Important of Proper Maintenance to Your Automatic Doors

For as long as I have been in the industry I have found the main problem with automatic doors to be a lack of maintenance.

Most customers and users tend to ignore these important customer access systems until they stop working. Then often enough the faulty component is changed and the door is started again and forgotten about.

My point?? We all realise that our cars must be serviced regularly to stop them breaking down, so why not other electro mechanical machines like doors? Perhaps it's the flashing red light on our dash each morning as we get in the car that forces us to keep it maintained. There's an Idea, How about we incorporate a big red flashing light on all automatic doors that starts flashing when a service is due?

As the Building owner or tenant, it's your responsibility under the machinery act to make sure your Automatic doors are up to standard. Trust me when I say, it will save you money and trouble in the long run. Most door companies will offer a comprehensive range of servicing options, often at a very cheap price. It's in everyone's best interest that the doors are ran as smooth as possible.

Regular maintenance will stop the following:

Expensive parts prematurely wearing

Accidents caused by faulty components

Repeat door failures - resulting in expensive "callout fees"

Surprise Expenditure- as future possible failures should be able to be forecast based on their current condition.

When you contact an Automatic door company, clarify with them the following points:

What would be the cost for a service?

How often should it be done? - Most entrances are twice per year but you may need quarterly inspections for high traffic doors.

Will it be on a specific date and time? (You won't want the doors incapacitated during the busiest trading period of the day)

What is included in the cost (labour, travel, consumable parts?)

What exactly will they be doing - Ask for a checklist of procedures. I have, I'm sorry to say witnessed an engineer wipe a cloth over the cover of an operator and call it a service.

Will they be conducting a BS7036:1996 Inspection at the same time? - This is a test procedure designed to check that all your doors "safety systems" such as sensors, door speeds etc are all adjusted and installed to the correct standard.