It’s difficult to tell from the photograph but this is almost certainly a safe made by the joint venture company John Tann (Australia) and Wormald Safe & Vault around 1980 who were supplying cash safes and doors to such as ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, the State Bank of South Australia and National Ausralia Bank.
These were known as TLD’s incorporporating a thermic lance deterrent within the door and sometimes the body. Initially the chemical used was imported from John Tann in England who acquired supplies from Brock’s Explosives - a branch of the famous firework company. The replacement used comprised 6.5% aluminium powder and 93.5% Hexachloraphene supplied by I.C.I. Australia. *
John Tann England had experienced problems earlier when tubes containing the Brocks chemical had ruptured and caused a reaction with the wet concrete fill and the metal reinforcement. The result was a number of serious lockouts when keyways and KC lock spindle
holes begand to swell and distort plus expansion of the fill causing door jams.
The chemical used in Australia had much more serious effects such as when the safe was being drilled for the fitting of sensors etc. Sometimes the filling would ignite quite fiercely and even cause minor explosions.
As the company was sold to Safe Corp. around 1986, it had not been possible to identify safes or doors which could contain this violent mixture although sometimes a letter “S” was added to the serial number for doors so filled, and “SS” when the bodies were filled likewise.
I understand that some 90% of the actual safes were manufactured by John Weighgood in their South Australia factory, eventually taken over by Safe Corp.
- It should be stressed that on no account should the body or door of your safe be subjected to anything of a violent penetrative nature even if the “S” indicator is not visible.
