. If the edge comes in to contact with an obstacle, it immediately sends a signal to the control panel to stop and reverse the motor away from danger.Following a risk assessment by a certified gate installer, you would apply safety edges along the areas of the gate where there is deemed to be a potential hazard.

When the edge comes in to contact, even lightly, with an obstacle, the rubber profile compresses down and applies pressure to the contact strip.

The contact strips are all wired together in a chain using connectors back to the gates main control panel. You will have both ‘through’ and ‘end’ edges which attach to each other in a daisy chain.

The safety edges are either self adhesive (small profiles only) or are attached by rivets through the aluminum mounting profile. The rubber profile clicks easily in to place once the mounting tracks are positioned. This method means it is simple to install or replace an edge in future if required.

During installation your edges need to be force tested to ensure that they are functioning correctly and will stop when required.

We advise that every electric gate installation has the recommended amount of safety edges to ensure safe and reliable operation to protect family, visitors and vehicles at all times.

If you need help or advice on selecting the best safety edge for your automated gate system, please give us a call or email to discuss your options. We’re here to help.