I’m currently working on several projects that have glass doors in walls that are acting as 1-hour fire barriers with closely-spaced sprinkler heads above the glass. The problem with this application from a hardware standpoint is that the Blumcraft, CR Laurence, and Dorma Glas panic hardware that is typically used on glass doors does not have active trim (like a lever handle) to retract the latch from the secure side. To unlock these doors, you would typically use the dogging feature of the panic device to leave the doors in a push/pull condition, but because they require positive latching, dogging is not an option. I have searched the world over for a solution to this problem, but the only possibility I’ve found so far is using fail secure electric strikes to release the latches. Unfortunately, this application is extremely noisy, as illustrated by the video below. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear from you.
Apr 02 2009
Turn Up the Volume
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September 1st, 2009 9:10 am
hello Lori, i hear a click before the door latches (about 4 inches from door shut) since to me this installation appears to have floor closers, sounds to me like the arm mounted in bottom edge of door is loose in door or on closer’s spindle.
to fix this, there should be a screw on side of door (inside or edge of door at bottom, if closer selected has what is called end loading arm) to tighten arm to closer shaft. if that doesn’t fix it, then its possible that the arm itself is loose in bottom rail of door and to fix that you have to turn the screw until both screws (depends on brand of closer used, such as Rixson) are tight on both EXT and INT side of door (center arm in door basically)
hope my suggestion helps,
June 5th, 2010 6:55 pm
Hello Lori, The noise made as the door swings out is most likely caused by the latch bolt at the being incorrectly adjusted. It seems that it is being pushed into the panic tube and then snapping back up once it clears. Adjusting the latch bolt lower so it clears the keeper when the panic bar is depressed should eliminate the opening noise. I also think that the rubber bumper pads are missing from the ends of the stop screws.