Boon Edam highlights advances in entrance technology and its range of purpose-designed products, which have been used in top hotels throughout the world.

Our awareness of the fact that sources of energy are not unlimited is having a great impact in today's architecture. While designing a building, a lot of attention is given to reducing energy consumption as much as possible.

For instance, in roofs and curtian walls, two of the fixed elements of a building many new materials have been introduced in order to eliminate the influence of weather conditions.

One of the most energy-influencing elements of a building, the entrance, still requires a lot of attention. The more people use the entrance, the more energy is consumed and therefore this element requires more and more attention.

In 1888, the solution to this problem was found with the invention of the revolving door. Even today, the revolving door is the only door type that provides a draught-free entrance. It is often simulated by placing two sliding door systems directly behind each other, but in practice this by far does not provide the same effect of a revolving door. From the invention of the "storm-lock door" door in 1888, the revolving door has undergone drastic improvements while holding on to the basic design: always open, always closed.

Today the revolving door is no longer a product that is installed; it is part of entrance technology. Although the revolving door still is by far the best solution to eliminate draught, other aspects need to be considered as well. As a result of modern technology the size of revolving doors has increased enormously so that today the largest revolving door produced measures an astonishing 7.4 m in diameter.

The size obviously plays a very important role in the capacity of the revolving door but also defines the safety features on the doors. These must be in accordance with local and international regulations. As a consequence of the above, the number of international operating revolving door suppliers is limited and only a few have indeed specialised.

Boon Edam, with headquarters in the Netherlands, is a leading company in the field of revolving doors, specialising in entrance technology. Today, the company produces some 300 models of revolving doors in factories all over the world, starting from 1 m up to 7.4 m in diameter.

In order to follow trends in the building industry, Boon Edam recently introduced a nearly full-glass revolving door that was constructed to blend into the frameless spider glass facade.

Another reason why so many clients turn to Boon Edam is its speciality in refurbishment. Its high-capacity doors Boonoster and Twintour are outstanding door types for buildings with a small entrance width. The shape of these doors is more oval and therefore can be installed in a smaller overall opening and yet provide a comfortable entrance. The solution where a structural column of the building eliminates the need for the installation of a larger revolving door is simply achieved by using the column as the core of the revolving door and building the revolving door around the column. This again provides the client with the right size of revolving door that offers a smooth passage.

No entrance is the same: capacity requirements vary from day to day, weather influences change and the most suitable door to an entrance changes accordingly. As a solution, Boon Edam has developed a dual-function revolving door with an integrated sliding door system. If the weather is good, the door switches simply into sliding-door mode. However, if the weather is less favourable, the door is switched easily into revolving-door mode. Both offer the best of two worlds in entrance technology in one unit. It is not surprising that this door type is found all over the world in places such as hotels, airports and shopping centres.