Industrial gates come with their own sets of challenges and unique needs. Large commercial premises tend to have very wide entrances to allow for articulated lorries to pass through and often need to be opened very frequently throughout the day and night. Gates on this kind of premises tends to be constructed from palisade which is a robust, cost effective and heavy gate building material, suitable for very large openings.
1. Robustness
Whether you have swing gates or sliding gates on your commercial premises, the most important thing is choosing a motor that is robust enough to cope with the high levels of demand placed on it. Not only will the gates usually be excessively larger than a standard driveway gate, they will need to be cycled far more intensively each day. It is advisable to have your gate motor and hardware serviced at least twice a year to keep it running smoothly and without issues; which could leave your site unsecure.
When choosing operators for your gates, you need to find the ones rated for intensive commercial use. As with any gate, the size and weight of the gate has to fall within the manufacturers operating limits. Failure to comply with the limits will result in breakdowns or complete failure of the operator.
Gate Auto make it easy to find an industrial electric gate operator. Simply use the filters to select ‘commercial’ and then filter to the width and weight of your gate. If your gate falls outside of the parameters on our website, contact us and we can source the right industrial gate kit for your premises.
2. Entrance rights
You will have a couple of different types of people wanting access to your site. Visitors and staff members. There are numerous ways to restrict access to your site along with making access for staff simple.
Depending on the size of the business, you may have very large numbers of employees entering at any one time, or perhaps they come in more frequently on staggered shifts. Whatever the shift patterns, you will need to make provisions for simple and quick access for all your workers.
There are various methods to allow easy access, one of the fastest being a proxy reader – a tag can be held near the proxy reader, which will automatically open the gates for your staff. These can be given to new staff members and then handed back if they leave the company.
GSM modules are a more cost effective and more secure way to make it easy to give and revoke access rights. An additional keypad near the gates will compensate for those who have forgotten their mobile phones!
If there are periods of time during the day where traffic is particularly high, you may wish to install a timer clock which could latch the gates open at those times to allow people to come in without obstruction. The timer would then automatically close after this time.
3. Security
The obvious reason that you would install industrial electric gates is for security. They protect very valuable businesses from possible threats such as theft and trespass.
Whilst the gates themselves act as a visible deterrent, they also need to stand up against forced attempts to gain access.
It is more than likely that the electric gate operators you will have on industrial swing gates will be hydraulic. These high performance motors are usually self locking, but you will need additional locks to prevent the gates being forced open. Magnetic locks, wired through your gates control panel, can resist forces up to 1000kgs. These locks can also be purposed on sliding industrial gates.
4. Safety
Regardless of the type of gate, the same rule applies – safety first!
Industrial electric gates are bigger, heavier and tend to move faster than a regular gate. You must follow the same regulations but increase the provision of safety to take in account the increased operations, size, weight and speed.
Safety edges need to be the large profile and must be applied in every location advised by your risk assessment. They will require force testing twice a year as part of an ongoing servicing plan to ensure everything is running correctly and safely.
To discuss any aspects of installing an industrial electric gate kit, just give us a call on 01282 677300.
