⚠️ Gate Safety just got real.

All right, good afternoon everybody. We're excited to have everybody here. We are jazzed to see everybody excited about uh learning a little bit about gate safety. Um purpose of this meeting is just a quick introduction into uh TGM 500 and 501 standards. So, we're going to be kind of diving into that, but not just that, but um taking a look at some of our existing uh standards that are out there, which are amazing. I mean, we're talking about the UL325 and ASMF2200 uh when it comes to gate operators. Um, I've been a big supporter of those throughout the years. Um, so we definitely want to uh understand the differences between what uh has been created here with TGM500 and 501 and uh the existing standards that are out there now. U by no means is TGM500 or 501 meant to replace uh the existing standards that are out there, but more meant to complement uh the standards that are out there now. So um and kind of fill in some gaps, some gaps that uh needed to be filled in about um actual real real life situations in the in the field and how um the standards are applied to gates and uh gate operators out there. Um so that's what we'll be covering. Um the gaps in the real world would probably be, you know, we tend our industry to say, hey, just make sure you build that per uh per the standards and uh per the codes and things like that. And uh that doesn't always um that doesn't always work out when you're in the field. So, um, basically what we're going to be kind of discussing is TGM500, which is, uh, the operator and the attrapment zones. And, um, basically that's kind of what we'll be going over a little bit. So, first thing I'm first I'm going to take you over and make you, uh, kind of understand how to find this information and how to access it. So, I'm going to be sharing the screen here for a moment to let everybody see it. So, you can start off your journey, if you want to call it, over over at gatesafety.com. But that's really more of the forward- facing site that we're just non-stop working on to get the information out to um end users, property managers, and um also to the industry and stuff that you can share with um the public uh yourself. I'm a firm believer that uh you have to be able to share the information if you're going to call it a safety standard. So, some of the issues that we've had is we just weren't able to print, publish, or share um any of the standards that were created um for us in the past. So, we've been working on this for decades. Um, but we don't want the stuff hidden inside of boardrooms and code books anymore. We want to get that information out there, get it to as many people as we um we can. And if we can get one person, I mean, just one person to start using fall protection or even understand that they needed to be using fall protection or uh do some enttrapment areas uh coverage or something like that, then um we've succeeded. We've already added to what was already out there. So, the question will come up, hey, what is, you know, what does this add to the industry? We've already got that right there. That's what it adds. um if we get one other person interested in safety or doing something that they weren't doing, um it's really safety is not about certifications or anything like that, uh safety is um about safety. It's about uh building gates safer and making sure people are aware of uh what they can do and how easy it is and I I mean how easy it is to build a safer gate operator um than or even gate automatic gate or the fencer gate itself or the even the manual gates that um how easy it is to build them safe and how it really doesn't cost much more. So, that's what we're going to be kind of getting into. So, if you'll take a look at the um page, if you go to gatesafety.com, you'll see every month there'll be a link right here that you'll be able to push and join the meeting. It's going to be the first of every month um on at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time, which is the time zone I'm on. So, you'll be able to go to this site and uh you'll be able to access uh the latest link that's going to get you over to the meeting every month. Now, um, this page right here is going to have just a lot of, uh, information and then it's going to have the gate safety checklist on this one. This right forefront is really not the, uh, stuff that I'll be showing you in a minute, but this would be something that you can hand um, if you, if you really wanted to, you can hand this or even your the homeowners, property owners, things like that could go and download. And this is going to be

Stuff, and I'll come back and show you this um, when it's done and where they can access this. But if you are a contractor, and you'll see some other forms here, but if you are a contractor, um you can actually just go and click on this button and uh it's going to take you over to um gate monitor.com, which is uh who helped us build this whole thing. So, right here off the beginning, you're going to see training manuals um to let you get get you get a little bit more um involved and understand what we're doing. So, uh you'll have a training manual. You can click on that and that'll pull up a training manual which is a uh 16-page guide to uh making you understand a little bit more about it and uh why we need the TGM standards which I think everybody should go back and and review. There's no doubt. Um real awareness we're going to be talking about. TGM500 covers the equipment. TGM501 is going to cover the gate construction testing for compliance. Um installer checklist is also going to be included in here and some standards. So, as you flip through this, which I definitely encourage everybody to go through, um you're going to understand what this was designed for. We're going to get into great details about uh TGM500 requirements. If uh if you have an operator out there and you're trying to make it uh basically comply to the TGM500s, we're we are looking for a manual release uh auto close delay uh 5 seconds or more. And I'll get in a little bit more force limits. There's a lot of different ways to test this. And there's some cheap, inexpensive testers to test the force limits. I think sometimes we just rely on the uh manufacturer to test this stuff in the lab and we hope but we don't even understand what the features are and we just we adjust that sensitivity up and down up and down without ever understanding what that's doing and the um the force you know that it actually applies. So we will be going over uh some of the force limits and then um even understanding what normally closed safety sensors is opposed to monitored safety devices. So, um, we definitely want to have a little bit further discussions on that, uh, reverse stop behavior and what happened. Hey, we got Sean here on here. What's going on, man? Looks like he's at an airport or something. But, uh, in any case, what's up, man? What's going on? Hey, thank thanks for joining us. Hey, we're I don't know if you can see the screen yet, but uh we're going to be going over uh some of the reverse stop behaviors also of the gate operator function. So, uh, as you get into this TGM500 equipment, power disconnects, and we're going to get a little bit more in-d depth on that. Uh, again, I encourage everybody to go over this, uh, gate safety manual. It's it's definitely a lot of valuable information in here. And since, uh, monitor safety devices, uh, there is a lot of, um, product specific monitor safety devices, um, it doesn't mean that uh, you don't conform to the TGM500. It just means that we're looking for normally closed safety um, inputs so that uh, you can actually use. And and the reason that is the reason we don't want operators tied to one specific type of photo eye is because it's always evolving. You know, it's like anything else in in and I mean there's not any any electronics in your house that hasn't evolved probably quicker than you're even done with it. There's already there's a newer model that's either better, safer, more compliant with something else. And when we start tying stuff into one specific product, um maybe there's a better photo eye out there, maybe there's a better safety device or something that you want to use and you may not be able to upgrade your safety devices even though they're outdated. So, we are looking for them to be a normally closed, which means if it's disconnected, it's it's basically the operator is not going to work. And we realize there's there's always going to be a way for somebody to bypass it, but there's no difference in your car. I mean, uh, you know, we didn't make our cars not run without putting the seat belt in, but you can get rid of that buzzer by plugging it in behind you, right? So, if somebody really wants to circumvent safety, obviously there's a way to do it no matter what you do, whether it's lab tested or field tested, right? um if if it's somebody's intent and hopefully it's not is to is to avoid it, then then obviously they're going to figure out a way and we've all been out to units that that have done that. So, um monitor safety devices, you definitely want to take a look at at

Some of the exemptions for that because we do want to include there's a lot of operators out there that have been built per standards and monitor devices and those still qualify, you know, under under the standard, you know, as long as they they meet a couple a couple of our um requirements. Um building safer gate operators from the ground up. That's what this is about. This is about um this is about field verification in the field and uh not just relying on a lab. And there's a lot of safety devices and features on these gate operators that you just don't even understand. They're just part of the standard. And the standard is this long and you have to have an attorney to uh you know to basically interpret it for you, right? And when you're done doing that, uh you really don't even understand. You didn't, like I said, you didn't understand force, you know, how much force there needed to be and things like this. So, we're going to be getting into a lot more of that, you know, in some of these future ones. But um TGM501 um that's where we go from the 500 to the 501. So this will be pretty similar to what we have like um once you get into some of the installation standards that we have out there. Um now you're talking about frame strength and and what we got to do and I'm going to get into some um in-depth conversations on that. Um and just kind of going over what a summary of what we're going to be talking about. Um it basically it's pretty similar what you're used to already really. You're probably doing most of this but we're going to we're going to actually not just tell you you have to do it a certain way. We're going to show you and and some of this stuff's going to explain to you why. I mean, what's the point? I mean, you can we can tell you all day long, hey, make sure you don't have it more than four inches off the ground. Don't have abrupt edges. Don't have this. Don't have that. But we tend in our industry to not explain to you why, you know, and things like that. So, frame strength and rigidity. I think this is a common sense. Make sure this the the gate frame is strong enough to withstand an operator pulling on this thing, right? And the force that you're going to be putting on this thing. And uh 4 in uh bottom clearance. Uh you don't want any more. And that's kind of a given. You don't want somebody to be able to get under there. You don't want some kid halfway crawled or even some some crazy criminal trying to crawl halfway under your gate operator. You come around the corner and push the button and it starts moving, right? And you don't even know it cuz you you don't who looks at along the bottom of their entire gate if you're going around a corner to see if there's somebody wedged under there or a child or something. So, um two two and a quarter inch gap rule. I think that's pretty standard along, you know, I mean use, you know, I think a long time ago it was four then two and a quarter. Two and a quarter is a pretty safe uh pretty safe distance to where you're not going to be able to get your hand through there. If anything, you get your hand, your fingers maybe, but that's a hell of a lot better than getting your whole arm through there, right? So, um, that rule is still going to be pretty, uh, you know, pretty crucial. Um, pinch zones, uh, roller guides, shapes, things like this. We're going to be kind of going over. Um, 501 requirements, fall protection is going to be a big deal. Hey, you know what? If if all that comes out of this is we get 10 people using fall protection, we won, right? It was a success that didn't know about it before. So, uh, this again, this this, uh, this thing is going to be invaluable. Everybody should print this out and then and and go go over it. Go over it with your crews. There is no copyrights on this thing. Print, publish, share. I don't care. Take take any logos you want off. Put your own logos on there. Use it. Get the information out there. Bottom line is it's just about getting uh people starting to build safer gates. That's what it's 100% about. And uh we've got checklists in here. And here's a simple checklist. And Sean, you might be you might like this, too. So here's a a simple checklist for the TGM 500 and 501 kind of combined a little bit. So this one's for slide gates. And we've got both swing and slide gates in here. So, um, gives you a quick drawing, a quick idea of what it is, and it shows you you can have the two and a quarter inch apart or screened on the gates, the 4inch gap. If you went down this checklist, tell me every gate wouldn't be a little bit safer than it is today,

Right? Yeah, absolutely going to be safer for sure. You know, install the install. This is this is for the installer to go through and uh this is something for you guys to to fill out. uh sign it, have the installer sign that he's met all these requirements, throw it in your file, snap some photos. Now, if there's a problem later on, um, and you're standing, uh, you know, in a courtroom or something like that, we don't want anybody to get hurt, but wouldn't you like to have one of these showing that you actually have to have, right, from a year and a half later where you went through and did this, and now somebody went along and and removed the sign, somebody went along and changed it or modified it, and you've got this stuff sitting there signed by the installer, the customer's name on there, the address, everything, and it's saying, basically, it's pretty simple. You got a closed safety device hooked up and tested. The key to this is not just hooked up. We tend in our industry to say, "Hey, you just have to hook it up." Right? And this is actually hooked up and tested and basically verified that it's there. These aren't photo eyes glued together. They're not either put basically put in the right spot, right? So now you've got a verification process. You didn't just send an operator or a piece of equipment out that won't work without the photo eyes hooked up. You've now you're going to train your guys how to put them in and he's going to he's going to have to sign off that he did it. Now that's an extra step that we just don't do right now. Open safety device. Same thing. hooked and tested up. Uh safety, now we get into the safety. You know, a lot of times we don't understand, um how to properly test these things. So, uh safety sensors, will they stop or reverse when the gates triggered? Now, obviously depends on what the purpose of the sensor is, whether it'll stop or reverse. U manual emergency release. Here's a key. No tool required, right? And clearly labeled. Um you know, how I know we've been out to properties before and uh nobody knows how to even manually release it, right? So, this is something that uh I don't think that we go over enough with our installers. And also, we just give them a piece of equipment in a box. Half I mean, heck, half the time the owners of the company don't even know what's in the box until it, you know, until you get it right. So, um power disconnect, you know, how do you disconnect the power? Typically, it's a switch. It's labeled and things like this. These are all the kind of things that we're going to um we're going to be kind of going over even further in these monthly meetings. Um and it's every month we don't have to go through every single bit of it, but if we could all just kind of get together and talk about it, that's all really we got to do, right? uh force limits testing. Nobody does this, I don't think. Does anybody test the the the force limits of the operator? I mean, I've no it's not probably not common enough. There are people that do it. We did our training recently, but we're teaching people, right, in the field. Uh I don't know how often our guys are standing in front of the gates and just test and see what the gate operator does on the horse, right? Let's hit something. And then if they do it, do they do it three times? Yep. Right. Okay. So, then we're going to be going over um auto close delay. It's got to be at least 5 seconds. Verify the frame rigidity. Make sure it's not w, you know, flopping around and things like that. So, it's going to cause it to pop off track and and and possibly cause it to fail. Uh bottom clearance. Again, all this is your checklist. You can see travel stop. If the gate fails, it doesn't fall more than 45 degrees, that's a big deal, right? So, we want to make sure uh install roller guides. So, uh without getting into huge detail on this, these are these are forms that are available and everybody should be using. What do you got to lose? I mean I mean forget about the acronyms on the standard, right? We're talking about real life uh you know real life stuff you can apply in the field tomorrow. So swing gates similar a little bit different just because it's going to apply to the swing gates, right? And it's it's getting into the enttrapment zones are a little bit different. Um these are the standards right here and you can download these by scanning a QR code. It's right in there. Here's a little bit more detail on the standards. So for the

TGM500 and the TGM501. So I mean that's basically uh that's basically it and you can go in and by the way if you are somewhere where you're dealing with building codes this was designed designed so that you can apply for uh the IBC 10411 which is uh the international building code which permits the approval of alternative methods and u methods of construction where um the safety intent of the code is is met which is what this is. We're I mean if any anything you're imagining you know that what's the intent of a a gate safety code? What's the intent of of it? Uh photo eyes, right? The intent is to have a photo eye there. And the reason we do it in the lab is the only way you can you can make sure that it's going to be there in a lab is to have monitor the only way. But when you're in the field, you can verify it. So it's it's a little different. Again, this is to complement, you know, what's already out there, not meant to replace what's existing. Um but if you can go and and follow something like this, now we can take uh stuff that's out there and and make it a little bit safer. So um I'm going to go over to forums. Can you see these forums? Okay. So, again, if you go and click on forms at the top of this, you're going to go through all these forms, and then you're going to get into this is a this is a unique one. Now, this is on gatesafety.com, the one I showed earlier in the in the video, but um this is a checklist for the property owners, okay? And I don't think uh we've seen anything like this. This is a checklist for the property owners. It's a little different than than what you would see um you know, when you'd hand your cruise, but I think that if we can get property owners to go through this as well, and this is what we're talking about. There's not enough public awareness, right? We it's easy for us to create standards, but without public awareness, what does it mean? Nothing, right? So, uh, this is where this is pretty interesting. Property owner closeout sheet. At the end of the project, if you really if you really are for safety and you're ethical, I don't think you'd have a problem if you built it safely. You wouldn't have a problem, um, having having a property owner understand what safety features you put on the gate operator. So, that's where this comes from. And uh if you take a look at this, you're looking to see if a TGM500 and we're going to have labels you can throw on there if you want. You don't have to. Uh you can uh say the throw a TGM500 label on the side of the gate operator. After you've done that, after you've done your checklist, right, you could throw a sticker on there and sign it if you want. And we're going to have some some stickers available for you to throw on there. They don't cost any money. Print them yourself. We'll we'll mail you some, whatever you need. We want to make sure everybody understands, you know, that uh the safety is the priority. And uh uh you basically you're going to go through this checklist. You're going to say warning signs and decals. Were they installed? Right? Uh manual release instructions. Are they explained to you? Remember I got in that earlier. It's one thing to put these manual release on the gate operators, but a lot of times we don't explain that to them, right? And they need to know this information. So they can check off uh was the signage on there? Was it explained to me? Do I understand how to, you know, if there's a power outage, how to do it? Uh smart operation features, gate reverses. There's no there's no reason we can't show this to them, is there? Make them understand. I need to get out of here. So, make sure they understand it. Yeah. Make them understand the safety features and why it reverses and why, you know, why when it's uh you know, why when it's got the opening one, it stops. It doesn't just reverse. Why when it's closing that safety sensor makes it reverse, things like this. So, have this conversation with the the property owners and you've now just increased safety hundred times in my opinion because they're the ones going to be out there uh dealing with their kids, their dogs, and themselves around the gates after we leave, right? We already know most of this. We know what the gate's going to do, what the functions are. So, um, gate and make sure the gate stops. If the sensors are blocked, I mean, we can show them, hey, have someone stand or push something in front of it. We can show them that the gates are stopping. Um, edges, if they were installed, show them how those work. Press them and make

Them make them understand what what a uh an edge is, right? Not just assume that uh, you know, you could put an edge on a gate and they might not even know that it's an edge. They may be looking for a photo eye or think there's no photo eye. Um, timers and autoc close settings. Explain that to them. This thing's going to close after 5 seconds, 15 seconds. And that's your chance right there. Maybe this gate closes too soon and you left and you might have been able to adjust that by 20 seconds. And that's the difference between somebody getting hurt or not, right? Or a vehicle even getting hit. So anyway, um once you get through this thing, go through, they can check this off. There's no pinch zones. Now you get into the human safety, no risk of enttrapments, uh walk pathway, um pedestrians is clear and safe, and uh you can basically check that stuff off. That's something that I think would be really really helpful. Again, you could download all those forms and that's that's kind of what we're looking at with the TGM500 standards and I'd like to see um I'd like to see it get a lot more support in the industry to be honest. You know what Sean, you you're doing gate operators and in fact you're doing some gate operator training. What did you think of all that? No, I think it's uh it's simple, right? It's not too complicated. I don't have to be uh a professor to read it and understand it. Uh you've done a good job of keeping it very simple. And I like how you're attacking the safety from the consumer, the end user as well, right? We need to educate them just as much as we need to educate the installers, installation team, give them some checklist. Um and maybe uh letting people know it's not that hard to make gates safe and anything, you know, as long as we're doing working towards a faith and gate. Doesn't have to be perfect out the gate the first time though. You know, it's always better to understand how different ways of improving decision additional devices and things physical ability to keep those gates safe, right? Um, so I I think it's a it's a great tool and I love how you're making it like the best way to to improve awareness and increase safety and gate safety is make it available to as many people as possible and not selective or uh just for those that want that can afford it, right? Uh saving people. This should be available for everybody. Um yes, absolutely. We'll cover as much of this as possible in our gate training, our plug-andplay, but that is a simplistic uh showing people, giving them confidence that these heat operators can be a successful add-on to your business, but they also need to be done in the right way and safe educate uh your consumers as well as your installers. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the purpose of it. I mean, it it's been it's been in the works for a while and I've been thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it and and you know, I mean, you know, we talk we talk a lot, right? And I'm like, how do you help the industry um move, you know, how do you help it move in a direction that's actually going to get I I think we've kind of stalled out. I mean, the people that know about gate safety know about gate safety and nobody knew is really learning much. And I think that uh it's it drives me nuts. We hear a lot a lot about gate safety. And it's just, you know, we got to build them safer. We got to build them safer. And I'm keeping, okay, well, where how? Right. Well, and I love the approach of telling them why we why do we need a reversing sensor? Why do we need a two and a quarter inch gap or smaller? Why do we uh worry about the spacing or length of the protrusions uh and give it examples so we can relate to it. They understand why they're more than likely going to remember it. Uh or or when they have the anomalies or the situations where it's difficult to follow the guideline exactly, they understand the reason why and they'll probably call it the great solution environment, right? To make sure we keep the as safe as we possibly can. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's common sense safety. I think that's what we needed a little bit in our industry. I think it got so complicated that we uh everybody was afraid to even talk about it. And I know um there's going to be there's going to be some fallback and some push back just on this alone. There's still going to be no push back on just simplistic. You can you can always take this and do do more that's fine. If you guys somebody wants to do more and and be more specific or I don't know uh a higher level, that's fine.

Fantastic. But uh there's definitely a need for a simple approach of just making gates safer than we are. You're not sitting here saying this is the best and the only way to make it safe. You're saying, "Hey, there's a great start." Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if anybody can, brother. It's going to Yeah, it's going to be It's going to be interesting. So, we won't be issuing certificates on this. Um and I, like I said, I I looked at it a bunch of different ways and said, "Hey, do we need to certify people? Do we need to do that?" So, um we are though going to be um encouraging people to obviously uh go over the instructions. And one thing I didn't show which um I think I'm going to show you as well is we have a digital version of uh how to let me pull this up. We have a digital version if you could see the screen again. Okay. Okay. Right here where it says online checklist. Do you see that? Yep. So you click on that. You can do this from your mobile phone. And it's a digital version. So your guys in the field don't have to take any paperwork any paperwork out with them. They just fill this thing out and they hit obviously I've got it pre-filled with my Gmail or whatever it is. But uh it's fill in your company name will be pre-filled in if you once you do it once with your uh you know with your Gmail account and then installer's name if it's got if it's tied to him. Then he goes through and it's going to ask him similar questions almost the same questions that we just went through. Yes. Yes. Yes. You're going to answer yes. Yes. Yes. No. By the time you're done going through this checklist, which is what the basically it's a digital version of that, you're going to um you're going to be able to hit yes, you've confirmed all these things and send yourself a copy of this. You're going to and it's going to know that date, the address when you were out there. Send yourself a copy. The installer can do it from the field. And uh making it too easy, Brian. You're making it too easy, Dad. And now you've got right here, TGM checklist. Response has been recorded. So you just you just would have got an email from your So now you know when your installers are done and and what you know that it's all ready to go. Love it. I love it. Well, I got a couple minutes here before I got to catch a plane. I'm sure you continue on, but I wanted to jump on the opportunity to be on your first one uh meeting. I love what you're doing. I don't know where you find the energy to do all this [ __ ] I feel like I'm lazy watching you, man. No, man. I appreciate it. And we'll we'll try to get some of this out there to uh one of your gate safety trainings you got coming up or gate safety not gate safety trainings but we'll turn it into a gate safety training. I'm gonna stick with plugandplay. Okay, that's what I'm doing. I'm not a gate I'm not a gate installation expert, but we're going to do plug-and-play gate installations. Okay, training. That's a simplistic approach on getting people uh you know basic 101 installation of gate operators how to get their hands wet, get a little bit experience. Uh we're doing it with Nice North America. Uh great great manufacturer, but uh we need more and that comes with the fencing university. You guys have got the quick start class and you've got way more technical classes for the people that really want to get into the gate installation training. Um ours is very basic, but I will promise you the checklist you just provided, we'll make sure that everybody has that at the gates uh training that we're doing, which is June 24th, okay? And on the 24th, it's part of a 4-day training. So it's not it's not inclusive. It's not an add-on. It's just part of uh the iDrive power systems training or just adding the plug-and-play gate systems into it. Nice. You think this is something we could uh everybody should start adding into their training safety training? I I think that it's easy, right? Why not? It's free. It's you've done all the hard work. You've made you've blazed the path of you, brother. Good job. Nice. Nice. Nice. Hey, I appreciate you coming on and I'm sure I'll see you out there. I'm definitely going to try to make it out to that and maybe that'll be our first uh in-person gate safety training. Oh man, there you go. Let's just make it happen. You put it out in the air already. It's already happened. There it is. That's planned [ __ ] See you guys. I appreciate it. Bye.

All right, there you guys have it. Um that's kind of a brief summary of uh of what we're going to be going over uh next month. Uh we didn't get enough people on this one, but I think this is going to build build up some traction. We get some more people signed up for the next one. Or it's free. It's free. you just got to click the link and uh come on to the uh team's meeting and uh we'll have an even more in-depth conversation about gate safety. If you are interested in getting any of that information I showed you um on this meeting today or this uh is going to get streamed uh throughout some of the podcasts, then uh go to gatesafety.com uh click on the link that's uh for the gate installers or you can probably get some of this at the gatesafety.com website as well. Um hopefully we can get more people interested in talking about uh real life gate safety and how we can apply this in the field and make projects even more safer um than they are right now. Everybody have a great one. We will see you on the next one. March or actually what's the next one? It's June. So July 1st at 1 pm. July 1st at 1 pm. The link will be up at gatesafety.com.