Hands-free
Limit touchpoints with a hands-free solution; from anti-microbial products to hold-open door devices, or access control solutions, such as personalised keys
Reducing touchpoints with hands-free solutions
In public spaces, doors and door hardware are some of the most highly touched surfaces. At this time, many decision-makers are asking themselves what they can do to limit how often people need to touch doors with their hands, to help stop the spread of infection and germs.
Nevertheless, there’s no getting around the fact that doors act as an essential barrier to help keep us safe and secure while we live, work and play. Deciding on the right hands-free solution will come down to how a door is used, the number of times its opened over a period of time, the flow of traffic, and what’s required to maintain legal requirements.
For instance, the average door in a school corridor is opened 3,500 times a week. During a 40-week teaching period, this means the door is opened 140,000 times. When considering a hands-free solution for this environment, the high levels of traffic, and high risk of contamination from all those individuals touching the door and its hardware, will need to be factored in.
And of course, all decisions will need to be considered with the available budget firmly in mind.
So, how can we balance safety and security concerns with reducing touchpoints throughout a building? Here, we outline the five options available to you.
Keep products and surfaces clean
It may sound obvious, but nothing will beat a thorough and regular cleaning routine for a site’s doors and their hardware.
Surfaces should be cleaned with a mild, non-abrasive antibacterial detergent and water solution, using a soft cloth. Then, using water and a soft cloth only, surfaces should be wiped to remove any remaining detergent residue. The treated surface should appear visibly wet, then be allowed to air dry.
Bleach solutions in high concentrations should not be used for cleaning, as this can react with metal products and cause corrosion. High alkaline cleaners, which include sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, and ammonia, should also be avoided as these can damage metals and plastics.
It’s also recommended that cleaners typically used on bathroom fixtures should not be used, as these can remove the protective finish on products.
Do not use abrasive products to apply any cleaning solution, and do not spray the cleaning solution directly onto products.
Various factors, such as frequency of use, levels of traffic passing through and security requirements, will all impact when deciding what cleaning routine is right for a building. Nonetheless, there’s no question that a regular cleaning routine is critical.
Touching doors safely
‘Touch-safe’ or antimicrobial products have been available for many years, as a proven means of stopping the spread of bacteria and viruses. Products treated with an antimicrobial coating can help significantly minimise the risk of transmissions. While easy to install and affordable, it’s worth noting that these measures can lose their potency over time. Therefore, they’re not advised as permanent solutions.
Copper is one material that has both antibacterial and antiviral properties. As such, copper alloy-based handles provide an effective and more permanent solution but will cost more.
One compromise, then, is antiviral copper tape. Quick to fit, this wraps around a clean door handle, providing an easy and cost-effective – albeit temporary – solution.
Holding doors open
The next step up would be to look at hold-open door controls, which keep doors permanently open, except in the case of an emergency. These are great solutions for many environments, such as busy corridors.
Nevertheless, when fitting to a fire door, these door controls must be done legally using a CE certified hold-open device. Too often, buildings will use door wedges or other items to hold open doors, which can pose a real risk to those inside as they will not automatically close to maintain fire safety.
Trying to reduce touchpoints should never be an excuse not to conform with legal fire safety requirements.
So, what products are available to help sites legally keep doors open?
Hold-open door controls
Perfect for medium to high traffic corridors, hold-open door controls – such as our DC300G-HF door closer – can offer variable power (EN3-6), so you can choose the opening and closing forces needed to meet requirements.
Hold-open solutions
Special products – such as our G464 – can be used to hold open double rebated doors, where the closing sequence is critical in ensuring the doors close fully.
Hands-free access control
To eliminate any contact with a door whatsoever, there are a range of access control hardware devices that simply require the wave of a hand to open.
For instance, an automatic door operator that uses proximity sensors can be an ideal solution for an entrance door to a building. While more expensive, they can be an effective answer for main thoroughfares.
Door automatic openers
Ideally suited to high traffic entrance doors, these products – such as our DFA127 door automatic operator – can be supplied for both large single and double leaf entrances and can be fully integrated with access control and building management systems.
Personalised keys
The fifth and final option is personalised keys. Not only do these reduce potential touchpoints throughout a site, but personalised keys also simplify key management, while saving organisations valuable time and money too.
Solutions such ASSA CLIQ® Remote, which is an electromechanical locking system that assigns access rights to a key, allows users to have their own personalised keys for all doors, eliminating the need to share keys.
One site that has benefitted from the ASSA CLIQ® Remote system is Loughborough University. The solution has been used in a range of different applications, from teaching rooms, laboratories and offices to the university’s plant control rooms too. For balancing safety and security with reducing touchpoints, personalised keys offer a high-quality solution.
The audit capabilities of the system are really useful, ensuring we know exactly who accessed a plant control room and when. The system can be extended easily as well, which has been another key reason why we continue to use ASSA CLIQ® Remote to meet our access control needs across the university.
Phil Sheppard, Senior Clerk of Works at Loughborough University