There are a great many bifolding doors on the market and each of these are designed around the sliding and folding door hardware. It is the door hardware that enables bifolding doors to slide and fold. Today’s modern bifolding doors are all well designed products that not only offer long guarantees and great quality but also doors that are secure, weather resistant and long lasting.
In this article we feature on the hardware found in bifolding doors and look at how frameless glass doors differ.
Hardware found on a conventional bifolding door.
Study a conventional bifolding door of the best quality and there are three items of hardware that are visible. These are.
The top guides and bottom running gear. At the top of the bifolds you’ll see a guide that holds the tops of the doors in place. At the bottom of the doors are the rollers, guides and other components that enable the doors to slide and fold.
The intermediate door handles. These are the handles situated on the connecting leaves. The function of these handles is to either unlock the other leaves of the doors as well as giving you a handle to pull the doors closed into the frame.
The flush bolt locking Conventional bifolding doors feature the main multi point lock as well as the intermediate locking for the other doors. Typically you’ll see a swivel handle above or below the intermediate door handle.
The door hinges. Conventional bifolding doors have all the levels connected together by door hinges. It is these hinges in conjunction with the running gear that enables a conventional folding door to concertina back and fold to the one side.
Frameless bifolding door have all the features but none of the bulk.
Depending on the door systems you’re looking at some of the hardware mentioned above will either be intrusive or discreet. Our own AluK aluminium folding doors feature this commonly used hardware. However our own intermediate handles as one example are a unique T shaped pop out handle that serves a double function of locking the doors as well as pulling them to the frame to close.
However look at our frameless doors and you’ll notice how all the hardware is concealed. Other than the main lock and our glass handles there is no other visible hardware.
The result is much cleaner lines, a sleeker door and one that is arguably more pleasing to the eye. This concealed hardware is a result of our clever frameless design and the way each door is designed to lock into place without visible handles and flush bolts.
Our frameless glass doors we believe offer you greater scope in how you use your doors, greater functionality, more options for ventilation and greater choice. These features won’t be found even on the best quality and best designed conventional framed and hinged bifolding doors.
All our door hardware and gearing is cleverly concealed giving you a better appearance. Every door set still has a hinged master leaf or traffic door. For ventilation this means that you don’t have to open the rest of the doors to create air flow. You can simply open the master leaf and then slide the other panels along as you wish to give you partial or full ventilation.
When you want to open your frameless glass doors, simply open the master door, slide the other panels towards it and then swing them into place.
Other operational advantages to frameless glass doors.
We believe the unique slide and fold nature of our doors can also offer other benefits.
Our doors are fully bottom running. This means that all the weight is taken up by the aluminium threshold at the bottom of the doors. Adjustment is simpler and easier with our doors.
There are no weight bearing hinges. This means its unlikely individual panels can drop meaning less call-backs and service calls.
As our doors are made around the glass rather than being glazed after installation, this also means that there is no risk of a poorly glazed door failing after the initial installation.
In the unlikely event of service work in the future, our doors mean only the individual panel can be removed rather than the entire set of connected door leaves. This makes work easier, more convenient for you and easier to solve.
Want to find out more? Contact us today.
We welcome the opportunity to either demonstrate our doors in person or provide you with further information. Contact us today and let us show you the latest generation in frameless glass bifolding doors.
