Field enclosures: A guide to vandal resistance

The substantial growth in infrastructure in Australia and the requirement to montior road conditions to ensure adequate traffic flow has lead to a boom in the use of sophisticated roadside electronics over the past few years.

For designers of roadside systems, not only the functionality of the system needs to be considered, but also the increasing problem of security and protection against vadalism. Not only can vandalism cause problems in the flow of data from a site, but it is becoming a major cost that has to be absorbed by the authority.

Australia's leading manufacturer of enclosures, B&R Enclosures, has designed an enclosure to help minimise the cost of vandalism. As part of the design process B&R designed their enclosures with a few fundamental considerations. These include:

• Materials should be robust and shatter resistant where vandalism may be likely. This will discount many of the standard plastic enclosure and most likely means that a fully welded metal structure is the most economical option. This construction will not only mean that the contents are well protected, but repeated damage is usually avoided.
• Eliminate external parts that may be a target for vandalism. These usually include things such as door handles.
• Minimise lever points on the enclosure to minimise forced entry. To do this the enclosure has to have a recessed door and a hidden hinge.

B&R Enclosures is an Australian owned and operated company with over 55 years of experience. Their range of field cabinets are designed specifically to minimise vandalism and can be customised to suit the customer's specific requirements.

For more information on B&R's range of Australian Made field cabinets visit www.brenclosures.com.au/road.htm.