All facility managers who receive from the public or clients have common concerns. The main one: to welcome their audience in the best conditions. This quality is composed of different factors. The physical and human welcome is an important part of the atmosphere of a place, but this characteristic is only one facet of the experience transmitted by an establishment.
A good atmosphere is also achieved through aesthetics, cleanliness and general condition. And on this level, development solutions make it possible to anticipate and customize needs according to the constraints encountered, in order to limit the obsolescence of a building. Focus on design solutions that limit door wear.
Protect doors against all odds
The doors of a structure are an essential element of a building, they organize spaces and contribute to thermal and acoustic insulation. Whether they are used by the establishment’s staff or visitors, the doors have the particularity of being handled twice (opening and closing).
But against what and why protect them specifically?
When implemented in an establishment that receives the public, they are subject to different types of damage and their mobile nature makes them more vulnerable to shocks. For example, a door that is not fully closed or a swing door will be scratched and impacted by the passage of an emergency cart or any other bulky item, such as a devil loaded with packages, if its structure has not been protected or if it does not have an automatic opening system. When pushed in rather than opened with the handle, the surface of the doors is also quickly stained and marked by this inappropriate use. The side uprights of the frame are also often marked at hand height.
How to protect doors from fingerprints and dirty residues:
The entire door block is not exposed to the same risks of soiling. The mid-height and more precisely the area near the handle is more exposed to handprints that are not quite clean. It is also in this area that the concentration of bacteria is highest. The lower crossbar of the door is not spared from the tracks. Friction between the rubber sole of the shoes and the door structure is frequent and manifests itself in unsightly residual traces.
Given these exposures and especially when building traffic is high, it is complex to keep doors permanently clean if their surface is made of a material that is not easily cleaned and does not support detergent and abrasive cleaning agents such as raw wood, painted, oiled, varnished or laminated.
To preserve the doors, it is first important to choose them in a colour that is not too dirty depending on the activity carried out in the building. The door that separates an auto repair shop from its commercial space should be chosen in a dark tone to prevent sludge stains from being visible between two cleaning cycles. For long-term effectiveness, opting for partial but adapted protection with push plates and door plates at the bottom of the door covering facilitates maintenance.
Designed to resist chemicals and detergents, Acrovyn® is easy to clean and does not wear out during maintenance. When tinted in the mass, the protections are not likely to fade or deteriorate, such as varnish, plating or painting in the face of hot, high-pressure steam cleaning.
Available in all colours on the colour chart, Acrovyn® door protectors offer a wide range of decorative opportunities. They are cut to measure according to standard models (half-moon, wave, rainbow, silhouette…) or according to a personalised design (room numbers, compositions integrating two-tone cuts, sculpted decorations, printing of an HD visual…) studied in collaboration with the Acrovyn® design office.
Protect doors from shocks and impacts:
Unlike stains, wear and tear on the coating does not hide. Once the door leaf or its frame is dug by impacts with heavy objects, such as a mail delivery trolley or meal trays, renovation work must be undertaken, unlike tasks that often involve only new cleaning.
For this reason, the choice of coating is essential in door speciation. Not all coatings are equal in terms of wear, impact and scratches. To evaluate it, the Taber® test uses an abrasimeter to measure the resistance of a surface to abrasion. This test is used to establish the number of cycles supported by a finish. A wood veneered or laminated door will withstand 1000 cycles while an Acrovyn® veneered door will withstand 20,000 cycles, which represents for an ERP about 10 years of serenity.
Abrasion resistance : the Taber® test
Resists more than 1 000 cycles
Resists more than 1 000 cycles
Resists more than 15 000 cycles
Resists more than 20 000 cycles
Protect the door block according to the environment:
To preserve the doors and the frame, several protection options are available. The specification of the protections must be defined according to the type of doors but also according to the intensity and activity practiced within the establishment.
A hospital, for example, encounters heavy traffic of wheel elements (stretchers, wheelchairs…). The flow is constant, intense, and the risk of impact is high. Although the doors recommended for this type of establishment are solid doors with solid structures, it is advisable to protect the doors on both sides and whether the door is hinged or fixed in order to anticipate future renovation work. Acrovyn® door panels are bacteriostatic and make this finish a real asset for buildings where strict hygiene is required.
The door frames of a door are also highly exposed to the impact of trolleys (cleaning, catering, deliveries…) and transported moving parts. Hotel establishments and especially hotel rooms see customers and, above all, suitcases of varying sizes every day. They are part of the constraints to be anticipated, as they cause wear on the lower part of the door. When the frames are damaged, the entire door block is damaged. Alignment with the door may be affected and the mechanism less effective. Renovation operations are then inevitable and involve substantial work on the building.
To protect itself against these steps, CS has developed protections adapted to door frames. Cut to the exact dimensions of the frames, these 2 mm Acrovyn® profiles are thermoformed in U and L shapes to fit and reinforce the corners and profiles of the frame. Complementary, modular and tailor-made, the thermoformed U and L-shaped protections also adapt to the door’s protection needs. They can be used in a wet environment by encapsulating the door and protect the entire bottom of the door thanks to the combination of an L-shaped and a U-shaped profile.
If the door is in a high-traffic establishment but serves fewer passages, such as an office door, its protection may be lighter. Partial protection positioned at the lock and handle prevents key ring impacts on the paint or lacquer and will be sufficient to maintain the original appearance of the door for years to come. These covers can be adapted to all doors as soon as the area to be protected is flat.
Automatic doors, which are often glazed, require that the surrounding area be marked to avoid any collision. Ground signs and window displays at different heights must be affixed in accordance with the decree of 20 April 2017, relating to the law on equal rights and opportunities. To avoid any risk of accidents that signal strips cannot prevent, such as a collision between a rolling element and a glass door, circular stainless steel posts and bumpers can border the entrance and limit the number of accidents.
Protect users from door injuries
75% of accidents with sequelae are caused by pinching fingers in doors
Source : étude Havas
In schools and professional environments where the risk of pinching when doors and windows are opened and closed is high, the need for security is prescribed by the Ministry of National Education and Youth and Sports as well as by the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Security Department.
Designed to fit on all door systems up to 180°, the CS finger pinch protection kits can be used with all door systems.
