Performance Materials


You can’t make an omelette with a bad egg and it’s the same for safety products. In the end, you get what you pay for, which is why the Fred team have carefully hunted out the very best performing materials – children are too important to use anything less.

Sustainable Wood

We have chosen Poplar for our wooden safety gates, a hard wood that can be easily sculpted to the shapes that we need. For the Stairpost and Wall and Skirting Fitting Kits, we use pine, a strong softwood that can easily be screwed into.

All of our wood comes from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved sources. This means that it has come from well managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.

Uncompromising Metals

For the frame of our Pressure Fit Gates we have chosen Zinc plated (galvanised) steel. To work effectively, a pressure-fit gate needs to be under constant high tension. Steel is ideal with high tensile and impact strength.

The rails of the Screw Fit Gates are positional, not taking heavy loads, so Aluminium with its non-corroding, beautiful finish is the ideal choice.

Our magnets are powerful iron-rich rare earth materials, but like all magnets, can be harmful to children if swallowed. In our products they are retained within larger plastic parts that cannot be swallowed. However, as a precaution, do not allow children to play with them.

High Performance Plastics

Different plastics have been chosen throughout, depending on the job we need them to do. You’ll find some techy stuff below, but the important bit is that we have used the highest quality engineering grade options of the various polymers throughout, that are food-grade (and therefore lick-proof), and flame and/or UV resistant where appropriate.

  • ABS, Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, chosen for its impact resistance, toughness and heat resistance.
  • Acrylic or Poly methyl acrylate is luxuriously transparent yet extraordinarily durable, shatterproof, tough and unbending.
  • Nylon, PA6 & PA66, Polyamides where the number describes the type and number of polymer chains in their structure. PA6 is tough, possessing high tensile strength, as well as elasticity and lustre. It is resistant to abrasion, heat and chemicals. PA66 is similarly known for its high mechanical strength and rigidity but is particularly resistant to wear and abrasion.
  • PE, Polyethylene, film is of low strength, hardness and rigidity, but is highly ductile and is great at withstanding impacts.
  • POM, Polyoxymethylene. An engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts where we need high stiffness, low friction and excellent dimensional stability.
  • PP, Polypropylene, is another thermoplastic, known for being rugged, tough and flexible, with particularly good resistance to fatigue.
  • PS, Polystyrene. As strong as Aluminium, but much more flexible, and even lighter.
  • SEBS, Styrene Ethylene Butylene Styrene is as synthetic replacement for rubber. It is flexible, grippy, seals well and has great resistance to heat and weathering.
  • TPE, thermoplastic elastomers, are a mix of polymers, usually a plastic and a rubber. They are tough, and will stretch and then return to their original shape – great memory!

Effective Adhesives

Research into adhesives have come a long way in recent years, and we have been able to choose the very best of the modern options available. Previously, adhesives weren’t able to withstand the repeated tugs that a modern family would place on a safety product – but now they can!

Fred SecureHoldt™ adhesive – powerful, and adhering well to the many surfaces found in a home, this adhesive is embedded in foam so that when it is time to remove, it is easy to insert a blunt knife to break the adhesive bonds and prise it away. Any residue can normally then be rubbed away with fingers

Fred ToughHold™ adhesive – a thin layer, we use this in our anti-skid tape so that it remains flush to the floor. Tough and abrasion resistant, it remains strong however many times you walk over it.

Fred ExtremeHold™ adhesive – coming from the space program, this is what they use to hold the panels onto space shuttles! Extremely powerful and heat resistant, yet the gel can be cut with a blunt knife when it is time to be removed.

Fred’s tips for using our adhesives;

Prepare the surface well. Clean the surface with a 50:50 mix of white vinegar or surgical spirit and water, and allow to properly dry before applying the adhesive tape.

Practice first. Fred adhesives are strong, but the first contact with a surface is the most powerful, so they should never be re-positioned. If you practice fitting your safety product without removing the protective layer on the adhesive strip first, then you will be able to position the adhesive correctly at the first touch.

Removal. If you cannot rub away residue with your fingers, rub with a 50:50 mix of white vinegar or surgical spirit and water

Although our adhesives have been chosen to be non-damaging to most surfaces, this cannot be guaranteed. We can accept no liability or responsibility for damage or defects arising from the use of our adhesives on any furniture or surfaces.