Technical Centre
In the technical centre, we are not only at your side as an advisory service provider, but also as a development partner.
New technologies. New requirements. New standards.
The world of doors is constantly changing – and we are actively involved in shaping this change. The technicians and engineers in our development team rely on the latest technologies – always with the aim of further improving the quality of our door sealing and finger protection systems. More than 150 worldwide patents and utility models impressively demonstrate our innovative strength. To further strengthen this, we cooperate with renowned testing institutes. In addition, our engineers work in various standards committees of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN). In this way, we contribute to establishing new standards in the world of doors.
We have also been a reliable partner for our customers for over 60 years. With us, agreements apply - without ifs and buts. We are committed to quality: Good doors deserve the best seals, good customers deserve the best service.
The cooperation
At the technical centre, we are not only at your side as an advisory service provider, but also as a development partner: with "concurrent engineering", an innovative and effective form of teamwork, we work on your new product in parallel with you throughout the entire development process and also involve your suppliers if necessary. In this way, new products can be brought to market extremely quickly and without detours. High costs for faulty designs or repeat testing are a thing of the past.
Based on your concrete requirement profile, we start the development work for your product parallel to you. Once an initial product sample is available, we test it in the technical centre for the desired properties. In several development loops, we continue to optimise the product samples. At the end of each cycle, a further test is carried out in the technical centre. This allows us to see directly whether we are on the right track and, if not, to take immediate countermeasures.
Let us bring your new product to market quickly and cost-effectively.
The test benches
Sound insulation
In our sound insulation test stand, we can collect sound insulation
values for joints and building elements such as doors, gates and
windows. The laboratory meets the requirements of EN ISO 10140 and
consists of three rooms that together form an L-shape.
The
acoustic signals from the two outer rooms are sent to the centrally
located reception room. The rooms are separated from each other by a
modular partition wall system and a concrete wall. Both walls have a
test opening that can be quickly and flexibly adapted to the element to
be tested. This allows us to test components of any size.
The
sound test laboratory is supervised by the experts of ift Rosenheim, who
also supported us in its planning. The employees of the renowned
institute determine the sound insulation values of your test specimens
and carry out their final sound insulation test.
Smoke protection
Smoke protection doors can save lives. To do so, they must effectively
prevent threatening quantities of toxic smoke from entering a room or
spreading to other rooms. To find out whether your product optimally
meets these requirements and complies with the applicable standards DIN
18095 and EN 1634, we subject your single or double-leaf door to a smoke
protection test in our Athmer technical centre.
Using mechanical
clamping elements, we mount your product in our smoke protection test
stand. There it has to prove its functionality: The smoke tightness is
tested at ambient temperature and at an increased temperature of 200
degrees. Furthermore, we record whether the element deforms. The test
element meets the standard if its leakage rate is less than 20 m³/h for
single-leaf doors and 30 m³/h for double-leaf doors. In addition, smoke
control doors must also pass a continuous function test.
Air, wind and water
How tight does your product hold up when exposed to draughts, driving
rain or high wind loads? Does it meet all the requirements? And where
might there still be potential for optimisation? With the help of our
air, wind and water test stand, we can provide you with answers to these
questions. For the test, we clamp your building element - for example
exterior doors, gates, windows, roller shutters and façades - precisely
into the twelve square metre test facility. A flexible grid system makes
it possible to create a customised frame for your product.
We
then measure how the test specimen reacts to short blasts of air, a
constant air or negative pressure, as well as to continuous sprinkling
through several nozzles. Does it withstand the water? And does it deform
due to the air pressure of up to 700 Pascal? Thanks to a fog machine,
we are also able to perform a leakage test.
Our air, wind and
water test stand meets the requirements of the applicable standards of
DIN EN 1026 and DIN EN 1027, and is calibrated annually by an
independent laboratory.
Burglary
While the number of successful burglaries has fallen in recent years,
the number of failed burglary attempts has risen constantly. Currently,
around 45 % of attempted burglaries in Germany fail, which is not least
due to improved security measures. How effectively entrance doors,
windows and other building elements protect against burglary is
therefore becoming increasingly important as a quality feature and sales
argument.
How is your product doing in terms of burglary
protection? In our technical centre, we test how well your building
element withstands manual burglary attempts and how it reacts to dynamic
and static loads in accordance with the applicable standards EN 1628,
EN 1629 and EN 1630.
For this purpose, we clamp your doors,
windows, curtain walls, lattice elements or closures in our test stand.
First of all, during the static test, a compressive force of up to 15kN
is applied at specified load points, depending on the resistance class.
Then we check whether the element can withstand repeated blows from a 50
kg pendulum. Finally, we test the resistance to manual break-in
attempts. For this purpose, an employee - using the tools and time
specifications provided for this purpose - carries out the test. The
test specimen must meet the requirements of the desired resistance
class.
Continous function
Do your doors stand for quality and durability? Do you know whether your
products can withstand continuous stress and are free of damage and
fully functional afterwards? We give you certainty in the permanent
function test stand of the technical centre. This way, your customers
can also be sure that your products will do their job for many years and
are thus a long-term and safe investment.
Open, close, open,
close - we test how your single or double-leaf door performs in
continuous operation in accordance with the applicable standards EN 1191
and Din 4102-18. To do this, we install your product in the test device
and subject it to a permanent load. An engineer regularly records any
abnormalities in the protocol: Do the operating forces increase? Does
the material fatigue? Or does the closer fail? In order to successfully
pass the continuous function test, interior doors must complete 200,000
test cycles and exterior doors 20,000 test cycles without complaint.
After
the test, you will receive a detailed test report from us, on the basis
of which we can advise you, for example, on the selection of seals for
your products.
Other topics
Voluntary sound insulation comparison measurement of the PTB passed
On a voluntary basis, the Technikum has undergone the "Airborne Sound"
reference measurements of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
(PTB). The measurements are based on comprehensive reviews of the sound
insulation comparison measurements for test centres that are recognised
for issuing general building authority test certificates. For the
assessment of the measurements, the test centre result was compared with
a reference value as well as the critical limits.
The
evaluation of the PTB results showed that the requirements of the sound
insulation comparison measurements were met in full. The validity of the
verification is three years.
In order to offer customers the
highest level of testing reliability, the technical centre always
strives to meet the highest standards. This includes regular,
independent inspections of the test benches and the existing technical
equipment as well as their operators. In addition to a modern standard,
this also enables the reproducibility of measurements.
The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is one of the leading institutes in metrology and is the supreme authority in the Federal Republic of Germany for all aspects of metrology. The basis of the comparative measurements are the "Guidelines of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) for Sound Insulation Comparative Measurements" (version June 1999) and the standards valid for the respective measurement methods. The guidelines have been drawn up by the PTB in agreement with the Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt) and the Verband der Materialprüfämter e.V. (VMPA). (VMPA) word
German Innovation Award 2020 - Technical centre wins
Once again this year, the German Design Council honoured forward-looking
innovations with the German Innovation Award - and this year we are
among the winners.
The technical centre convinced the jury as a
consulting service provider in the field of product development for the
door, window and facade industry and won in the competition class
"Excellence in Business to Business" in the category "Machines &
Engineering".
The German Innovation Award honours cross-industry
products and solutions that distinguish themselves above all through
user-centricity and added value compared to previous solutions. Because
forward-looking innovations are not always immediately recognisable at
first glance. How the path to the digitalised future can be mastered is
shown by the approximately 700 competition entries in 40 categories. As
an independent and internationally active institution, the German Design
Council is committed to the competitiveness of companies.
