Archive for the ‘Door hardware’ Category

Until now, anti-ligature tips, also known as “hospital” tips, were not available on full-surface gear hinges. Well, here’s a great new idea from SELECT Products Limited: the SELECT Tipit hospital tip for SL-57 and SL-21 full-surface geared hinges. The tip deters patients or inmates from harming themselves by hanging objects from hinges.
- Made from durable high-tech polymer
- Securely attaches to door frame header
- Works for retrofit or new applications
- Use in Hospitals, Detention Facilities, etc.

Entrance systems consist of doors, frames and hardware. Sometimes people think great doors will somehow make up for the deficiencies in the other components of entrance systems. Well… it doesn’t work that way.

For instance, let’s look at door closers. They are critical to proper operation of entrance systems, and they really should be called door controllers. Besides just closing doors, they keep doors from swinging too fast, or too hard. By keeping doors under control, door closers help to prevent damage to entrance systems, and they help to prevent injuries to people using the doors. As they perform these important functions, door closers are subject to extremely high operating forces, and cheap closers wear out quickly leaving doors and frames vulnerable to the ravages of use and abuse.

The picture at the left shows and example of failed door closers. Neither door is properly under control, and the door on the left doesn’t even close all the way. These doors were equiped with bargain-brand concealed door closers. Not a very good bargain! Doors in high-traffic openings should have high quality hardware.

In my opinion, the specifier should have chosen premium grade, heavy-duty, surface applied door closers for this opening. The right closers not only protect entrance systems, they also protect the people using the entrance systems.

This video created by Joe Swaika, Associate Architect at Herrington Architects, illustrates another application of the in-door proximity reader installation mentioned in the December 21 entry on The Door Blog.

As you can see, when a person holds his prox card to the surface of the door on the right with the prox reader in it, an automatic operator is triggered on the opposite door and it opens to let the person in.  This application is perfect for accommodating persons in wheelchairs or with disabilities.

It’s a lot harder for an intruder to tamper with a keyhole he can’t find.

So if you think of a proximity reader as an electronic keyhole that that would-be burglar or vandal can’t see, you can start to understand the many benefits of having it concealed. And when you consider that the functionality is limited only by the programming, it’s easy to see the advantages of a concealed prox reader. Concealed proximity readers are an innovation of my firm, Mayer Door, and Special-Lite, which offers doors that accommodate them. Here’s an example of a door with a concealed prox reader in the Indianapolis Public Schools.

Here are some advantages:

• Security. With a concealed proximity reader, the “bad guy” has no way of knowing how to get inside. There’s no clue as to what kind of security device is on the door or even where it is located.

• Convenience and speed. Short of a wide-open door (a suboptimal security measure, to say the least!), there’s no easier and faster way for authorized individuals to enter your building. They’ll appreciate the convenience, and you won’t have to worry about a line forming during peak periods.

• Nix on vandals. Vandals don’t mess with things they can’t see. A visible reader is vulnerable to assault by anything from chewing gum to a crowbar. A concealed prox reader is safely out of sight.

• User-specific functions. With the right programming, a prox reader’s versatility is virtually unlimited. If an employee left the company and without turning in credentials, you can simply deactivate the card. Or if you feel a card may have fallen into the hands of a potential intruder, it can be programmed to send a silent alert to Security personnel if someone attempts to use it. Depending on the physical configuration of the the door, it can even accommodate specific access challenges for handicapped individuals.

“Continuous geared hinges reduce wear by spreading load forces more evenly over the full height of the door, rather than concentrating them at the hinge, as with conventional hinges. Geared hinges also can: lengthen the door’s life; enhance reuse by allowing changes from left- to right-hand or the opposite; reduce sound transmission; and prevent distortion.”

Read the whole story, Proper Maintenance of Locks, Hinges and Handles Helps Lower Costs,By Thomas A. Westerkamp, February 2009 at http://www.facilitiesnet.com/default.asp