Door Industry Journal - Winter 2016

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 100 THE door industry journal winter 2016 building hardware feature More than meets the eye The key areas of door performance relate to fire and accessibility, with each governed by a variety of technical performance standards, building regulations and codes of practice. Door closers play a vital role in ensuring that the door meets these requirements and, therefore, should be given more than passing consideration when it comes to product selection. Choosing the cheapest door closer available may enable the door package to be competitively priced at tender, but this initial, short term saving may not be the most economic solution when it comes to whole life costing. In addition, certain projects will require door closers which are, shall we say, less ordinary, door closers which deliver benefits beyond the minimum required fire and accessibility performance. Design professionals, specifiers and facilities managers are becoming increasingly aware of the added benefits that concealed door closers can provide in areas such as safety, risk reduction, reliability and maintenance costs. These factors can have a significant effect on the ability of the door closer, and fire door, to perform reliably, but also on the quality of the user experience in terms of safety, comfort and well-being, as well as on the aesthetics of the building. The main reasons for a door closer failing to perform correctly are poor reliability and the likelihood of fire doors being wedged open. Reliability Failure of a door closer can lead to failure of the entire fire door to perform the duty for which it is intended; to keep fire and smoke at bay. In the case of fire, such a failure could be devastating. Quality of design and manufacture, together with cycle testing of door closers, certainly provide some assurance of a product’s durability, but other factors can have a considerable effect on the ability of a door closer, and fire door, to function at all times.