What exactly are automatic doors, and how do automatic doors work? An electromechanical machine moves the door mass on an automatic door.
A microprocessor controls a motor, which moves it from one point to the next. A drive belt or connecting arm joins this motor (usually overhead) to the door.
The majority of automatic doors have battery backups, force sensors, and anti-collision systems, as well as presence sensors and motion-activated PIR radars.
Automatic doors have been around for over a century and were initially designed as an alternative to manual doors that required someone’s help to open and close. The first automatic doors used hydraulics powered by water or air pressure to force the door open with enough strength that it would not immediately stop opening when someone was pressed against it. This design proved problematic because anyone who got too close would get hit into the doors, causing potential injury.
Fortunately, today’s modern technologies are incredibly safe.
Automatic doors are meant to operate automatically. These doors rely on electric motors and sensors to identify when someone is approaching them. A sensor in the form of an infrared beam detects when someone is close to a door before it opens it manually.
Safety Sensors
Sensors for detecting and scanning the areas that people or objects might enter, which may be a potential hazard, are placed around the automatic door operator.
For Example – The “ondoor safety sensors” on an automatic swing door system look down and across the door leaf width. If the sensor detects someone in that location as it opens, it will notify the microprocessor to cease operation of the door.
Images from https://hotron.com/
Activation
How do automatic doors work? Most doors are activated by a Motion detector radar for hands-free egress or a press pad button. Both are wired into the system to tell the door to “open”.
A pedestrian access door opener is a machine that opens a door for human passage and is often an electric-mechanical mechanism. It raises and lowers the door automatically, leaving it open before shutting it.
On the outside of huge businesses, sliding doors may be utilised. (Small companies use sliding doors, but most prefer swinging ones.) This is a question of personal taste or usefulness. These doors are used in emergency rooms, hospital care units, and doctors’ offices.
Schools, universities, doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and other institutions on the High Street all have automatic doors. Bifold and revolving doors are frequently used in hotels.
Automatic door Safety Standards
BS EN 16005 & BS7036:0 are the Safety Standards all automatic doors should be installed and adhered to in the UK.
For more information on commercial doors or to discuss the correct type of door for your business contact us on 0845 226 2823 or email us: hello@rds-doors.com