Platform on new construction, renovation, restoration and transformation
The market is imposing increasingly stringent requirements on doors—for example, regarding airtightness, sound insulation, burglary resistance, and fire safety. In addition, we are increasingly dealing with non-standard door sizes, notes Ronald van Driel, Head of Sales at GEZE Benelux. “This creates a growing imbalance between safety and accessibility, which remains the essence for users.” To address this imbalance, GEZE’s door solutions are continuously being refined. “In doing so, we focus not only on safety, accessibility, and user comfort, but also on current standards such as the revised EN 16005 for automatic doors.”
GEZE is a German family-owned company with more than 160 years of experience in manufacturing solutions for door, window, and safety technology. In line with regulatory requirements, Van Driel notes that perceptions regarding safe escape routes are changing. “It’s wonderful to see that accessibility in buildings is becoming an increasingly important issue,” he says. “Furthermore, the definition of a safe escape route is becoming more precise—both in our standards and in building specifications—which calls for specific technical solutions.”
Van Driel emphasizes that accessibility and user comfort must not be overlooked in these technical solutions. “As a result of new requirements regarding airtightness, sound insulation, burglary protection, and fire safety, users” physical strength is increasingly being put to the test. For example, opening doors in escape routes can be a challenge for people with disabilities, the elderly, and children. We are committed to changing this. We are continuously developing our product portfolio with the goal of harmonizing safety, accessibility, and user comfort across various levels.” One example of this is the mechanical door closers, which are undergoing continuous further development. In this way, GEZE is raising accessibility and user comfort to ever-higher levels.
With the Powerturn automatic door operator, GEZE also offers a unique and advanced one-size-fits-all solution for swing doors weighing up to 600 kilograms that need to be easy to open but must also close safely after each opening. Simple, lightweight, and without compromise, the swing door operator can be used as a mechanical, servo-assisted, or fully automatic solution. “And with our automatic sliding doors, users or residents can move freely throughout a building,” says Van Driel. “This brings us fully in line with the revised EN 16005 standard.”
“The European EN 16005 standard is the only harmonized standard regarding the safety of automatic doors,” Van Driel emphasizes. “Among other things, the standard states that ‘if a large proportion of users are elderly people, people with disabilities, or children, any contact with an automatic door is unacceptable.’ In such cases, properly securing automatic doors—for example, with sensors for swing-radius protection—is of essential importance.”
