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That old hospital elevator in St. Louis made me rethink door timing
I was doing a modernization survey at Barnes-Jewish last Tuesday and noticed their ancient Otis had this super slow door close that let nurses and gurneys just walk right in without any re-opening jams, why don't we set more of our jobs up with that kind of delay instead of racing to close every time?
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andrew6461mo ago
Bet the lawyers would have a field day with that. Slow doors mean someone can argue the hospital isn't doing enough to prevent a fall or a pinch. I've seen specs that require a door to be fully closed within a set time for fire code reasons too. Plus, in a high-traffic place like that, slow doors mess with the call button system and people start prying them open anyway, which wrecks the tracks faster. An extra few seconds per stop adds up big when you've got a whole floor of patients waiting for a ride.
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chen.james1mo ago
@andrew646 actually those old Otis units predate modern fire code, which is why they get away with it. Most AHJs won't grandfather that slow timing into a new install anymore. They'd fail any door timing over 7 seconds for fire smoke containment.
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