Panic Bar with Outside Trim Set

A fire door that has to open freely from inside and stay controlled from outside needs two pieces, not one: the push bar and the keyed lever that works through it. This is the pair, and what has to agree between them.

A panic bar alone answers only half the specification. It releases the latch from inside under pressure, which is what the escape route requires — but it leaves the outside face blank, and a blank outside face means the door cannot be opened by staff, maintenance or a fire officer without propping it, which is how a rated door ends up wedged.

The outside trim is the other half. Model 015 is a keyed lever that operates the 310 bar's latch from outside, supplied with three brass keys and suited to doors up to 80mm thick. Inside, the 310 is a 900mm painted iron bar with a 1.5-hour fire rating, available in red or black.

The reason these are specified together rather than separately is that the trim has to match the bar it works through — the lock case, the spindle and the fixing centres are set by the bar, not by the handle. A trim bought to suit a different bar will mount and will not operate, and the failure is discovered at installation rather than at goods-in.

Confirm before ordering: the door thickness, the leaf width, the handing, whether the outside lever should be keyed alike with other doors on the building, and the fire rating the assembly has to hold. Colour is a decision too — the bar is stocked red and black, and red on a corridor that is otherwise black reads as an afterthought.