ATM Safe Security Tests: A Proof Against Thieves!

In the style of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, our colleagues Paolo Bertini and Andrea Bruschi staged a real ATM explosion.

However, the purpose was far from vandalism. It was, in fact, a blast resistance test on an ATM safe protection cage, designed to minimize damage caused by gas explosion attacks in bank branches and to prevent such attacks from leading to the removal of banknotes from inside the ATM.

This test was conducted in complete safety and carried out in accordance with Part 10 of the European standard UNI EN 1143-1:2012.

Test Procedure
Inside the ATM safe, an inner air chamber was placed and filled with an oxyacetylene mixture, supplied through a connection to oxygen and acetylene cylinders.
The chamber was also connected to a detonation initiation device with an electric ignition system.

The sample



 

The explosion















Test Outcome
After the explosion, our technicians assessed the ATM's resistance to unauthorized access by attempting to open the cage’s locking doors using a crowbar, up to the 6RU limit specified by EN 1143-1 for Resistance Grade III. Despite these efforts, they were unable to access the safe.


We thank GESEL SRL for authorizing the publication of the descriptive and photographic content of this article.