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In commercial architecture and facility management, decisions are not taken lightly. From what you build with to what you fuel with from the first thing in the morning each day These choices either add or subtract from safety, time and value! Another such important decisions, and usually the ignored one, is choice of doors. Sure, they do an excellent functional job of holding a door open when required but upgrading to auto closing doors can do great things for performance of your building. These are doors with the intelligence to deliver a significant ROI.
However, automatic closing technologies are more than just easy –they represent a new way of imagining the future of secure and climate-friendly working. They solve basic problems for anyone who manages or owns a building and even those who live or work in one.” Here’s a look at three key advantages that make these solutions the must-have option for efficient commercial properties of the future.
Improved Safety and Fire Protection
For commercial structures, the safety of those inside is always priority number one. Automatic impermeable doors become an imperative in this sensitive compartment. They are effectively a first responders and make the world safer in multiple ways.
Their primary benefit is being used as firewalled room dividers. They've always been there — or at least we have since the advent of fire-rated walls and doors in commercial building construction, says Ken Brill, the founder of today's Uptime Institute. These compartments are designed to confine a fire, smoke and toxic gases to the area of origin for a defined period while enabling safe egress or evacuation by building occupants and prompt arrival by firefighting forces. A door like any other, right? Not when its open. Propping doors open, whether for convenience or by accident, completely voids the life-saving nature of that design. This can't happen with doors that shut on their own. Should a fire breakout and be activated by the building’s smoke detectors or fire alarm system, these doors will automatically close firmly to shut out the fire and provide an impassable barrier. This confinement is necessary to preserve escape paths, such as stairways and corridors, making them usable during evacuation.
It can lead to collisions, especially in low visibility conditions or permit unauthorized entry into secure areas. Pneumatic doors enable dependable closing so it’d not be an unpredictable or dangerous one. Further in these scenarios, whether it may be a hospital or laboratory setting where air quality and pressure must be maintained at high levels, automatic closing doors can contribute toward upholding the purity of clean rooms or isolation rooms by preventing any airborne contaminations from crossing over and risking damage to either delicate processes, or patients/subjects.
As part of the overall safety and security systems within a premises, automatic closing doors offer an active layer of protection which passive doors are unable to provide. Static barriers become active safety products reassuring building occupants that the building, they are in, is working to protect them 24/7.
Easy Access for Customers and Employees Without Using Hands
In the current commercial environment user experience is a major differentiator. Whether it’s a storefront, hospital or office building, and the facility is not easily navigable, that reflects negatively on the inhabitants whatever they may becustomers, patients or employees. Automatic closing doors just make things easier, plain and simple - for everyone.
The first encounter of guests and customers is at the entrance. An automatic door that slides silently open as they approach, and softly clicks shut after they have entered gives the impression of a modern, easily accessible and welcoming environment. This is especially relevant for people with ambulatory disabilities, parents pushing strollers or delivery carriers holding heavy cargo. The gap for entry is being sealed off in a smooth and open-minded progress. This tactile which is hands-free isn’t just a nod to luxury, it’s a commitment that the business does care for accessibility and passenger pleasure.
On the staff side, the benefits are equally enticing as it means a better workflow and higher productivity. Workers going from one part of a store or restaurant to another from a stockroom to a sales floor, for example, or from a kitchen to a dining room frequently have their hands full. Hauling a heavy door shut back by hand can be an ergonomic inconvenience, consume valuable time. Sensors or access cards are used to open/close and even slide open with the motion feature. This is particularly effective in health care environments where medical staff need to move rapidly and hygienically between patient rooms/stations without touching surfaces. The touch-free sterility of such doors also means less spreading of germs through contact with high-touch surfaces, which is increasingly important in every public and commercial space.
This frictionless access also supports a good traffic flow management. In high-traffic times, power doors can accept a steady influx of users without jamming crowds to bottleneck key passages and areas. The para-phrasing of convenience would then apply much more to efficiency in operation and productivity, along with a cleaner, healthier surrounding for all involved.
Reduced Maintenance and Operational Costs
Even though automatic closing doors can be more expensive than regular doors to install, they provide significant savings and quickly pay for themselves in the long run. These cost savings come from lesser maintenance requirements, lower operating costs, and better energy performance.
Typical doors, especially those within high-traffic/heavy use commercial applications experience a lot of physical abuse. The continuous work of being pushed, pulled and slammed wears hinges, frames and the closing mechanisms used in these types of doors. and hence the need for a large number of repairs, breakdowns or change too soon. As opposed to this automatic door are designed for long lasting and controlled performance. The open and close cycles are fluid with consistent action controlled by a calibrated mechanism that handles tension. In the meantime, this dramatically lessens the wear and tear on the door itself and all of its parts, reducing both how often you need to perform maintenance as well as maintenance costs throughout the life of your system.
One of the most direct paybacks is energy savings. Commercial establishments allow a large quantity of heated or cooled air to escape through open doors. A normal door that's left a little open for even just a couple additional minutes can contribute to significant energy waste as HVAC systems come on full blast. Auto closing doors are made to close fast and seal tight after opening. This in turn reduces the amount of inside air that is exchanged with outside air, thus keeping your indoor temperature consistent. The net effect is a significant decrease in heating and cooling costs, which can account for up to half of an office building's operating budget. In cold and hot climates, energy savings add up to quick payback.
Additionally, less risk of injury will occur from slamming doors that can damage the door, surrounding walls and even glass panels. By preventing these collateral damages, building management eliminates the cost of cosmetic repairs and parts replacement. Take this in the bigger picture of lower repair bills, less consumption and waste of energy and reduced small nasty chips to doors then an automatic closing door is a sensible financial decision for operating an efficient affordable building.
