This article will explore the use of powered door operators to make equipment or “garage” entrances to work places and outbuildings accessible to people with disabilities. There is no reason a person who can enter and exit their home with ease should be shut out of the workshop. With powered door openers, equipment operators with mobility impairments benefit in several ways. First, with a remote control push button they do not need to climb off of the payloader or out of the truck to open the shed doors, and second they do not have to push heavy doors while trying to walk. Powered door openers also help workers with arm impairments because they do not need to reach overhead and pull on a chain to raise/lower doors or push a heavy sliding door. As with any equipment, maintenance is critical to keep rollers sliding freely on door tracks as shown on this video.
Two typical equipment door styles for outbuildings are sliding doors on barn-door track rollers and
Sliding doors are very popular on outbuildings because they are lower cost for wide and tall door openings needed for heavy machinery. They are pushed open by hand while walking. Workers with mobility impairments often have difficulty sliding the doors open while trying to walk, especially when wind is blowing and causing the door to sway side-to-side. If the rollers and
Propel Doors has recently designed a powered sliding door opener that can open and close existing sliding doors with the push of a button. By using the existing doors, the cost of upgrading to a powered opening door is often less than ½ the price of converting to an overhead door. An electric motor and chain system is mounted inside the building at the top of the door. The chain pulls the doors open and shut while a special track mounted on the floor of the building prevents the wind from blowing the door sideways.
While the focus of this blog is workshop door openers, there are really 3 strategies to helping people with limited mobility to enter the workplace independently: 1) Build new facilities with universal design; 2) Install ramps or lifts on existing entrances having steps; and 3) Install powered door operators on facility doors. Powered door operators are frequently used in
Man doors, or “walk-through” doors can be outfitted with power openers from Open Sesame or even by using a dairy parlor door opener designed for sliding heavy-duty doors up to 44” wide. With the technology described to open sliding doors, overhead doors and man doors, there is no reason a person who can enter and exit their home with ease should be shut out of the shed or workshop!