Valuable museum artefacts, jewellery in a shop or even collections of valuables at home are a tempting target for burglars. Armoured glass cases help minimise the risk of theft and reduce potential losses. What are they, how do they work and why is it worth having them?
Armoured glass is a multi-layer pane (usually consisting of 4 layers of glass, between which a resin or flexible film is placed) with increased ballistic and mechanical resistance, which is also resistant to acids and high temperatures. When hit (repeatedly), it does not break, but only cracks, and only after repeated attacks does a hole form in it. In addition, the armoured glass will not immediately break into pieces, so even if you manage to punch a hole in it, you will not immediately gain access to the entire interior of the shop window protected with it.
An armoured glass cabinet is nothing more than a safe that has a visible part through which you can see the exhibit inside. The walls of the safe, although styled e.g. as elegant wood, are also reinforced and protect the item inside. Typical armoured glass cabinets belong to burglary resistance classes S2, 0 and I and weigh at least 200 kilograms.
The primary use of armoured glass cases is to protect museum items and valuable exhibits during exhibitions and presentations. They are also sometimes used by private collectors. They are also used in shops to protect the most valuable goods. A special type of armoured glass cases are those for weapons, which allow the storage of historic, museum items in accordance with the requirements of the law.
They are especially important for hunters. For them, having a safe is an unpleasant necessity. The solution to this problem are cabinets with armoured glass. They do not disfigure the hunting lounge and allow you to enjoy your weapon at any time, even when it is hidden behind the glass case. They are additionally equipped with interior lighting, which makes it possible to expose the weapon even better. Finally, armoured glass showcases can be part of a hunting lounge development. In addition to aesthetic considerations, it is worth noting the security class of armoured glass showcases. They are often higher than popular safes on the market, which will allow them to survive a few more changes in regulations without having to be replaced.
This may be interested for you: Armoured glass model display cabinet.
A shop selling expensive, easily transportable goods is more exposed to the risk of robbery than other retail premises. At the same time, it must be able to display its products if it wants to function. It is hard to imagine that in a jewellery shop jewellery was shown to customers only in photographs and every time a customer wanted to try on a ring an employee had to open a secure safe.
Police practice shows that thieves who carry out robberies, when choosing a shop they are interested in, take into account such factors as: easy preparation of the robbery, quick and trouble-free execution of the "action" and lack of necessity to use specialist tools. If a shop tries to reduce the risk of a quick robbery, the thieves will be less motivated to rob the premises (and will choose one with less security).
Armoured glass cases are an excellent solution to reduce the risk of robbery and, in the event of such an attack, to minimise the resulting losses. The armoured glass showcases for shops not only cannot be broken easily, but they also have additional security in the form of double locks, which increases the time it takes to open the showcase (and time is crucial during a robbery, as the more time a thief wastes on "working out" one showcase, the greater the chances that he will leave the scene without opening another one).
In the Hartmann Tresore offer you can find showcases with S2 and 0 class armoured glass available in 9 colours for the casing and 4 colours for the interior upholstery.
In the second part of this article, we write about gun sites for hunters and gun collectors: Showcases with armoured glass, part 2: an elegant safe for hunters
