 Let's see what's on thinking man's mind today. I'm adding access control to several openings. When do I need to make the lock fail safe? That's a great question with subtle code overtones. Let's take a look. First of all, the difference between fail safe and fail secure changes depending on if it's a lock set or an electric strike. When we say fail, we're talking about power failure. So a fail safe, cylindrical lock, mortise lock or exit device trim, on loss of power, the outside handle is unlocked. You have free egress from the inside at all times. With fail secure, on loss of power, the outside handle is locked, but you still have free egress from the inside at all times. This really isn't any different from a storeroom function lock set that's locked all the time from the outside. You need a key to get in, but you have free egress from the inside at all times. On an electric strike, it's slightly different. For fail safe electric strike on loss of power, the keeper is free and it doesn't provide locking or positive latching. So you can't use that on a fire rated opening. Fail secure for an electric strike on loss of power, the keeper is rigid and it does provide locking and positive latching. Maglocks are only fail safe. They need power to stay locked. And if you do use a maglock, you need to make sure that you meet the special locking arrangement requirements. I'll have several code corners on that particular topic, but let's take a look. If we have classrooms that have a classroom function, mechanical lock set, for example, this is the easiest way to remember if I'm swapping out and upgrading to access control, because the mechanical lock that's on there right now, A, have a cylinder on the outside that you can lock or unlock the lock, and B, does it provide free egress from the inside? If it provides free egress from the inside, which most functions of lock sets do, and it's locked on the outside, the ingress side, the access side where you're trying to get into the room, then it can be a fail secure lock of any kind. But when do we need fail safe? If you have stairwell reentry codes, whether it's NFPA 101 or the IBC, there's some form of stairwell reentry where the doors have to be unlocked during the time of a fire, either at the fire command center or a switch inside the main entry. And on corridor doors with egress in both directions, where perhaps you need access to an exit. If you're in a path of egress, you cannot lock the door on the egress side. And if the corridor door has egress in both directions, there is your answer. And whenever you lock a required exit or exit access door on the egress side, unless you have an exception, here is a very large town hall. You can see the card reader on the wall. This is a lighted exit sign you can see from the life safety plan. And because you're locking the door on the egress side, then you would have to make sure that it's some kind of fail safe device. And because you're locking the door on the egress side, it needs to meet special locking arrangements. For more information and continuing education opportunities, please visit ASSA Abloy Academy by clicking in the links in the comment below. Please click like and subscribe to this channel. You can follow me on Twitter at Art Consultant and or connect with me on LinkedIn for updates. If you have a code question or would like to potentially see one on a future episode of Code Corner, please email Catherine.Flower at ASSAAbloy.com. Thanks for joining me in the Code Corner today. My name is Katie Flower. And my goal is to help you achieve safety in the built environment.