There are many reasons to install automatic revolving doors compared to other automation products such as automatic sliding doors. First and foremost, revolving doors provide a prestige solution for building entrances and may be the solution of choice for architects designing upscale buildings. Second, doors affect pedestrian traffic patterns. Finally, the revolving door forms a wind deflector (airlock) between the building's interior and exterior environment. Minimizing airflow in and out of a building plays an important role in reducing air conditioning costs.
The benefits of using automatic doors outweigh the potential dangers. All automatic revolving doors are equipped with optical safety edges in rubber profiles that prevent pinching between the door wings and the door frame. However, there have been some incidents around the world where the safety edge was functioning correctly, but people were injured due to improper use of doors, while many people were walking through them.
In one case, a store customer was entering a turnstile from the interior of the store to the building's exit. Judging from the video surveillance provided, just as the door wings were approaching the fixed curved frame, an elderly customer decided to try to enter the revolving door from the outside of the store. While leaving the store, the customer is completely immersed in the conversation with her friends in the same segmented compartment that shares this four-wing system. Neither lady noticed that they were so close to the door wing in front of them. When they left the store, they appeared to be less than 10cm from the facade. When the old man entered the area protected by the squeeze guard sensor (safety edge), the sensor worked flawlessly, stopping the rotation of the doorway, preventing him from being trapped between the fixed curved frame and the approaching door wing. One of the two women continued forward into the winged panel in front of her, breaking her nose.
To avoid any accidents, the following is recommended to all customers of the ATLAS automatic revolving door range.
1. Daily safety inspection should be carried out by the building management personnel of the building where the revolving door is installed. We also recommend an annual general product inspection to check that all safety features are in good working order.
2. Pedestrians entering the building should be aware of the potential hazards of passing through automatic turnstiles while using cell phones or talking to friends. This lack of awareness is the reason for multiple revolving door accidents around the world. There is already legislation in place to ban the use of mobile phones while driving, which is known to be a serious distraction.
In conclusion, a single user of a functioning automatic turnstile is not subject to any restrictions until a second or third user may have some type of turnstile conflict. When that happens, everything will happen, and it will happen, from a slowing of the doorway spinning to a complete stop. The first user of the doorway is now affected by the behavior and potential inappropriate use of the revolving doorway by each successive successive user of these shared doorways
