Touchless Automatic Doors: Hands-Free Entry Explained

Touchless automatic doors let people enter and leave a building hands-free — the door opens on approach or with a wave, so nobody has to push, pull or touch a handle. Interest in touchless doors grew sharply with hygiene awareness, and they are now a standard expectation at clinics, food premises, offices and busy retail entrances across South Africa. This guide explains how touchless automatic doors work, the activation options, where they suit a building, how to retrofit existing doors, and what drives the cost.

What are touchless automatic doors?

A touchless automatic door is simply an automatic door set up so that no physical contact is needed to open it. A sensor detects an approaching person (or a deliberate hand wave) and signals the operator to open the door, which then closes on its own. The same platforms used for any automatic door — sliding and swing operators — become “touchless” through the activation method: motion sensors, wave switches or foot sensors instead of a push plate or handle.

How touchless doors work

Touchless doors rely on the operator, a controller and a contactless activation device. An overhead motion sensor (microwave or infrared) detects movement in an approach zone and triggers the door; a safety sensor then keeps it open while someone is in the doorway. For deliberate, on-demand opening — useful where you don’t want the door triggering on every passer-by — a wave-to-open sensor or a no-touch switch is used: the user simply holds a hand near it. Everything is tuned during commissioning so the door opens early enough to walk through without breaking stride.

Why touchless doors matter

The appeal of touchless automatic doors is threefold: hygiene, because nobody touches a shared handle; accessibility, because hands-free entry helps people carrying items, pushing trolleys or using wheelchairs; and flow, because a busy entrance keeps moving without a bottleneck at the door. Glazing on the door is still selected as appropriate safety glass for a public entrance, in line with South African glazing practice (see SAGGA).

Where touchless automatic doors are used

Touchless doors suit any entrance where hygiene or hands-free access matters: clinics, hospitals and pharmacies; food-preparation, kitchen and cleanroom areas; offices and reception areas; gyms, spas and change rooms; and retail and grocery entrances where hands are full of bags or trolleys. In each case the activation method is matched to the traffic — automatic motion opening for high-traffic public doors, wave-to-open for controlled internal doors.

Touchless sliding vs touchless swing doors

Most touchless entrances use one of two platforms. A touchless sliding door (the MC-125) slides open on approach and is ideal for main entrances, shopfronts and wide openings. A touchless swing door (the MCW-100 operator) automates an existing or new hinged door and suits internal doors, single-leaf entrances and access-controlled rooms. Both become touchless through the sensor or wave activation you choose. Compare them in our automatic sliding doors guide.

Contactless activation options

Touchless automatic doors can be triggered several ways, and often a combination: an overhead motion sensor for automatic opening; a wave-to-open (no-touch) sensor for deliberate, hygienic opening; a foot sensor where hands are always full; and integration with access control, so an authorised card or fob opens the door hands-free. The right mix is set for the doorway during design and commissioning.

Retrofitting existing doors to touchless

You don’t always need a new door to go touchless. An existing manual swing door can be automated with a swing-door operator and a wave or motion sensor, and an existing sliding door can be fitted with a sliding operator. Retrofitting is a common, cost-effective way to make a current entrance hands-free — see how automatic doors work for the components involved.

What touchless automatic doors cost

There is no single price. Cost depends on whether it is a new door or a retrofit, sliding or swing, the opening size and glass, the sensors and safety package, any access-control integration, and installation. The quickest route to an accurate figure is a site measure and a fixed-price quote.

Touchless doors from Coetz and MC Automations

Coetz™ and MC Automations Entrance Systems supply, install, commission and service touchless automatic doors across South Africa — sliding and swing, new or retrofit — with the sensors, safety systems and access control set up for your entrance, plus maintenance and genuine spare parts. One accountable team keeps the door working safely and hygienically.

Setting up sensor doors properly

Detection fields are aimed, not just switched on. A field angled across a passing walkway opens the door for people who never meant to come in; one set too narrow leaves someone standing at a closed door. Commissioning is where this is resolved: speeds, hold-open time, obstruction response and the detection pattern are all set to match how the entrance is really used.

Reflections off polished floors, moving plants, hanging signs, rain and strong sunlight can all affect detection. When a sensor door misbehaves now and then and no fault is found in the operator, look at the area around the sensor first.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: automatic sliding doors, the MC-125 sliding door, MCW-100 swing operator, and automatic door repairs & service.

Accessibility: see wheelchair accessible doors — how automatic doors give a wide, hands-free, barrier-free entrance.

Secure entry: see automatic door access control — integrating automatic doors with card, keypad, biometric or intercom entry.

What we check before quoting Touchless automatic doors

The structural opening decides most of the specification, so we measure that rather than any existing frame. We then check whether the head is level and can carry an operator, what sits above the opening — a bulkhead, sprinkler line or services void all dictate where the header can physically go — and whether there is power at the head. Getting those three right before anything is ordered is what keeps Touchless automatic doors on programme.

Backup power and access control

Battery backup, fail-open or fail-secure behaviour and the manual release are decisions about the building, not the operator, so they belong in the specification for Touchless automatic doors from the start. The same is true of access control — readers, buttons, intercoms and time clocks all interrupt or enable the operator, and retro-fitting them is mostly cable and ceiling work.

Matching the system to the traffic

Count the people, not the doors: one cycle is one open-and-close, so a doorway used by hundreds of people a day is doing far more work than the same doorway in a quiet office. That count, the opening width and the glass weight decide which system suits Touchless automatic doors.

• Single sliding for shops, receptions and clinics.
• Bi-parting for malls, supermarkets and hospital corridors — openings up to 5000 mm.
• Telescopic where the wall beside the opening is short.
• Swing operators to automate an existing hinged door.

Is installation available nationwide?

Yes — installation and service cover the country, with a technician on site within 24 hours in Gauteng and within 48 hours elsewhere.

What lifespan should I expect?

Cycles matter more than years. The MC-125 is tested to one million operating cycles; how long that lasts depends on the traffic the doorway carries and whether it is serviced on interval.

Comfort, access and energy

A door that opens only when it is needed keeps conditioned air inside and dust and noise out, which is the practical argument for automation beyond convenience. Set the hold-open time for the slowest user rather than the fastest, add presence detection so nobody is caught in the opening, and the entrance works for everybody who uses the building.

Sizing against real use

Before anything is ordered we work out roughly how many cycles the doorway will see in a day. That figure drives the operator choice, the sensor layout and the service interval. It is also the honest way to compare quotations: two prices for the same opening mean very little if one was specified for light use and the other for constant public traffic.

What to send us for a quote

A useful quotation needs very little: the structural opening width and height, a photograph of the doorway taken square-on, a note of what is above the opening, and a rough idea of daily traffic. Tell us whether access control or a battery backup is wanted and the quote comes back complete rather than caveated.

• Structural opening width and height in millimetres.
• A square-on photograph of the doorway and what sits above it.
• Rough daily traffic, including deliveries.
• Whether access control, intercom or battery backup is wanted.
• Any deadline the entrance has to meet.

Can we choose a different glass?

Yes. The standard is 6.38 mm laminated safety glass, and tinted, obscured or performance glass can be specified, and is quoted separately, where the frontage needs it.

Can the door be set to stay open at busy times?

Yes. Hold-open time is adjustable, and many sites run a longer setting during deliveries or peak trading and a shorter one the rest of the day.

Touchless automatic doors in short

If you are pricing touchless automatic doors, send the structural opening sizes and a photograph and we will specify the system, the sensors and the glass against the traffic the doorway really carries. Touchless automatic doors are supplied, installed and serviced by one team, with spares held locally.

Ask us about touchless automatic doors and we will confirm the opening, the power supply and the traffic flow before quoting a fixed price.

Touchless automatic doors at a glance

• Pricing for touchless automatic doors follows the opening width, the glass and the sensor layout.
• Ask us to confirm the opening before ordering touchless automatic doors.

Sliding, swing and revolving compared: automatic entrance systems.