On Jan 14, 2014, at 12:00 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 
> From: mwhaider <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Corrugated box - water resistance limit
> Date: January 13, 2014 at 9:30:55 AM EST
> 
> 
> Abdul,
> Corrugated boxes do not protect records from water damage.  So even a
> sprinkler system will/can do damage to the records.  

The absorption rate on boxes is very quick and the older the box the faster it seems to absorb water as it breaks down on shelves with constant stacking and creases develop.  On the plus side, the absorption of water makes them slower to ignite. And freeze drying will return a document to some level of use.

> I am differentiating a fire-proof safe from a fire-resistant
> vault, where a fire-proof safe has no internal electricity and will be
> completely sealed when temperatures exceed a specific limit.

The design of most fire rated safes & file cabinets includes a material that will give off steam as a by-product of the heat exposure. The level of fire resistance is a factor of how much of this steam producing material is used in the walls of the safe.  Most American Safes are rated for Class 350 For One Hour and Two Hour durations. A fire extinguished in that period will result in saved documents but they will need to be remediated. (If your cabinets are under sprinkler heads, and they work, your documents will survive longer.)

Older safes used asbestos board but that is no longer permitted.  They protected the documents by insulating the heat. They in some cases were a combination of vermiculite filled concrete and an asbestos board. They were the best; but squeamish people disliked the white asbestos powder that filtered down on the documents over the years. Herring Hall Marvin, Lefebure, Mosler and other great companies have faded from the scene and the phrase “UE” or Use Engineered has faded in most safe and vault design.

Remember that fireproof is a designation linked to a time rating.  Nothing is fireproof forever. Safes will deliver one or two hours with a few special safes that can go longer but for a price. But a safe can be Class 350 Rated for Paper or Class 125 for Media. But again, the fire protection is limited to a time period. Vaults can go to a Six Hour Rating.

The biggest change for records managers is the requirement to know "what is being protected?” We recently had a discussion here about “Vital Electronic Records or Digital Vital Records.”  A Vault could carry Class 350 Four Hour Rating and protect your paper documents; or, the same vault could also be designed to be Class 350 Four Hour and also be Class 125 Four Hour Media Rated. Any large vault today will have media within it. (And if it does not, it could reasonably be expected to contain media in the coming years.) 

There are those who argue “Nothing is fire-proof!”  All vaults, safes and file cabinets are fire rated for a period of time, a duration of specific heat (defined by the UL 72 Time Temperature Curve that models a building fire) intended to represent what occurs in a typical fire. Paper is fireproof until you raise its temperature above 350º then it combusts.  Microfilm is effective until 150º and steam is present. Computer media remains effective until it is rises to 125º F. Then the magnetically recorded zeros and ones are effected and the integrity of the message is destroyed.

What is the medium you store in?  Or more likely……what collection of media? What is the migration trend? (To more media or less media?)  The cost of protecting records has changed very little over time. Yet, the volume of records protected has dramatically decreased over time. 

The cost of accurate records management has remained one of the best buys in the corporation.

Yet, the cost that has gone up astronomically…… is the cost of litigation, the cost of E-Discovery. Meantime the model of IT to just keep everything forever is now compounded by the Cloud.  No one even knows what is being kept. 

Until litigation………… and then 80% of the cost of litigation is now E-Discovery and 80% of this is review costs. The decline of accurate records management has exploded the cost of litigation. Corporations with poor skills in records management pay a price in litigation.  They may even become more of a target. The trend of some to move to Cloud versus tape back up has shown to be folly in litigation.  

Classification of records was elegant.  Protecting vital, and permanent records was so simple. Nothing about the cloud is elegant.  The cost of E-Discovery has gone from $70 million in 2000 to $4 billion in 2013. The cost of the litigation is exploding and the cost of a trial is more expensive that the lifetime costs of quality records management. 

>  I know that Hugh can provide the current details on these.
> 
> Mary

As Forrest would say  “And that’s all I have to say about that!”

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM
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