Elevator door types

Elevator doors have two major types, manual and automatic. Manual doors are normally opened and closed manually by hand, and automatic doors are the standard type of doors found in modern days elevators, usually powered by a door operator.

Non-automatic/manual doors

These doors are normally opened or closed manually using hands, although some of them close automatically. Most older and small European elevators from the 1950's to 1970's are using manual hinged door (similar to normal room doors), while the inside has a manual sliding scissor gate or often there is no door at all. For manual doors, sometimes the door can be spring loaded so the gate can't be left open, or the gate can automatically close when you press the button, and partly/completely close when the elevator gets to a floor. The inside door can also be a tubular gate, which is a gate that in many cases folds around the side of the cab when it is open (often called a barred gate by elevator enthusiasts, though this is likely not the actual term), and which can be automatic (which was firstly invented by Haughton, US Patent no.: 1707648) or manual.

These type of door is still used today, normally for smaller wheelchair lifts or home elevators. Some older freight elevators may have a horizontal or vertical manual doors. In some Asian countries, one may find an old freight elevators with manual accordion or scissor gate. Some old elevators may have a semi-manual doors a configuration of manual door outside and an automatic door inside.

Manual outside door of a 1960s Mitsubishi elevator in Hong Kong. (Credit to YouTube user Vincent Chong)

Schindler manual doors with scissor gate elevator in Hong Kong.

An old gated Toshiba freight elevator with accordion folding gate in Hong Kong.

An old gated Bennie freight elevator with scissor gates.

Manual elevator door without window.

Vintage Otis swing door outside view

Vintage Otis swing door inside view

Vintage heavy duty fireproof swing door

Vintage Otis scissor gate

Vintage Otis scissor gate

Vintage Otis scissor gate

Vintage Otis scissor gate

Vintage Otis tubular gate

1920s Otis inner elevator gate.

1970s Otis accordion folding gate (Credit to Flickr user mrmattandmrchay)

Automatic doors

Automatic doors are the standard type of doors found in modern days elevators which was introduced in 1887 (US Patent no. 371207). Almost all the automatic doors are usually powered by a door operator installed on the elevator car. Those except manual door with automatic door opening/closing device and all the incline elevators with every independent door operator belongs with every single shaft doors and car doors.

A Schindler QKS9 mechanical door operator in Hong Kong. This door operator being lesser installations since mid-2000s, even the further variant QKS9-VF.

A Kone AMD-1 linear door operator (supplied by Wittur Group AMD-2 door operator) installed in the Kone MonoSpace elevator at Hong Kong MTR Causeway Bay Station (served between Ground Floor to East Concourse). This door operator is produced since 2000.

Wittur Hydra Plus linear door operator installed in the Otis Gen2 elevator at Hong Kong MTR Diamond Hill Station (served between Concourse to Kwun Tong Line Platform).

Early 1990s Otis 9550 T mechanical door operator.

Fermator shaft door component used on a Schindler 3300 AP elevator. The clutch in the next picture will touch the pick-up roller to unlock the shaft door interlock.

Sematic linear car door operator used on a Schindler 3300 AP elevator.

Wittur Hydra Plus (under their subsidiary, Selcom) shaft door component used on a Mitsubishi elevator.

GAL mechanical door operator (Credit to Flickr user Dave Fletcher, CC BY-ND 2.0 license)

1990s GoldStar mechanical elevator door operator.

Single opening

A single opening door only has a single panel door spanning the doorway's width that opens to the left or right laterally. This is especially common in less expensive buildings and very common in older buildings in North America, Canada, and sometimes in European and Asian countries.

Single opening door of a KONE Starlift elevator in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

A single-piece door Marryat & Scott elevator in Singapore.

1960s Hitachi elevator in Tokyo, Japan with single opening door.

Center opening

Center opening doors are very common in elevators found in almost every building. This type of door consists of two panels that meet in the middle, and slide open laterally. One advantage of this type of door is high efficiency operation, but the disadvantage is the width of the door cannot be fully utilized.

IFE elevator.

Schindler center opening automatic door from 1990.

Mitsubishi elevator in Tokyo, Japan with center opening door equipped with partial window.

Sabiem elevator at Pak Tat Mansion, Jordan with center opening door which Hong Kong's narrowest elevator doors.

Sliding telescopic doors

2 speed telescopic doors are common in bed, service and freight elevators, but are also common in passenger elevators, usually for those located in a small building or in an insufficient space where the doors cannot slide all the way through both side wall. In this type of door configuration (potentially allowing wider entryways within limited space), the doors run on independent tracks so that while open, they are tucked behind one another, and while closed, they form cascading layers on one side.

Schindler 3300 AP elevator with two-speed doors.

Other types of sliding telescopic doors:

• 3 speed sliding telescopic this configuration is normally found in older freight elevators and some passenger elevators, this type has three panels.

Fujitec freight elevator with 3 speed sliding telescopic door in Hong Kong.

Mitsubishi freight elevator with three speed telescopic opening door.

• 2 speed center opening telescopic commonly found in large passenger (such as those in airports), freight and very often bed elevators. This type has four door panels and open/close just the same as normal two center opening doors. Some older elevators may have outside center opening doors and four center opening telescopic doors.

• 3 speed center opening telescopic a very rare configuration that is commonly found in heavy-duty freight elevator and vehicle elevators. This is basically similar to the four center opening telescopic type but it has six panels of doors.

Hyundai freight elevator with 3 speed center opening telescopic door.

Kone freight elevator with 3 speed center opening door. This is in the IKEA Alam Sutera, Indonesia (Credit to YouTube user TG97Elevators)

Thyssen Hydraulic Freight Elevator in Sunshine City Plaza, which using 3 speed center opening telescopic.

A 3 speed center opening elevator door near the American Museum of Natural History gift shope

A Kone Freight Elevator from Glucksman Gallery in UCC Cork University.

• Vertical bi-parting this type of door is usually seen on most freight elevators in the United States. The outer door is like a center opening door, but vertical. The inner door is usually a single door that goes up. Sometimes the inner door can be two speed. These doors can be automatic, or manual for older freight elevators.

Top vertical bi-parting hoistway door

Bottom vertical bi-parting hoistway door

Very big vertical bi-parting doors

• Vertical 2 speed telescopic this type of door is usually seen on most freight elevators and sometimes vehicle elevators in Asia. Both outer and inner doors are like horizontal two speed telescopic opening doors, but vertical.

1983 Hitachi freight elevator with vertical two speed telescopic door.

Two 1983 Hitachi freight elevators with vertical two speed telescoping doors.

• Vertical 3 speed telescopic just like horizontal three speed telescopic door but vertical. This type of door is very rarely used.

ThyssenKrupp freight elevator with vertical three speed telescopic door.

Glucksman Elevator.jpg

An Unknown Elevator possibly Kone or Dover from Glucksman Gallery UCC Cork university.

Folding inner doors

This type of door is seen on elevators with a swing hoistway door. This type of door has 2 sections, like a center open door, with 2 panels, that fold, causing the door to close. This type of door is usually seen on older elevators that formerly had no inner doors. This type of door is mostly seen in Europe, but can also be seen elsewhere, but not in the United States. There is also a type of folding inner doors with 1 section, and 4 panels, like a single slide door, but this type of folding inner door is very rare.

Folding inner door closed (Credit to epsos.de, CC BY 2.0 license)

Folding inner door open (Credit to epsos.de, CC BY 2.0 license)

External Links

• hkelev - Elevator door types
• hkelev - Elevator door structures