Advantages of Flexible Barrier Systems

The force of an impact will be absorbed by the object doing the hitting and the object being hit. The common theme employed by most products in the Berry Systems range is the concept that, if this force can be channelled into and absorbed by a safety barrier then less damage will be done to the objects involved, be they vehicles, machines, buildings or people.

This means that safety barriers must be more than just visible reminders of potential danger. They must be engineered to withstand the likely specific danger in any given situation.

For very light impacts the inherent strength of a steel barrier, rigidly mounted can be sufficient to withstand the impact without suffering damage. However, this is achieved at the expense of transferring most of the impacting force between the object that hit the barrier - a fork lift truck for example - and the floor anchorage. Stronger impacts will damage both the barrier and floor, always involving costly repairs.

A semi-flexible mounting system, such as the Berry Flexi-Post can absorb more energy from the impact by deflecting up to 120mm. This deflection protects both the barrier and the impacting object. This is sufficient, for example, to absorb over half of the force involved when a 1.5 tonne car hits a barrier at 10mph (4.5metres/sec).

Where even larger impacts are possible then the Berry Spring Steel Buffa system should be used. The mounting posts, as the name suggests, are made from a grade of spring steel that has enormous flexible qualities. A Spring Steel Buffa system can typically deflect between 300mm and 400mm and in the process absorb approximately 75% of the force involved in the example of the 1.5 tonne car at 10mph.

Protection levels Many of the products in this site are assessed by the level of protection they give relative to the danger or threat likely in the given circumstances. These are indicated by the use of Bronze, Silver and Gold icons. However, it is important to take these symbols as guides only to the relative merits of each system and that a system that may earn a gold icon in a pedestrian area may only give a bronze level of protection in an area with heavy goods vehicles. Correct threat assessments are vital.
Gold Protection Level	Silver Protection Level	Bronze Protection Level