Code Compliance and Functionality of Low-Energy Automatic Doors at Universities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Facility managers at universities should be concerned about the safety of those using low-energy automatic doors in campus buildings, particularly disabled people. People in wheelchairs have increased risk of injury from automatic door malfunction due to their limited mobility. Beyond basic functionality – opening and closing automatically – these doors must also adhere to certain government standards which are measurable. Facility management departments that operate under staffing constraints might not have enough resources to regularly verify that their doors are functioning within the government standard – especially at universities with numerous doors. In such cases, facility managers often rely on reactive feedback (i.e., feedback from users) to know when a door needs attention. Generally, such reactive feedback provides information on whether the doors are functioning, not on whether they are meeting government standards. This study 1) determined whether low-energy automatic doors at universities in the Intermountain West were properly working and were code compliant; 2) developed a simple methodology for measuring code compliance of low-energy automatic doors (opening/closing times and forces) and determining the time needed for facility managers to perform the tests. The study showed that it does not require much effort to measure the “functionality”, meaning the doors open and close properly and are code compliant. This can reduce or eliminate the need for facility managers to rely on inconsistent reactive feedback. The researchers tested 800 doors at seven large universities in the Intermountain West and found that 37 percent of the doors tested were non-functional and/or non-code-compliant. About two minutes were required to test each door. This large number of non-functioning doors should motivate facility managers to proactively test low-energy automatic doors and develop preventive maintenance plans for them.