Architectural Openings – News from DORMA

DORMA’s Door Rail

The DORMA Door Rail System is a worldwide leader of glass door and door rail technology.

The two-piece, clamp-on door rail system uses a Hakosil gasket to boost holding power and is fastened together from alternate sides making unauthorized removal practically impossible.  The mechanical clamp-on system allows for jobsite door height adjustments to compensate for imperfections in the door opening dimension. The snap-on covers need not be installed until job inspection, which keeps construction site damage obsolete. These very door rail  features make DRS the most specifiable All Glass Entrance and Storefront Door Rail available today.

Door Hardware; Providing Effective Door Control

DORMA Architectural Hardware manufactures and markets diverse products of door control mechanisms such as; locks, exit devices, and electronic access door control hardware.  For specific product details, images, and available downloads, visit Dorma Door Control.

Lockset and Key Systems

DORMA’s line of  cylindrical, tubular, and dead bolt lockset systems offer the comprehensive selection of Grade 1 and Grade 2 lock systems that meet the functional and aesthetic requirements of commercial and institutional door control. In addition, DORMA offers a complete selection of cylinders and keying options, including master keying, construction master keying, and patented key control.

Dorma’s Automatic Sliding Door Solution

Dorma’s Automatic Door Solutions offer sliding, swinging, and revolving door systems to cover a vast range of applications and finishes and are well-known for displaying their attractive looks, superior functionality, and design versatility. For more product details, images, and available downloads see Automatic Sliding Door.

The ESA Automatic Sliding Door uses the most intelligent and advanced microprocessor control in the automatic door industry.  It’s digital design is self-learning and constantly monitors critical door functions and safety sensors. A motor, geared down to get a lower speed and a higher torque, drives a pulley at one end of a belt. The Automatic Sliding Door is clamped to the belt. To open the door, the motor turns the pulley, which in turn turns the belt, which in turn drags the door. To close the door, the reverse occurs.

The ESA  Automatic Sliding Door is available in a variety of frame stiles that include narrow stile, medium stile and fine frame. Additional options for the Automatic Sliding Door include non-breakout, fixed sidelite and full breakout. For upscale applications that require a high degree of transparency, the fine frame design is the perfect solution.

revolving door

A revolving door is a type of door that, as its name suggests, revolves in its frame. A revolving door, however, is set on a rotating shaft and has unlimited rotation.

   

A revolving door, from in front and above.

Around the shaft are several doors (called “wings” or “leaves) that are bolted to it and incapable of independent movement. The usual number of doors on a revolving door is three or four. Large revolving doors that accommodate strollers and luggage racks only have 2 wings.

The doors may be powered via the central shaft or if a small shaft is desirable, the perimeter may be driven instead. Powered revolving doors have safety sensors but fatal accidents have occurred.

Manual revolving doors have pushbars on them. When the pushbar of the door facing the user is pushed, the entire assembly rotates. The doors are transparent to allow users on either side of the door to see and anticipate each other to avoid being surprised by sudden operation. Manual doors typically have speed governors to prevent patrons from spinning the door too fast.

There are a pair of curved partial walls around the circumference of the revolving door with only openings sized to match an individual section of the revolving door. Thus, the revolving door prevents a direct path between the interior and exterior. In a sense, such a door is always closed, so wind and drafts cannot blow directly into the building. Revolving doors are favored because they can be used as a partial airlock to minimize a building’s heating and air conditioning losses. Some versions permit the individual doors of the assembly to be unlocked from the central shaft to permit free flowing traffic in both directions.

In right hand drive countries, revolving doors typically revolve counterclockwise, allowing people to enter and exit only on the right side of the door. In left hand drive countries, revolving doors should revolve clockwise but not always[2].

Revolving doors can also be used as security devices to restrict entry to a single person at a time if the spacing between the doors is small enough. This is in contrast to a normal door which allows a second person to easily “tailgate” an authorized person.

Sometimes a revolving door is designed for one-way traffic. An example is the now-common usage in airports to prevent a person from bypassing airport security checkpoints by entering the exit. Such doors are designed with a brake that is activated by a sensor should someone enter from the incorrect side. The door also revolves backwards to permit the person to exit, while also notifying security of the attempt.

[edit] History

H. Bockhacker of Berlin was granted German patent DE18349 on December 22, 1881 for “Thür ohne Luftzug” or “Door without draft of air”.

Theophilus Van Kannel, of Philadelphia, was granted US patent 387,571 on August 7, 1888 for a “Storm-Door Structure”. The patent drawings filed show a three-partition revolving door. The patent describes it as having “three radiating and equidistant wings . . . provided with weather-strips or equivalent means to insure a snug fit”. The door “possesses numerous advantages over a hinged-door structure . . .it is perfectly noiseless . . . effectually prevents the entrance of wind, snow, rain or dust . . .” “Moreover, the door cannot be blown open by the wind . . . there is no possibility of collision, and yet persons can pass both in and out at the same time.” The patent further lists, “the excluding of noises of the street” as another advantage of the revolving door. It goes on to describe how a partition can be hinged so as to open to allow the passage of long objects through the revolving door. The patent itself does not use the term “revolving door”.

“In 1889, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia (the original home of the revolving door) awarded the “John Scott Legacy Medal” to Van Kannel for his contribution to society.”[3]. “In 1899, the world’s first revolving door was installed at Rector’s, a restaurant on Times Square in Manhattan, located on Broadway between West 43rd and 44th Streets.”[4]

[edit] Metaphorical use

Metaphorically, a revolving door is an instance of the easy movement of individuals from one position or situation to another, and back again. For example, from government-related jobs to lobbying jobs and vice versa, resulting in a conflict of interest for those chosen to represent the public and/or special privileges and benefits to former government officials and personnel. A similar metaphor in the Japanese language is Amakudari, but it refers only to former government employees joining companies they were once supervising. This is also used when describing early release of criminals who often end up back in prison after a short time.

The Market Leader for Revolving Doors would be Dorma based in Germany with large operations in the United States.