Samuel Heath’s Powermatic Free Swing controlled, concealed door closers have been used at new psychiatric care facilities at Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
The £48m Royal Edinburgh Building is part of a phased programme of redevelopment at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital campus being undertaken by NHS Lothian. The new facilities will provide accommodation for the adult acute mental health inpatient service, older people’s mental health assessment, Intensive Psychiatric Care Service and the new Robert Fergusson national brain injury unit.
Powermatic Free Swing door closers have been used on the main entrance doors to all 185 residential care rooms throughout the new building. Both standard and Free Swing versions of Powermatic are installed between the door and frame, making them invisible when the door is closed and unobtrusive when the door is open.
These factors not only make the door closers popular for use with continuous hinges in anti-ligature and anti-barricade systems, but also enable designers to create a more homely, less institutionalised ambience to the interior. The door closers are also less susceptible to damage through misuse, tampering or vandalism.
Powermatic Free Swing door closers are connected to a building’s 24-volt fire alarm system and provide the added functionality of enabling the door to be operated manually and left open as desired once the mechanism has been primed by opening the door to its maximum. The door closer becomes operational when the fire alarm is activated or when there is a power failure.
Responding to a request from NHS Lothian, the door closers were recommended and supplied by specialist architectural ironmongers, DorSuite of East Kilbride. Doors were routed to accept Powermatic Free Swing by CNC machines before delivery to site, where the door closers were installed at the bottom of the doors by contractors, Morrison Construction. Samuel Heath supplied specially adapted versions of the door closers to facilitate electrical connections via conductor hinges situated below the door closers.
Ross Robinson-Brown, Morrison Construction’s Contract Manager for the Royal Edinburgh Building, commented: “Pre-delivery routing of the doors made onsite installation of the Powermatic Free Swing simple and efficient. With much of the facilities now in use, the door closers are performing well and the client is delighted with the outcome.”
