With the new year well under way, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the learning moments of 2017 ― the areas where the security industry learned, grew and shifted thinking to better provide products and solutions for buildings of all types, across all industries.

The result of this reflection is a number of opportunities that ASSA ABLOY Door Security Solutions is excited to focus on in 2018.

Resiliency: The past year was devastating in terms of natural disasters across the nation, including tornados, hurricanes and floods. And while hospitals, schools and government buildings are the most typical locations to deploy doors and hardware to address these threats, we expect to see resilient openings expand to new verticals such as enterprise as the solutions have become more affordable and available.

Door assemblies that can withstand tornado-force storms and hurricanes help increase the protection of building occupants during storm events. ASSA ABLOY’s current offerings in this space include tornado resistant solutions using Ceco Door and Curries StormPro® doors and frames, Corbin Russwin FE6600 Series and SARGENT FM7300 Series multi-point locks, and McKinney StormPro Hinges from ASSA ABLOY Architectural Door Accessories. Available as an assembly, these products are UL classified to ICC-500 (2014) and comply to FEMA P-320 (2014) and P-361 (2015) for residential and community shelters and carry a UL certification label.

Windstorm resistant openings include doors from Ceco Door, Curries and Fleming, as well as locking solutions from Corbin Russwin, Sargent and Yale and McKinney hinges. Window shutter solutions are also available from Corbin Russwin, Sargent, Curries and Ceco.

While protection from flying debris and wind damage is a major concern, another important consideration during these weather events is the loss of power. ASSA ABLOY offers battery-powered WiFi access control locks that can continue to function in the event of power loss due to flooding or other natural disasters.

Sustainability – A continuing theme will be solutions that improve the health and bottom-line efficiency of buildings - both through a reduction of energy usage, and through the transparency of product ingredients and the manufacturing supply chain.

ASSA ABLOY has spent the past few years vigorously developing products that meet these goals, entering 2018 with more than 115 Environmental Product Declarations, 20 Health Product Declarations, and 25 Declare labels. Also, ASSA ABLOY has introduced a new web portal that allows anyone to ask sustainability questions directly to the ASSA ABLOY team (https://www.assaabloydss.com/en/local/dss/sustainability/answers/).

Blending of Commercial and Residential – A big change we’ve seen over the past year is how the commercial and residential spaces have shared ideas and technology. IoT has been largely developed in the home market, and that same level of technology is now expected in the commercial space. Meanwhile, the commercial space has become more secure in protecting digital information, spurred on by the residential side. This theme will continue over the coming year as each side will continue to inform expectations of the other.

Partnerships – One of the biggest opportunities we see for the coming year is the continued collaborative approach to partnerships between manufacturers, integrators, specifiers, architects and end users.

By collaborating with one another on projects – as well as the themes above – we not only provide more value for the end-user, but also become partners in innovation.

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