A template jig for fitting door closers accurately – everytime…
The highest quality, highly functional door closer can still fail to meet safety compliance if it isn’t fitted properly. Correct fitting of self-closing devices is vital to maintaining safety, compliance, and often product warranty. How the closer is fitted for its fire performance and other quality assurance tests makes this a key feature of its certification and CE/UKCA compliance marking.
This places a responsibility on manufacturers of doorsets, and those installing closers, to follow the closer device manufacturer’s instructions carefully.
To ensure the closers can be fitted in the same way as they were tested for compliance purposes, Rutland provides easy-to-follow fitting instructions with every closer. Additionally, this serves as a full-sized (1:1 scaled) template to help with accurate aligning and drilling, helping fitters get the job done correctly - while saving time and headache.
Hardware fitters tell us that without a template to use, they usually measure everything two or three times to avoid making an expensive mistake. The paper templates supplied with Rutland closers help them get it right the first time, and every time. To use, simply align the template on the door and doorframe face, hold it in place with some removable adhesive tape, and drill the pilot holes where marked.
Many of our customers fit door closers to hundreds of doorsets a week, and for such firms, standardisation is key to maintaining compliance and quality assurance.
While the paper template is designed to be easy to follow, with minimal text and clear diagrams, nothing beats a well-made jig for increasing the accuracy and speed of repetitive production tasks. For this reason, Rutland has worked with a number of bulk installers and doorset manufacturers to provide them with reusable, metal jigs. These are bespoke made to match their door and frame designs, adhering to the closer and doorset’s certification.
These specially made jigs help by reducing the potential for human error and misunderstandings of instructions. Using a jig helps ensure that the closer is attached as per the sampled doorsets that were tested in the product’s compliance and certification scheme. Keeping each production door to the same approved spec is crucial for compliance and durability, as small differences can degrade performance, or reduce the closer’s service lifetime.
Typically, door manufacturers have several models of doorsets in their range and each one may require its own placement of hardware. The door leaf size, frame profile, whether the closer is mounted on the push or pull side, and whether its on the left or right side all make a difference.
By giving their line workers the correct jig, factory production and fit-out project managers find it easier to manage quality control, training, and oversight.
In conclusion, don’t risk voiding your product’s compliance and certification through incorrect alignment of safety-critical hardware such as the closer. Always fit door closers as per the manufacturer’s instructions, as moving away from the specified scope will likely void any related certification compliance and warranties the product would overwise hold.
Using a specially constructed, approved jig can assist in maintaining continuity and compliance from batch to batch and door to door. It is of course also much faster than measuring and marking out.
It is Rutland’s mission to improve the performance and compliance of doors and their hardware, making it easier and quicker for manufacturers and installers to get it right.
If you’re involved in fitting closers to large numbers of doors, either onsite during refurbs and fitouts, or on a factory production line, ask one of our door-trade advisors about custom-made door closer fitting jigs today.
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