"Gate Safety by Design" - The future of swing gate hinges

Our customer had an old existing installation, this included a pair of hydraulic swing gate motors with the gates made from wood.

The wooden gates would warp with the seasons going from wet to dry conditions, this mixed with the ground raising and settling meant that the gate would foul when opening and closing causing damage to the gate and creating intermittent cycle issues.

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For this installation we wanted to make the gate “ SAFE BY DESIGN”  this meant re-designing the traditional gate hinge, as this typically causes trapping issues on the open cycle between the gate leaf and the gate post.

We also put in new posts behind the walls to restrict any movement that previously occurred from the gates being attached to the walls.

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The solution for our new “SAFE BY DESIGN”  gate hinge was based on a similar design to an aluminium hinge, this hinge creates a non-trap area between the gate and post which is a key danger point of any installation.

Our client also wanted a more traditional colouring for the swing gate, for this we went with a dark brown powder coated frame and English oak composite cladding, this also makes the gate very easy to maintain as all panels are simply wiped clean.

I was also stipulated the need for a post-box to be fitted within the panelling of the gate.

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In conclusion this install was a great success, the new hinge design worked perfectly and actually sped up installation due to the gate frog being welded to the gate during fabrication, levelling up the gates was easy too as everything was already lined up due to the nature of the install. Although the gate hinge did not have a trap hazard the client opted for the trap covering to block the view through the sides of the gate, we also fitted brushes to the bottom of the gate to do the same.

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