Pressing on door handles or pushing and closing doors again and again can be annoying some times. For this reason, it’s expected that in many buildings, doors open and close automatically to grant everyone convenient access to the building.

While automatic doors are increasingly being appreciated for their ease of use, they can be risky if they don’t meet certain safety standards. Since these doors open when movement or touch is detected, they should be as safe as possible to avoid things like getting your fingers trapped or the door closing at the wrong time.

Therefore, the automatic door fitters you hire must meet certain safety requirements to ensure that the fitted doors are safe for use for everyone.

Legislation

We have clearly outlined safety standards in place to help you ensure that the electric door you carry home has undergone a series of tests and certification. This is mandatory for all automatic doors and especially for garage doors, which can be more hazardous if not handled safely. The rigorous tests are aimed at ensuring that the doors are safe for any user and that they won’t cause any form of injury while in use.

Therefore, before hiring your door installer, ensure the automatic door you carry home meets certain safety requirements. Otherwise, you may end up with a faulty door. Whether you’re purchasing the door online on credit through tallboys afterpay or you’re getting it from a local store, ensure that whatever you get is in line with the safety standards.

Knowing whether your automatic door fitters meet safety standards?

On top of the available safety features, there are pieces of physical evidence that come with your automatic door, demonstrating that it meets certain safety guidelines. For instance, a CE label placed on the door indicates that it has undergone a series of safety tests to meet specific legislative requirements.

Additionally, your door installer should provide you with the declaration of conformity and performance documents as evidence that your door choice is certified. The current safety guidelines require every manufacturer to provide a logbook which contains information such as the unique identification number, contact details of the installer, date of installation, and the identification of any power-operated drive unit.

This logbook contains the details of the manufacturer and the installer, and in the event of an accident, it will be produced in a court of law. It should be kept by the building owner and put near the actual door.

Key Aspects of the Safety Guidelines

• Activation Distance – For escape routes, activation distance should be greater since, during an emergency, the doors should open sooner.
• Protective Leaves – This is the safety distance between the fixed and moving parts, which is set to limit finger entrapment, and it’s standard for all automatic doors.
• Safety Distances – Where an automatic door opens up against an adjacent wall, there’s a potential danger of body and head entrapment. Therefore, a certain standard safety distance between the final stopping point of the door and the fixed structure should be observed during the installation.

While automatic doors make work easier, if they’re not properly installed, they can be hazardous. Therefore, it’s important to ensure your automatic door fitters adhere to the safety requirements.