What are the materials most commonly used in automatic doors?

Most companies work to achieve a world that is more sustainable and more respectful of the environment. With the aim of leaving a better planet for future generations, corporations have adopted measures and developed strategies that are often also accepted by society as a whole.

Over the years, brands have adapted their manufacturing processes to these ways of working, and materials are becoming more and more sustainable.

The automatic doors sector uses metals such as iron, aluminium or steel, and other materials such as glass, plastic or wood, to produce their intelligent-access products. Manusa and Ferroflex factories work to make the most of these and other materials, and any waste left over is handled by authorised agents that prepare it to be reused, thus creating a complete recycling circuit.

Resistant automatic doors

For example, the profiles and covers of Manusa standard automatic sliding doors are made of aluminium, a very light, durable and resistant material that is frequently used in these types of products. Because of this, when used in exteriors, it can withstand adverse, inclement weather and will not dilate, contract or become deformed in extreme temperatures. They can be supplied in raw aluminium or, if preferred, anodised or lacquered aluminium.

Anodisation is a chemical treatment for metal that allows different finishes (e.g., silver, gold, bronze, black or simulated stainless steel) while maintaining its texture. Furthermore, the lacquered finish can be personalised with a wide range of RAL colours.

Regarding other door components, thanks to their robustness, Manusa glass leaves are resistant to shock and inclement weather.

The metal elements of their drive units are high-quality materials that offer high durability. These drive units have two types of finish. One is anodisation, which consists of a protective surface layer generated by an electrolytic process; and the other is lacquering, which is a plastic paint covering polymerised in a drying oven.

When manufacturing all Manusa automatic accesses only materials that meet the strictest quality controls are used to guarantee perfect operation.

The best automatic doors with transparent leaves

When we think of automatic doors, the first things that come to mind are shopping centres, supermarkets, hotels or airports. These are products that we are very familiar with in most cities.

Manusa manufactures and installs automatic doors, with the option of choosing the type of leaf. This will mainly depend on the client’s needs, whether they require maximum transparency such as the entrance to a shop, or a certain level of privacy, for example the entrance to a clinic.

The glass in the leaves can be opaque, translucent, vinyl coated or fitted with LEDs , making each automatic door unique. Whatever the need, Manusa adapts and customises all of its products in terms of size, finish and colour.

Depending on the size, characteristics of the place and the client’s needs, the door can have a single-slide opening leaf to the left or to the right; two bi-parting opening leaves; four telescopic opening leaves; or two telescopic single-slide leaves. These can be fixed or mobile leaves.

Speedy, robust automatic doors with transparent leaves

The weight of the transparent leaves guarantees their robustness as well as their safety; there is no danger of them dislodging due to the way in which the glass is fixed to the other elements in the automatic door. It is important to remember that the opening and closing speed of the leaves will depend on the drive unit installed in the door. All of Manusa’s operators are compatible with this type of leaf.

How are the leaves of an automatic door repaired?

Manusa’s Technical Support Service will help repair any malfunction that the automatic door leaf may experience, be it a knock, breakage, or fault. Carrying out any type manual repair is not recommended since this might permanently damage the door.

Manusa contactless accessories: technology, safety and hygiene to cope with COVID-19

Manusa, the leading company in automatic doors and intelligent accesses, continues with its commitment in light of the health situation caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus. It therefore advocates the implementation of technological accessories that require no physical contact in their use.

Manusa has several contactless solutions. On one hand, there are touchless sensors that allow for a door to be opened without touching any kind of button, switch or handle. On the other, there are motion sensors that detect the presence of a person and open the door automatically.

Safety is also important to Manusa, and the installation of a hybrid sensor will not only allow for the door to open but will also detect the presence of people or objects, keeping the door open whenever they are on the threshold, even if they remain immobile.

A side safety sensor can also be installed, which detects people or objects, and keeps the door in a safe position while they remain in the area of risk, even if they remain immobile. This is an innovative sensor for the protection of pedestrians in the door opening area, especially in the case of children, the elderly, the disabled, or people with reduced mobility.

For this type of device to operate optimally, regular maintenance inspections are essential so that automatic door and intelligent access technicians can detect and solve any eventualities. Manusa Service has an experienced team of professionals responsible for performing the appropriate maintenance inspections to keep all the parts of the automatic door in the best condition and avoid any faults due to their use.

Therefore Manusa Service provides its customers with maintenance contracts to extend the working life of the automatic doors and that offer extensive service times. Furthermore, all spare parts used by the company for maintenance are original and are permanently in stock.

Automatic doors for the hospitality sector: guaranteed security

The hospitality sector, which includes hotels, restaurants and cafés, is one of the largest employers in countries and regions where the tertiary sector prevails. In other places it coexists on an even par with industry and agriculture. For all these spaces, automatic doors and intelligent accesses provide guaranteed security.

There are hotels, guest houses, or gîtes in all cities, where temporary accommodation is provided for work or leisure time. Arriving guests piled up with luggage are grateful when the doors to the building open automatically using a touchless or motion sensor so that they do not have to push the door with their hands full.

The same occurs in restaurants and cafés, in addition to the distinction and style of the established with entrances that welcome incomers with elegant glazed doors that open in the presence of customers. Added value for any restaurant business.

A safe space for customers and employees

Security is one of the characteristics of installing automatic doors in any property. These intelligent accesses not only show who is entering and leaving the location, but also allow for capacity control inside the building.

This is extremely useful for establishments dealing in food and beverages. Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, hospitality businesses and accommodations have been hit hard, forcing them to close their doors for many months or even forever.

With the new normal, many restaurants, bars, cafés and hotels have reopened their doors with the intention of recovering the trust of their customers and of ensuring that their establishment is safe and free of infection. Automatic doors help with this because, among other aspects, they do not have to be touched in order to open or close.

How automatic doors help Facility Management

The Facility Manager is an increasingly popular figure in the different economic sectors. Large and medium-sized enterprises have a Facility Management or General Services in their organisational chart.

Their management role is based on ensuring everything operates to an optimum level in a property or a group of buildings, whether they are offices, a shopping mall, an airport, a hotel chain or a group of industrial units. Put more simply, this is the person or group of employees responsible for maintenance in a company.

Over recent years, this department has gained strength due to the automation of processes and services, as well as the digitisation of a large number of companies. Software is available to help the Facility Manager control all the management processes on a computer screen, tablet or smartphone.

Along these lines, the installation of automatic doors helps the Facility Management department in several aspects:

  • Access control: Automatic doors or intelligent accesses in a property or building provide a view of who is entering or leaving the premises, thanks to biometrics or employee ID cards. The maintenance manager would be unaware of this data with manual doors. Furthermore, it is possible to remotely ascertain whether an automatic door is operating properly or whether it is damaged.
  • Energy optimisation: one of the aspects of the sustainability and environmental care strategies involves not wasting energy. In winter, any door or window left open by mistake leads to a drop in temperature and, subsequently, an increased use of heating. In summer, the entry of warm air makes air conditioning relatively ineffective, thus leading to its increased use. In both cases, this leads to an increase in the electricity bill and a waste of energy.
  • Capacity control: The Manusa capacity control system provides a Facility Manager with real-time information on the volume of people in a building. This especially helps at times when social distancing is necessary to avoid viral infection.
  • Security: it is extremely important for any company to know that its buildings and their contents are secure. The incorporation of IoT technology provides rapid information on any type of security-related problem at any of our accesses.

Tamara Castrillo, architect: “Working with Manusa is synonymous with trust and peace of mind”

Habilita Estudio is an architecture firm in Oviedo (Asturias) with over 10 years’ experience in the area of spatial architecture and design.

Since its conception, it has participated in a wide range of projects, particularly specialising in turnkey renovation and conversion solutions.

Manusa has collaborated with Habilita Estudio on the development of automatic access for some of its projects, both in the hotel sector and in residential buildings.

Today, in Manusa’s blog, we are talking with Tamara Castrillo, the founding architect of Habilita Estudio, so that she can explain some of their architectural projects in more detail and how Manusa has been involved in them.

What are the aspects that you take into consideration when creating a new design? What is your creative process?

Understanding the client well and knowing the building very well.

Before any type of intervention, we carry out an exhaustive study of the building or home to understand its strong and weak points. We also listen to the client a lot, not only about what type of home they want but also anything that can help us understand their tastes and their needs.

Once we have enough information, we make the proposals that we believe will strike the chord between what the building can offer and what the client needs.

Our process always involves customising the building, because a healthy building that has been worked on well can offer much more than we imagine.

What are the values of your architecture have what does it seek to reflect?

Habilita Estudio’s architecture doesn’t only involve technical repairs or carrying out decoration work; we also always try to recover the spirit of the building, its beauty, its history, its identity and its utility but most important of all, we want the resulting space to be comfortable for the client, for it to be in harmony with their lifestyle and a place that makes them happy. This is our aim and our main commitment to our clients.

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What does working with Manusa products mean for your firm?

For us, working with Manusa is synonymous with trust and peace of mind.

Both the sales staff and the engineers have always found solutions for any technical or design challenge that we’ve given them. And we always have the peace of mind that the product will be perfectly installed and integrated.

What projects have you worked on with Manusa? What characteristics do they have? Where were they? What products did you incorporate?

I usually work with Manusa on projects that are mainly residential, incorporating automatic doors in the entrances to residential buildings. On other occasions we’ve also worked together in the hotel sector.

I did my first project with Manusa in Gijón in 2011. We incorporated automatic doors as an essential part of a project involving accessibility refurbishment in four building entrances on Avenida de la Costa.

The Manusa Asturias branch has been a pioneer in the integration of automatic doors in the residential sector. This was one of the first installations of automatic doors in a residential building in Asturias. User satisfaction in relation to the automatic doors spearheaded many other residential projects. Currently in Asturias, unlike other autonomous regions, it’s very common to find automatic doors in entrances.

We have integrated several products: bi-parting, single slide and telescopic opening doors, RFID cards,etc.

For example, in our latest installation with Manusa, due to the entrance’s technical conditions, we installed an access with a pedestrian telescopic door to give greater clear width, and a single side opening door in the lift, integrated into the door opening. The arrival of the lift at height zero activates the opening of the automatic door, without having to open the door twice.

To what extent do you believe that Manusa’s automatic doors and smart accesses make their projects more accessible? Do you believe that they make daily life easier for people, specifically, the disabled?

For Habilita Estudio, automatic doors are an essential element in refurbishing accessibility, as are ramps, lifts and handrails.

We always advise our clients to install automatic doors when refurbishing their entrances, since there is a big difference between opening a door with your hand and one that opens itself using a proximity sensor.

You don’t need to be in a wheelchair; anyone with a pram, crutches or carrying shopping bags can vouch for the convenience and independence that go hand in hand with an automatic door.

How do you see the future of architecture? Do you apply domotics to your projects or have you thought about applying it?

The Internet of Things is undoubtedly and increasingly tangible and real. Buildings, especially homes, are a hub of systems and technologies to which we want to be connected.

We are gradually becoming aware of the need for automation and domotics in our homes, since they are important in certain critical aspects of our daily lives, such as energy saving and safety.

How do automatic doors affect the design of architectural spaces? What value do you think they add both to design and technology?

One of the things I like most about automatic doors is the light they bring to indoor space and the much cleaner design lines.

Another big advantage in design is that you can achieve maximum clear width with an automatic door, which is really important in small spaces.

There are also many door solutions: single slide, bi-parting, telescopic, hermetic, lead-lined, evacuation, etc., which also permit interaction with other systems such as lifts or access controls. This means that it’s a really flexible product and that it can be adapted to a wide range of sectors and requirements.

Going forward, what effect could automatic doors have on businesses in terms of the public, especially in terms of hygiene and safety?

Right now, in any business or sector, having an automatic door is synonymous with safety.

I think that after all the lessons that the pandemic has taught us, the installation of an automatic door should be considered in any public or private access point that has a high level of transit (whether it’s a bar, restaurant, supermarket, shop, clinic or lobby) in order to reduce the risk of infection, since we know that one of the most effective methods of transmission of any virus is through touching surfaces. From now on, any form of automation will be important.

Why do Manusa products fit into your vision of architecture? Would you trust Manusa again?

There are several reasons why Manusa products fit into our architecture.

The technology integrated into the architecture must help and represent convenience for the users of buildings. In this sense, Manusa products clearly help, both in terms of accessibility as well as hygiene and convenience.

Customer satisfaction with the product installed, its operation and technical support are other reasons why we recommend Manusa products.

How does your architecture firm help to make a building happy?

By knowing it very well and solving its problems and shortfalls and converting it into the best ally of its inhabitants.

Although we’re don’t realise it, being in a space which feels safe and agreeable makes us calm and happy. Happy buildings. Happy people.

We know that you still hold the Spanish Christmas tradition of The Three Kings close to your heart. If you had them in front of you and they gave you one single wish for the whole of your life, what would you ask for?

Without a doubt, I’d ask for health for my family and friends. Everything else comes and goes but without health, we can’t do a lot.

What is a BIM Manager?

Before presenting this important figure in the construction sector, we need to define the meaning of the acronym BIM. It stands for Building Information Modelling and refers to the information modelling tools that help us generate and manage construction works in all types of buildings and infrastructure.

But, who is commissioned with this task? The answer is the BIM administrator. They are in charge of making decisions regarding this matter. They choose the applications to use and define how the company’s BIM work is developed to comply with BIM standards in the company, and file the entire contents to work optimally in the short, medium and long term. Without doubt, an essential person in architectural studios.

When do we need a BIM Manager?

We need to rely on this person whenever the number of projects is high. It is better if this person is one of the company’s employees, but there will be companies that decide to hire somebody from outside.

BIM is managed through computer software with applications that enable us to model buildings’ data, as well as know their entire life cycle. During the structuring process, many BIM administrators are integrating automatic doors and access controls designed and manufactured by Manusa. A large number of Manusa BIM models may be found in this online library, available to architectural studios and interior designers that may wish to implement them.

More and more architects integrate automation into their private and public building design projects, something that improves the flow of people and energy efficiency of the buildings and supports sustainable strategies.

Access Control Systems Security

One of the most important features of access control systems is security. These types of products are designed to check people entering and exiting a site, regardless of whether it is private or public.

Each access control made by Manusa uses the latest technology and features a versatile design that adapts, wherever it is installed, to any type of access.

One of the fears of most people when passing through automatic access points is that they will close on them for no reason. Manusa access controls have an anti-entrapment system that guarantees the safety of anyone passing through them.

Safeguarding the security of sensitive spaces such as official or corporate buildings, and ensuring there are no unknown intrusions is essential for governments and companies. Access control systems by means of biometrics, fingerprints, facial recognition or RfiD proximity cards (radio-frequency identification), among others, provide a surveillance guarantee for limited and restricted access areas, or for areas with strict access control requirements. These computerised elements allow identity tests to be performed by checking surveillance lists and risk-assessment databases, to provide instant and complete real feedback.

Together with these elements, automatic controls also enable access supervision using photocell barriers, so that people from outside the facilities or the building can be detected.

Types of Access Control Systems for Small and Medium-Sized Companies

Additionally, any small or medium-sized company can use access controls not just at the main entrances, but also to section an area that requires specific express authorisation, such as gyms and spas in hotels, industrial buildings or office complexes.

For small and medium-sized companies the recommended options are corridors with swing panels, corridors with hidden panels, turnstiles or motorised panels.

Remote Control in Automatic Doors

Automatic doors are an every-day feature that makes life easier for thousands of people worldwide. They are installed in a multitude of places such as shopping centres, shops, hotels, restaurants, industrial premises, airports, supermarkets or hospitals.

Although most automatic doors open and close without anyone controlling their operation, in many cases this product requires a remote control that allows the door to be operated remotely.

For decades, the most popular and standard remote control has been the one that opens and closes garage doors. It is a simple operation; by lightly pressing the remote-control button, the parking garage access door opens and closes without the need for people to get out of their vehicles.

But remote controls for garage doors are not the only type available. We can find various control systems for automatic doors that provide the ideal solution for efficiently managing entrances and exits of any type of building or enclosed area.

  • Óptima+ Programme Selector: This enables the door to be controlled remotely and feedback can be received thanks to the built-in IoT technology. It includes a screen and illuminated segments, making it visible from a distance and allowing for each status to be easily and intuitively identified; and a touch keypad that improves the user’s experience.
  • Manulink: It is a computer program that enables the user to view the state of the doors and access control devices locally or remotely. It is especially useful when there are various doors or access control devices distributed throughout a building.
  • Openlinx: It connects an automatic door to any inmotic system, building automation system or industrial communication bus, allowing the integrated and remote control of all modes, operating parameters and alarms within a system common to the rest of the building or infrastructure installations.

How is a Remote Control for Automatic Doors Programmed?

Programming the remote control is essential if we are to have an automatic door in our business or dwelling.

When programming, we can set the general control parameters, create various users, assign operation modes such as, for example, establishing if a door should operate automatically, whether it opens only as an exit or entrance, whether it remains always open or closed, or whether it operates only by remote control.

Spare and Replacement Parts for Automatic Doors

When we install an automatic door, it is important to trust the experts and professionals, since these are the people that really understand the steps necessary to complete the installation correctly.

We should have a certificate of guarantee that allows us to provide the product with great durability, and have the support of a technical service, should the door suffer over time any wear, deterioration or malfunction.

If our automatic door has this service, the technical team will be in charge of installing any replacement parts, spares and accessories required. It is recommended to have this guarantee since, without it, we would have to search for the replacement or spare parts for our door by contacting the brand or manufacturer.

Repairing Automatic Door Motors

One of the most requested tasks after frequent use of these types of products, is repairing the automatic door motors. It is a complex repair because the drive units are comprised of a number of important components that must be correctly installed, for the leaves to move and the doors to operate at their full potential.

To do this, it is advisable to change the damaged part for an identical replacement or of similar quality to the one being replaced. If we use a replacement part that is not the same, we may cause the door to break completely.

There types of bad practices are usually seen, for example, in garage automatic doors for a residential community. This usually occurs when the neighbourhood decides to fix the door without consulting a specialist. A neighbour or various neighbours take their own tools and carry out the repair. In a large number of cases, this home repair usually increases the cost of future technical visits, as it was performed unprofessionally and correct operation may only be temporary. It is essential to rely on automatic door experts.