Power Door Opening

An option on our Companion Prestige model is a powered door facility. The Prestige wheelchair lift has a swing door at each landing and the power option adds a door opening and closing device that ensures the doors opens easily and close fully once the user has left the lift car.

Doors having power assistance is an important issue with a lift. Swing doors left partially open will prevent the lift car from moving from the landing in question, effectively disabling the lift. In some circumstances, expecting an unaccompanied wheelchair user to ensure that the lift door is properly closed is overly optimistic. This is where powered door closing is useful.

Powered door operation is however, a facility that has to be considered carefully. The ability of a wheelchair user to open and close swing doors is not equal to that of an able bodied person. This means that spring loaded door closers have to be carefully set so not to provide increased resistance to opening. But, must be powerful enough to close the door fully, even if there is resistance from say a draft. In practise this is almost impossible to do.

Our powered door operators are highly sophisticated devices. They are electronic and microprocessor controlled, have an anti-crush facility and can tell the precise position of the door at all times. Based around a linear motor, these devices will open and close swing doors. They can do either or both and can be set for different opening forces, speeds and angles. All these facilities are adjustable on site as is the operation mode which can be automatic or manual.

If set to open and close the door, a simple push on the door will activate the opener and the door will swing open. Closing is equally easy, a small tug on the door handle and the device does the rest. Obviously a great benefit to the wheelchair user.

Having microprocessor control enables the opener to sense any resistance and immediately reverse the travel of the door. When it attempts to open or close again it slows as it approaches the point of impact and only returns to full speed once it has verified the obstruction has gone.

Another benefit of our powered door controller is that it fails safe. If the power fails then the door is closed. This is critical for fire control. Obviously, if the door remains open then the fire resistance of the door and lift enclosure is negated. Closing the door on power failure is simple, the device includes a powerful spring that closes the door if the linear motor stops working against it, such as when the power fails.