SLIDING AND CANTILEVER GATES
Where a driveway slopes, floods or is too short to swing a gate into, a sliding gate is usually the answer. Tracked sliding gates run on a rail set into the ground. Cantilever gates carry their own weight on rollers to one side and need no track across the opening, which suits busy yards and uneven or frequently resurfaced ground. Both can be built to span wide commercial entrances: at Monks Cross Retail Park in York we fabricated and installed a bespoke six metre cantilever sliding vehicle gate, automated and hardwired to a CE compliant access control unit. Read the case study.
SWING GATES
Swing gates suit level openings with room behind the gate line. They can be driven by above-ground arm or ram operators, which are simpler to service, or by underground operators, which keep the hardware out of sight. The choice comes down to leaf weight and width, how many times a day the gate will cycle, and how much you want to see.
ACCESS CONTROL
The gate is only half the decision. How people get through it is the other half: keypads, proximity fobs and cards, intercoms and video entry, vehicle loop detectors, timers and remote handsets. For sites that need to manage large numbers of people we use the Paxton Net2 system, as described on our school fencing page. Tell us who needs access, when, and who has to be able to revoke it, and we will specify around that.
TURNSTILES AND PEDESTRIAN ACCESS
Where people and vehicles have to share a single opening, a separate and controlled pedestrian route keeps them apart. Depending on the site that can be a turnstile, a controlled pedestrian gate, or both, tied into the same access control system as the vehicle gate so one credential works at every entry point.
SAFETY DEVICES
Powered gates are legally classed as machinery, and the safety devices are not accessories. Photocells detect anything in the gate’s path, safety edges stop the gate when they make contact, and warning lights tell people the gate is about to move. Which combination a gate needs comes out of the risk assessment for that particular opening, not from a standard package.
SERVICING, REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE
An automated gate is the most heavily used piece of equipment on many sites, and the one most likely to be ignored until it stops. Hinges and rollers wear, safety devices drift out of alignment, and control settings get changed. We service, repair and maintain automated gates and their access control. Get in touch to talk about a maintenance visit.
