Office automatic doors have to do two jobs at once: present well to every visitor who walks in, and move a steady stream of staff through without anyone touching a handle. This entrance for Group One in Sandton had to do both, all day.
Client: Group One | Location: Sandton, Johannesburg | Sector: Commercial / corporate office | Scope: Automatic sliding entrance
The solution
We supplied and installed an automatic sliding glass door paired with a slim-sightline aluminium shopfront, glazed for a clean, all-glass corporate look. The automatic operator gives touch-free entry, holds the door open only as long as needed, and closes gently to keep conditioned air inside.
What office automatic doors have to get right
A reception entrance is the first thing a visitor experiences of a business, so the hardware has to disappear into the architecture rather than announce itself. That is why office automatic doors are usually specified with slim sightlines and as much glass as the structure allows.
The second requirement is less visible but matters more day to day: cycle count. A corporate entrance opens and closes constantly, and an operator specified for light domestic duty will not survive it.
Keeping the conditioned air inside
An automatic door that stands open longer than it needs to is an air-conditioning bill. Hold-open time is adjustable, so the door stays open for the person walking through and closes gently behind them – which is a meaningful saving across a working day in a Johannesburg summer.
Safety, sensors and compliance
Any automatic entrance runs unattended, so the safety devices matter as much as the operator itself. Presence and motion sensors hold the door open while somebody is still in the opening, safety beams guard the closing edge, and hold-open time and closing speed are set on commissioning to suit the traffic. Glazing in and around a door is a recognised human-impact position, so the glass specification should be confirmed against the applicable South African standards – see the South African Bureau of Standards, or our glazing compliance centre for a plain-English summary.
Keeping office automatic doors running
An entrance that opens hundreds of times a day is a mechanical system and needs to be treated like one. Sensors drift out of alignment, floor tracks collect grit, and operators need periodic adjustment. We install these systems and can keep them serviced afterwards, which is what keeps a busy entrance reliable rather than becoming the thing everyone complains about.
Why it works
- Hands-free access for a busy corporate reception
- Frameless, glass-forward aesthetic that suits a premium office
- Reliable, high-cycle operator built for daily commercial traffic
- Safety sensors that prevent the door closing on anyone in the opening
Planning an office entrance?
If you are specifying office automatic doors for a reception, head office or fit-out, we can survey the opening and advise on the right operator and shopfront. See our automatic sliding doors page or browse other completed projects.
How a office automatic doors installation actually runs
Every entrance starts with a site survey rather than a catalogue number. We measure the structural opening, check what the floor and lintel will carry, look at how people actually approach the doorway, and confirm the power supply position. Only then does the operator get specified, because the same opening can need a different unit depending on traffic, exposure and how wide the clear opening has to be.
The frame and glazing are then manufactured to the confirmed sizes, delivered, and installed. Commissioning is the step that gets skipped most often elsewhere and matters most: opening speed, closing speed, hold-open time and sensor coverage are all set on site, with the door running, against the real approach path rather than a default profile. It is the step that separates office automatic doors that feel effortless from ones everybody in the building complains about.
What we need to know to quote
Most of the quoting delay on office automatic doors comes from missing information rather than complexity. If you can give us these up front, we can usually come back quickly:
- The structural opening width and height, measured rather than estimated
- Roughly how many people pass through on a busy day
- Whether the opening is internal, or exposed to weather and wind
- Any landlord, centre-management or fit-out specification that applies
- Whether an existing frame is being replaced or it is a new opening
If you are not sure on any of it, a site visit sorts it out faster than a drawing exchange – and it avoids the most expensive mistake in this trade, which is an operator specified for the wrong duty and replaced a year later. Specified properly at the start, office automatic doors should run for years with nothing more than servicing.