Here’s another aspect seldom photographed, and even I (“Mr. Detail”) don’t pay much attention to it. What sort of surface do the bolts lock against? Note, in the images that follow, you may need to save them and view them outside of your web browser to see the details.
Below are two cases where there are holes in the door frame. This means the frame is much thicker than the door and my initial sense is that the frame is thicker just for show. But then again, perhaps the vault walls are thicker than the door so the frame was built to match. It may have taken, say, 24 inches of concrete to match the resistance of 12 inches of steel. The first image is Vision Quest Sport and Fitness in Seattle, a York “cam-plate” door that looks like it’s been painted to resist the humidity. The second image is the Kansas City Public Library and a Mosler Donsteel door discussed here in other threads.
Another approach is to have a simple flat ring on the inner surface and to then machine semi-circular depressions for the bolts. This is somewhat visible in a recent image of a Chubb door in Sydney, below.
The third approach I’ve seen is to build a flat surface on the inside of the frame then attach blocks with semi-circular notches. This has the advantage of potentially being individually adjustable for each bolt, to compensate for slight differences from one bolt to the next. Below is a Diebold door somewhere in Des Moines, and a Diebold door in El Paso.
I haven’t noticed that any one method was used by a particular manufacturer. The same builder might use hole-in-frame for one door, and attached blocks for another. It probably just depended on the specifications for a door and frame combination.
