System security – ECO offers more than single parts
The world of ECO Schulte is the technology in and around doors. As one of a very few system suppliers in the world, the company pursues a universal approach. The technologies are developed and constantly refined in close coordination with the manufacturers of doors and the processing specialists in tradesman's businesses.
ECO never focuses purely on the individual product here but always on the interplay of all components within the door system, from the closer to the hinge and from the lock to the fittings. The door is a complex structure of safety and security which protects life and limb – and values. Only the best is good enough where doors are concerned – ECO Schulte.
Why is the overall door system solution so important?
Ernst Schulte
"It goes without saying that the components of a system that has to save lives in an emergency should be perfectly matched with one another. The failure of one single link in the function chain can be fatal.
Or to put it another way: if the system is perfectly matched, additional safety potential is created. The whole is more than the sum of its parts, as we all know.
We also cooperate closely with the door manufacturers, because ultimately it's the doors that are the central element of the system."
Tobias Schulte
"With a service life of roughly 20 years, a door system in a hospital has to withstand an awful lot. A large number of opening and closing cycles not only takes its toll on the door closer but also on hinges and latch.
We try to make it clear to our customers that safety and security are inseparable within the overall concept of a door: a poorquality component can disrupt the system and cost human lives."
What benefits do ECO products produce?
Heinz Schulte
"There are more or less basic fittings that come with every door. These include the hinges, which give the door leaf an axis, the handle and the lock. These are basic fittings as we have always known them. The functional reliability of these parts over many years ensures that humans lives and property are protected inside the building.
Essentially, there are two concepts that make the basic fittings even more reliable. The first is a door closer, which closes doors securely so that they can separate different fire compartments in the event of fire. The second is the panic opener, which ensures in several different ways that it is always possible to get out of a building in an emergency."
Ernst Schulte
"You can bring this down to one simple basic principle: what we sell is in essence safety and security. Our products make doors movable, this making it possible to control access.
Door system technology has to ensure that only authorized persons are allowed in but that all people can get out in an emergency."
Safety, security and easy access to not have to contradict one another where doors are concerned
It is important to regard the door as a system, however, because it then becomes clear quickly that maximum closing security with simultaneous ease of opening can only be defined through the optimised interplay of the hinges, latch, fittings technology and closer.
Poorly mounted hinges or stiff latches rapidly produce unfavourable closing forces and soon bring the door closers, which are supposed to provide easy entry and exit, to their safety limits.
ECO Schulte defines safety, security and easy access through the ECO system – and builds in safety reserves just in case the unexpected happens. And it goes without saying that all of the system components comply with European standards.