Even the most minimal of thresholds can form an insurmountable obstacle for people in wheelchairs or with wheeled walking frames. Rather than the height of the obstacle, the key factor to consider is its roll-over capacity. Solarlux’s accessible floor tracks have passed ift Rosenheim’s roll-over test with flying colours – giving planners who use them more confidence in their work, especially on projects in the challenging health & care sector.
More and more people are starting to require accessible environments for their day-to-day lives, to give them the independence to live with as little help as possible. This applies not only to people with disabilities or temporary injury or illness, but also to many senior citizens. In Germany planning law, these considerations are catered to by the DIN 18040 standard on design principles for the construction of accessible buildings.
Practical experience in the construction sector shows us that not every building component that is classed as “accessible” is actually equally easy for everyone to pass through or over. For users with wheeled aids such as wheelchairs, wheeled walking frames, prams and shopping aids, even thresholds that are just a few millimetres high can become huge hurdles. German testing institute ift Rosenheim has decided to tackle this problem by developing a process that objectively assesses threshold profiles and assigns them a classification on a scale of 1 to 6. On this scale, six is the best possible grade, while thresholds with a score of one represent unfavourable solutions for people who use wheeled aids. This process has been used to draw up Guideline BA-01/1, which allows people to compare the roll-over capacity of different products. The principle is simple: The more force required to get over an obstacle, the lower its roll-over capacity. The result is affected not only by the height of the threshold, but also by the shape of the component in question.
Ever since their beginnings, door element manufacturers Solarlux have gone to great effort to find the perfect balance when developing their building components: the threshold in the floor needs to be as flat as possible without compromising the essential features of a bi-folding door or sliding window, such as air permeability, impermeability to driving rain and anti-burglary protection. And as the results of seven thresholds tested by ift Rosenheim show, the specialists in moving window and facade solutions from Melle, north-west Germany, have been successful in this endeavour. Three floor tracks each from Solarlux’s Ecoline and Highline bi-folding doors, which are also used in the manufacturer’s Woodline, Combiline and Megaline models, were tested and certified for their roll-over capacities in accordance with Guideline BA-01/1, together with the floor tracks used in the cero I and II sliding windows. The test results covered all classes – thus ensuring that planners can find the right product for any installation situation.
Product roll-over capacity classifications are often included in the specifications for calls to tender. As such, they provide a great design solution for planners and architects – especially when working on building projects in the health & care sector. ift Rosenheim recommends Class 2 for wheelchair users and Class 3 for users of wheeled walking frames (ift Technical Information BA-02/1).
Another thing that’s worth bearing in mind is that “zero-threshold” – the term currently being used to communicate this innovation to users in this market – has no clear definition or standardised, official description. At Solarlux, floor tracks that are flush with the floor and allow for a seamless transition between the inside and the outdoors are fitted as standard with all our bi-folding doors and sliding windows.