Frameless glass bifolding doors look and work in a different way to a regular aluminium bifolding door. Customers often ask us how frameless bifold doors open, and whether they are different to conventional bifold doors.
To help you understand the key visual and operational differences between a frameless bifolding door and a standard aluminium folding door, we explain how each of these products looks and operates.
Frameless bifolding doors offer virtually no visible hardware.
One of the first things you will notice about a frameless bifold is the lack of visible hardware. Compare a regular door to a frameless door, and you will notice that apart from the main door handles, a frameless bifold does not show any of the key components that enable these sophisticated doors to slide and fold.
Componentry differs on a conventional aluminium bifold door as well. Often you will often see the running gear, wheels and other components visible at the bottom of the doors. Look at the top, and you will also see the guides in the top frame. Finally, you will see two or three visible hinges per leaf connecting each door panel. You will also see the folding leaves fitted with a pull handle and a locking lever as well.
Opening and closing frameless bifolding doors.
Our single and double glazed frameless bifolding doors operate with a turn and fold or swing and fold operation. From the fully closed position the procedure to fully open and fold the doors is simple.
- Unlock and swing open the master door using the pull handle fitted.
- The master door will hinge open in the 90-degree position.
- Each of the remaining doors then slides along to their stop position. At this point, it can be swung open to the same position as the master door.
- Repeat this process for each of the remaining door panels until all are stacked open.
- Reverse the procedure to close the doors.
Opening and closing aluminium bifolding doors.
With a full framed aluminium bifold, there are more unlocking operations involved depending on how many leaves the doors have and how the master leaves, if provided, are configured.
To unlock hinged folding doors, the main access or locking leaf needs to be opened and then swung open. Following this, all the remaining intermediate leaves must also be unlocked with the handles provided.
Depending upon whether the doors open inwards or outwards, the doors are opened ajar. You then go to the end panel and slide the doors to their folding position, or you can use the internal handles to open each section at a time.
If the doors open in both directions, the same procedure applies on each side.
Frameless bi-folding doors offer more flexibility than other bifolds.
There are several advantages in how a frameless bifolding door opens with each leaf being independent.
- Partial ventilation is possible with having each leaf provide air gaps.
- No doors are left ajar if you do not want to open the doors fully.
- Frameless doors let you have more control over how many leaves you slide and fold.
- When fully stacked open, frameless bifolding doors take up 50% less space than regular bifolding doors.
If you would like a demonstration of how our doors slide and fold, contact us today and visit our showroom or our demonstration doors around the UK.
