Best Automatic Doors for Narrow Entranceways

Name: ABC Industrial Doors
Price range: $

Last week we looked into which automatic doors are best for controlling the movement or ingress-egress of large crowds. This week we’ll be looking at the opposite! Which automatic doors are best for narrow entrances and passageways? Automatic doors are regularly retrofitted to older buildings which could now be used for anything from banks or shops to hospitals or governmental buildings. Due to the age of the buildings these passageways are usually either difficult to alter or protected by grade listed status. So, which automatic doors are best used in this scenario, to allow for maximum passage size? Let’s assess our four types of automatic door for this purpose:

Slide

Slide automatic doors work by, as you probably guessed, sliding off to the side to allow passage. This makes slide doors woefully unsuitable for very narrow installation sites. Without the extra space to allow the door to slide, the door simply cannot open. The only way to make these work would be to have them retract into the wall, which could be a very costly and labour-intensive solution. Score: 1/5.

Fold

Fold doors are known for their ability to save space. Fold doors literally fold in half vertically and collapse back in on themselves to allow people to pass. Usually a little noisier than slide doors, they make up for it by being versatile and applicable to most sizes of doorway. Fold doors do however bunch up slightly when open and could restrict movement if a number of people are using the walkway. Score: 4/5.

Swing

Swing doors open most similarly to regular manual doors, they swing out at a 90-degree angle until they are perpendicular to the doorway. Swing doors allow a maximised entrance space as they would, in a narrow corridor, lie flat against the wall when open. So, compared with fold doors they just have the edge in terms of space. The only time fold doors may fair better would be if the corridor were usually very crowded, as a swing door may provide a wider doorway but also covers a larger area when opening/closing, so does require a larger “keep clear” area. Score: 5/5.

Rotating

What, are you mad? How would you even install this? People would surely die. Score: 0/5. If you need an automatic door fitted in any size of passageway, get in touch with us today. ABC Industrial have the expertise needed for any and all automatic door installation enquiries.

Best Automatic Doors for Narrow Entranceways

Slide

Fold

Swing

Rotating

Further reading

Fire safety from ABC Doors - your fire door experts!

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Distribution and logistics centre doors – supply, repairs, service and planned preventative maintenance

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