The problem: A hospital corridor door must open 500+ times a day, admit beds and trolleys without contact, and still not injure a disoriented patient walking into a moving leaf. How do you size and specify the operator so it survives that duty cycle?

Configurations

  • Single-slide — one leaf, parks to one side. Needs wall parking space equal to the clear opening width. Common for patient rooms and ICU entrances.
  • Bi-parting — two leaves open from centre. Halves the travel distance, so opening is faster for a given clear width; the standard choice for main corridors and operating suite entrances.
  • Telescopic — two or more leaves stack on one side, giving roughly 2/3 of the structural opening as clear width where wall parking space is short. Trade-off: more moving parts, more maintenance, higher cost.
  • Hermetic variants (sliding leaves that drop and press against the frame) are covered in Chapter 22.

Drive, controller and sensors

Modern operators use a brushless DC motor driving a toothed belt over a header-mounted track, with a microprocessor controller managing speed profiles, hold-open time, obstacle detection and battery-backup fail-safe or fail-secure behaviour on power loss.

Sensor architecture is defined by EN 16005 (current edition EN 16005:2023, consolidated as EN 16005:2023+A1:2024), the harmonised European standard for safety in use of power-operated pedestrian doorsets. It covers sliding, swing, revolving, balanced and folding doorsets used for normal access and on escape routes, and is the practical route to conformity with the Machinery Directive. In practice an EN 16005-compliant sliding door uses:

  • Activation sensors (microwave radar or active infrared) to detect approach;
  • Presence/safety sensors (active infrared curtains) monitoring the threshold and the closing path so the leaf never closes on a person standing in the opening;
  • Where users are predominantly elderly, infirm or children — which describes most hospital doors — EN 16005 treats any contact between doorset and user as unacceptable, so sensor coverage must be sized accordingly, not just presence at the closing edge.

Selection criteria

Criterion What to check
Clear opening width Beds need ≥ ~1.4 m clear; trolleys ~1.1–1.2 m. Decide bi-part vs single from wall space.
Leaf weight Operator duty rating must exceed actual leaf mass including glazing, lead lining or hardware — heavy leaves need heavy-duty drives, not standard ones run at the limit.
Traffic Corridor entrances in hospitals run to several hundred cycles/hour at peaks; specify continuous-duty (100% duty cycle) operators, not light commercial units.
Environment Hygienic finish, ability to wipe down the header, low air turbulence.
Escape route use Requires redundant safety functions and monitored battery backup per EN 16005 and local fire code.
Access control Card readers, elbow switches, touchless wave switches and interlock logic all interface at the controller — verify the operator accepts external "night/secure" modes.

Common mistakes

  • Specifying a standard commercial operator and hanging a 120 kg lead-lined or solid-core leaf on it — premature belt and gearbox failure.
  • Omitting threshold presence detection to save cost, then failing the EN 16005 risk assessment because the users are patients, not office workers.
  • Ignoring the wall parking zone: light switches, medical gas outlets and nurse-call buttons often sit exactly where the leaf must slide.
  • No battery backup on a door that is part of an escape route.

Recommendation

Specify the operator by verified leaf weight and peak cycles per hour, require an EN 16005 compliance declaration with the sensor layout drawing, and insist on a commissioning certificate (sensor field adjustment and safety function test) before handover. For procurement, request the operator's rated duty cycle and maximum leaf mass in writing — do not accept "suitable for hospital use" as a specification.

Sources

  • BS EN 16005:2023 — Power operated pedestrian doorsets. Safety in use. Requirements and test methods (en-standard.eu)
  • DS/EN 16005:2023+A1:2024 — scope and exclusions (ANSI Webstore)
  • BEA Sensors — EN 16005 application notes for sliding and swing doors (asia.beasensors.com)
  • GEZE — EN 16005 flyer: low-energy vs automatic mode, sensor requirements (geze.com)