Door Industry Journal - Summer 2013

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 51 THE door industry journal summer 2013 doorset feature and finish in areas with airborne contaminants for example salt, caustic and so on. These primers will essentially double the door life and are particularly useful for a range of applications from swimming pools, saunas, and steam rooms through to industrial plants and power stations or buildings near coastal locations. Non-painted options such as stainless steel in brushed, polished, etched, shot-peened or patternated and rigidised (Rimex) finishes, give architects options for bespoke steel door designs. To hide a doorset in an existing façade or architectural material, steel doors lend themselves perfectly to overcladding with that architectural chosen material. Whilst adding these finishes or overcladding the door, steel’s inherent design properties can still maintain the required certification for fire, acoustics and security. Examples of overcladding materials include bronze, Chinese marble, Cumbrian slate, limestone, granite, timber, glass, vitrous enamel, ceramic tiles - the list is endless. These doorsets are already commonly used in high-end commercial, upmarket hotels and retail developments. At Ingersoll Rand we have even ‘prepped’ doorsets for turf to be overlaid on a Norman Foster building, which gave a really impactful finish. This cladding approach can be employed where designers are seeking to hide a door into a façade, or to keep a clean line in a building for example, corridors, lift lobbies, and reception areas. Crucially, at that point the door can still have acoustic parameters and fire protection built in. Additionally, shot peening - a stainless steel dimpled effect - is becoming a favourite among many architects and more frequent on high-profile projects for example the Cross Rail scheme. The flexibility of steel doors is clear. Whether it’s a basic powder coat, enhanced or advanced powder coat, hardening or additional lacquer finishes, modern and technically adept powder coated finishes or a base material with overcladding, there are a huge number of options. In the future there will also be scope for visually enhanced ‘wrapped’ frame systems and improvements in vision panel inserts. So the impact steel doors can have on a building from an aesthetic perspective now match the impact they have on creating a safe, secure and useable environment. Ultimately, the world’s moved on and so have steel doors and finishes. Forward-thinking architects such as Ian Ritchie realise that not only are steel doors fit for purpose, they are fit to impress too. For more information on Ingersoll Rand’s range of steel doorsets and finishes available, visit: http://security.ingersollrand.com/martinroberts/products/Pages/ColoursFinishes.aspx All images in this feature are © Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd