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Most automatic door problems are specification problems that only surface two years later, when the entrance hesitates, the sensors need adjusting monthly, or the finish has worn through in the busiest metre of the building.
The most common specification error is choosing a door type first, then trying to make the opening suit it. The better order is to describe the opening honestly and let that decide the system. Four questions do most of the work, and answering them usually narrows the shortlist to one or two systems on its own.
For the full range and technical detail, see our main automatic doors page.
The two dimensions that eliminate most options immediately.
An entrance opening thousands of times a day is a different specification.
An escape route entrance is specified around behaviour under alarm.
Each links through to its technical detail. If you are comparing from scratch, start with the full automatic doors range.
Automatic door systems are not interchangeable, and most of the difference is geometry and duty rather than appearance.
The default for high-traffic commercial entrances. Efficient and predictable, provided there is side space for the leaves to park.
Two leaves per side moving together, giving a wider clear opening where side space for a standard slider does not exist.
A powered operator on an existing or single-leaf doorway. The usual answer for accessibility upgrades in buildings that cannot be rebuilt.
Maintains fire separation and responds to alarm and detection inputs while still serving everyday traffic.
Curved entrance systems for buildings where the entrance is architectural as much as functional.
Doors integrated into a facade or curtain wall, specified as part of the envelope rather than added to it.
Wide opening with little side space, choose telescopic. Existing doorway with an accessibility duty, choose a swing operator. Escape route or fire line, choose a fire-rated system. Heavy retail footfall, choose sliding and size the operator up. New facade, integrate the entrance into the aluminium system. Trolley or bed traffic, widen the clear opening before anything else.
Fire-rated sliders are the system specifiers ask about most, because they carry two jobs at once. They have to behave like an everyday entrance and respond correctly under alarm, which makes installation and servicing part of the specification rather than an afterthought.
EN 16005 is the European standard covering safety in use of power operated pedestrian doorsets. In practice it moves an automatic door from being a product you buy to a system you are responsible for. Safety is assessed for the specific installation rather than assumed from the product, and it has to be verified periodically rather than signed off once at handover.
Safety is judged for that door in that setting, not the product in general.
Protective measures have to be proven to work, on a schedule.
The evidence is only useful if somebody can produce it.
Right up until it does not. That is why detection zones are verified rather than eyeballed, and why the person asking about your records later is usually an insurer or an auditor rather than an engineer. NS Motion services to EN 16005 and issues written records. For checks between visits, see our automatic door maintenance checklist. Specific thresholds and test methods should be taken from the standard itself.
This is what lets a supplier quote accurately and an installer avoid discovering a problem on the day. Gathering it early is the cheapest thing on this page.
Structural opening, required clear opening, side space, head height, and whether the structure above can carry an operator.
Peak-hour traffic rather than daily totals, the type of traffic, and whether the entrance is held open at busy times.
Whether the opening sits on an escape route or a fire compartment line, and how the door must behave under alarm.
Who uses the entrance and what the risk assessment calls for. Detection should be designed in, not added when something goes wrong.
Supply position, access control, alarm and BMS interfaces, hold-open and night modes. Late integration causes most variations on site.
Service interval, response expectation, record format and who holds them. An entrance without an agreement gets maintained reactively.
In retail and hospitality the entrance is the most-touched part of the building and the first thing a customer sees. It also takes more wear in a week than most of the building takes in a year, which is why entrances that looked identical at handover can look very different after two winters.
An operator specified for the opening rather than the footfall runs at its limit every day, and shows it within two years.
Grit carried in on wet floors is what wears an entrance. Tracks and thresholds have to be cleanable, not just handsome.
Planned servicing catches small adjustments before they become component failures. Reactive call-outs cost more and arrive later.
It depends on the opening rather than the building. Automatic sliding doors suit most high-traffic commercial entrances where there is side space for the leaves to park. Telescopic sliding doors give a wider clear opening where that side space does not exist. Automatic swing operators suit existing or single-leaf doorways, particularly accessibility upgrades. If the opening sits on an escape route or a fire compartment line, a fire-rated system is required.
EN 16005 is the European standard for safety in use of power operated pedestrian doorsets. It requires safety to be assessed for the specific installation rather than assumed from the product, protective measures appropriate to that assessment, and periodic inspection by a competent person, with records kept. In practice that means a risk assessment per door, verified detection zones, and written service records a facilities or compliance team can produce on request.
Service frequency should follow the traffic through the door rather than a fixed calendar rule. A retail entrance opening thousands of times a day needs attention far more often than a low-use office side entrance. NS Motion sets the interval from the duty cycle and the risk assessment, then issues written records after each visit.
A standard sliding door has one leaf per side, which parks against the wall beside the opening, so it needs roughly as much side space as the opening is wide. A telescopic door has two leaves per side moving together, so it parks into about half the space. Telescopic systems are specified where a wide clear opening is required but the side space for a standard slider does not exist.
Often yes. An automatic swing operator can be fitted to a suitable existing door, which is why it is the usual route for accessibility upgrades in buildings that cannot be rebuilt. The survey checks the door leaf and frame condition, the structure available to mount the operator, the power supply position and the space around the swing arc, since a powered door needs safe clearance that a manual one does not.
Responsibility sits with the building owner or the person controlling the premises, not with the manufacturer. The installer specifies and commissions the system, and a competent person inspects it periodically, but holding a current risk assessment, arranging inspection and keeping the records is an ownership duty. On multi-site estates a single maintenance agreement is the simplest way to evidence that consistently.
We will assess the opening, the traffic and the compliance duties, then recommend the right system. New installations, replacements, servicing and repairs, nationwide from our Kildare base.
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