A door can be evaluated on a number of important criteria:
- They must block passage
- They must open and close easily
- They should be robust against intrusion
- They should fit the visual aesthetics of the environment in which they are mounted
The basic door is the standard Single- and Double-Leaf Swinging Door. This door includes a frame, hinges, door , a lock, and sometimes other hardware including a door closer, door coordinator (closes one door, and then the other), and kick plates. Swinging doors are available in a wide variety of types of construction including :
- Hollow Metal Doors
- Solid Core Wood Doors
- Framed Glass Doors
- Unframed Glass Doors
- Total Doors
Hollow Metal Doors
- Hollow Metal Doors are the workhorse of security.
- The basic Hollow Metal Door includes an internal metal frame and metal skin.
- There are usually cutouts on the frame for hinges and for a lock.
- The three most common types of access controlled locks on Hollow Metal Doors are :
- mortise
- electrified panic hardware,
- magnetic locks.
- Hollow Metal Doors are fitted from the manufacturer for the type of lock they are to receive.
- Doors that receive mortise locks are pre-fitted with a mortise pocket, whereas a door that is to be fitted with electrified panic hardware may receive either concealed or surface-mounted vertical rods
Solid Core Wood Doors
- Solid Core Doors are primarily used in finished office spaces because of their superior appearance.
- They are manufactured using a wooden frame. Unlike hollow core Wood Doors, which use a honeycomb of cardboard as an insert into the frame,
- Solid Core doors use an engineered wood filler, fully filling the wood frame inside. The door is then provided with a basic wood veneer skin and then with a fine wood or plastic veneer.
- A router is used to create hinge insert locations and a mortise pocket if appropriate. The a hole is drilled for the door handle. Solid core doors are available with UL-listed fire ratings up to 90 minutes.
Framed Glass Doors
- Framed Glass Doors , also called “Storefront Doors,” are found on the front doors of merchant stores and small office buildings.
- Framed glass doors are manufactured using an aluminum frame with a tempered glass insert.
- Typically the glass is a single pane, completely filling the frame, but you will occasionally see frames that have upper and lower glass inserts, allowing for a space to mount a mortise lock or electrified panic hardware.
- Framed glass doors should not be considered security doors as it is possible to easily break the glass and enter the area with simple tools.
Unframed Glass Doors
- Class A Office Buildings often use Unframed Glass Doors as the centerpiece of their main lobby entry.
- Frameless Glass Doors are made by creating a thick glass plate, typically between ½” to ¾” thick, depending on the size, which is usually hung into a frameless glass frame (a series of glass panels to the sides and above the doors).
- It is not unusual to see a large beam above the doors supporting the top pivots.
References :
- Electronic Access control by Thomas Norman
see also