Freeing hands up for new functions

FSB’s ergonomically designed lever handle 1287

Cour­tesy of its angled styling and up­wardly-bent grip, FSB’s new 1287 lever handle can also be se­curely and com­fort­ably op­er­ated by forearm. The upshot: top-qual­ity fit­tings “made in Germany” that are con­ve­niently used in “hands-free” mode so as to reduce the risk of in­fec­tion. This new product de­vel­oped by Brakel’s premium hard­ware man­u­fac­turer is the latest to benefit from the company’s many years of ex­pe­ri­ence in coming up with so­lu­tions specif­i­cally for use in the Health & Care sector.

High levels of pa­tron­age in public build­ings result in fre­quently used items such as lever handles be­com­ing po­ten­tial car­ri­ers of germs. This in­creas­ingly begs the ques­tion as to whether op­er­at­ing handles by hand is in any way ap­pro­pri­ate for the age in which we live. By cutting out the need for manual contact, the latest cre­ation by FSB de­sign­ers Markus Michal­ski and Michael Schmidt affords en­hanced pro­tec­tion against in­fec­tion whilst also opening up new hori­zons for hands.

The handle is op­er­ated with the user’s forearm press­ing against its quar­ter- turn end section – the re­turn-to-door – and es­tab­lish­ing form-fit­ting contact with the up­wardly-bent grip. The optimum height of the re­turn-todoor was iden­ti­fied as being 111 cm on the basis of in-depth analy­sis of an­thro­po­met­ric data for average body mea­sure­ments such as height, weight and the length of arms, legs and thighs. This is par­tic­u­larly con­ducive to the user com­fort­ably resting their arm on the handle. Op­er­a­tion is pos­si­ble re­gard­less of from which side the door is ap­proached (from the left or right). The door can be safely opened and yet the user’s hands remain free to perform other tasks such as steer­ing medical equip­ment along or car­ry­ing a tray or some other work im­ple­ment.

The Brakel hard­ware spe­cial­ist man­u­fac­tures its new er­gonomic lever handle in a top-qual­ity high-grade steel alloy. So as to avoid con­t­a­m­i­na­tion whichever form of op­er­a­tion is adopted, the handle is sup­plied as stan­dard with FSB’s anti-in­fec­tion coating (AIC), which guar­an­tees optimum pro­tec­tion against in­fec­tion by vir­tu­ally elim­i­nat­ing germs. The ma­te­r­ial used, a com­po­si­tion of chrome, nickel and steel as laid down in DIN 17440, is highly cor­ro­sion-re­sis­tant and notably im­per­vi­ous to knocks and scratches. The stain­less-steel surface forms an in­vis­i­ble passive layer, more­over, that pro­vides it with a high level of re­sis­tance to clean­ing agents and dis­in­fec­tants.

The product range is fit for heavy-duty ap­pli­ca­tions and just the thing for use on highly used, heavily fre­quented doors in, for in­stance, hos­pi­tals and nursing homes, child­care fa­cil­i­ties, schools or other public build­ings. And the new handle is equally ideal for public toilets, e.g. those in mo­tor­way service areas, keeping freshly washed hands hy­gien­i­cally pure.

Prop­er­ties and ben­e­fits of the new FSB 1287 model at a glance:

  • doors can be opened without manual contact
  • optimum height for mea­sured con­ve­nience
  • ideal for heav­ily-used doors
  • anti-bac­te­r­ial finish
  • easy to fit
  • top-qual­ity high-grade steel alloy (chrome-nickel steel to DIN 17440, ma­te­r­ial no. 1.4301, approx. 18 % chrome and 8 % nickel)
  • suit­able for stan­dard, emer­gency-exit and fire doors
  • straight­for­wardly retro­fittable in place of ex­ist­ing hard­ware tech­ni­cal cir­cum­stances per­mit­ting

About FSB
FSB is a byword the world over for vi­su­ally and func­tion­ally top-qual­ity hard­ware so­lu­tions for doors and windows, elec­tronic access so­lu­tions and san­i­tary fit-outs. Ar­chi­tects and builders’ clients favour reach­ing out for prod­ucts from Brakel owing to FSB’s great design ex­per­tise and its pro-found un­der­stand­ing of the re­quire­ments of modern con­struc­tion. Every-thing in any way as­so­ci­ated with handle culture in built spaces is catered to from a single source.

Franz Schnei­der
Brakel GmbH + Co KG

Anne Levy
Nieheimer Straße 38
33034 Brakel
Telefon: +49 5272 608-105
anne.​levy@​fsb.​de