Double Egress Pair

Last week I posted a photo of a double egress pair I saw on a recent site visit, and asked “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” regarding the photo on the bottom right.  I received quite a few correct answers and some good guesses.

  • The plastic on the armor plates, while distracting and ugly, is not what I was going for.
  • Several readers noted the height of the armor plates.  While they may be an issue since they are over 16″ above the bottom of the door, this door manufacturer’s listings may allow armor plates of this height.
  • A few people mentioned the alignment of the doors.  Since this is a double-egress pair with surface-mounted vertical rod fire exit hardware, the devices are on opposite sides of the door opening and that’s why the strikes are offset.  The devices do latch properly.

The answer I was looking for was that the bottom rods and latches have been installed on the fire exit hardware AND the LBR fire pin has also been installed.  When exit devices are installed “less bottom rod” (LBR), some door and hardware configurations require an auxiliary fire pin.  When the pin reaches a certain temperature during a fire, it projects into the hole on the other door leaf (covered by the black plastic cap in the photo) to hold the doors aligned to help compartmentalize the building.

I didn’t want to make it TOO easy, so I showed the photo of the black cap, but I have now added a photo below of the fire pin in the other leaf.  Since this pin is installed, the exit devices should not have bottom rods, latches, or floor strikes.

LBR Fire Pin


The lucky winner of a little something from the Ingersoll Rand Prize Closet is Mike Driscoll of O’Connor Door / Kamco.

Other correct answers include:

Bill Lawliss, Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies

Eyal Bedrik, Entry Systems Ltd.

Bob Caron, Kelley Brothers

Jeff, Virginia

Brendan Daley, Horner Commercial Sales

Glenn Sundbeck, FBH Architectural Security

Danny Estryk, Entry Systems Ltd.

James Caron, Kamco Supply Corp of Boston

Roger Musser


You need to login or register to bookmark/favorite this content.