A couple of days ago, one of our specwriters asked about a closer on a door with rescue hardware, and another specwriter advised him to use a double-acting closer. I was surprised to learn that they weren’t aware of my FAVORITE LCN special template – ST-1895.

In order to explain this special template, I will first describe the use of rescue hardware. If you are already familiar with rescue hardware, skip the next two paragraphs.

Rescue hardware is used on inswinging bathroom doors in facilities where there’s a higher likelihood that someone might fall against the door inside the bathroom, preventing it from being opened to aid the person inside. These facilities include hospitals, nursing homes, and sometimes doctors’ offices. Under normal operation, the door opens into the bathroom, but if someone falls against the door and blocks it, rescue hardware allows the door to swing out of the bathroom.

Rescue hardware consists of double-acting pivots, a spring-loaded emergency stop that can be depressed to allow the door to swing out, and a double-lipped strike plate that extends all the way across the jamb depth of the frame. In some cases, the strike and emergency stop are combined into one product. A door with rescue hardware must be hung in a cased opening frame (a frame without a stop), and should have gasketing at the door edges to seal the gaps for privacy.  You can find more information about rescue hardware here.

Since the door is typically inswinging but must become outswinging on occasion, a standard closer won’t work unless you do something funky like mount the closer on the corridor side and disconnect the arm every time you want to open the door in the emergency mode.  Not a great idea but I’ve learned to never say “never.”  You could use a double-acting concealed closer, but the 4020T x ST-1895 offers another option.  The closer is mounted inside the bathroom, and the track has a small “window” cutout at the resting position of the roller.  Under normal operation, the roller rolls back and forth on the inside face of the track closest to the door face.  When the door needs to be opened out, the cutout allows the roller to disconnect from the track.  When the door is closed again, the roller re-engages automatically.

What a concept!!  What will those LCN engineers think of next?!

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