NFPA Journal - Summer 2021 - 14

PA I D A D V E R T I S E M E N T

High-speed doors
and egress
By Gordon Thomas, P.E.
DASMA Technical Director
where environmental separation, energy efficiency, and/or security are required. They are not generally used in
public assembly, educational, highhazard, residential, and utility/miscellaneous occupancies. When used as
a component of egress, high-speed
doors can accommodate motorized
equipment, traffic, and pedestrians.

What is a high-speed door?
A high-speed door is a non-swinging
door with a minimum opening rate
of 32 inches per second, a minimum
closing rate of 24 inches per second,
and a means to automatically reclose
the door. These doors typically act in
a rolling, folding, or sliding manner.

What is a " means of egress " ?
The International Building Code (IBC)
defines " means of egress " as " a continuous and unobstructed path of
vertical and horizontal egress travel
from any occupied portion of a build-

High-speed door construction
High-speed doors are typically non-fire-rated and thus should
only be used in walls that are also
non-fire-rated. High-speed door
panels and curtains can be made
from rubber, fabric, vinyl, composites, aluminum, or steel.
Where do you typically see
high-speed doors?
High-speed doors are most commonly used in factories and in institutional, mercantile, and storage buildings,

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egress as consisting of three separate and distinct parts: the exit access, the exit, and the exit discharge.
Situations requiring egress
Generally, emergency situations
in which occupants need to evacuate a building require a means of
egress. For example, fires and/or hazardous conditions that can jeopardize the health, safety, and/or
welfare of building occupants require a safe path for egress.

High-speed door egress options
When installing a high-speed door
as a component of a required means
of egress, DASMA recommends
NFPA 101 does not address high-speed doors.
that at least one of
For these applications, code officials using NFPA the following op101 could invoke Section 1.4 titled " Equivalency " tions be employed:

and/or subsections " Technical Documentation "
and " Equivalent Compliance. "
ing or structure to a public way. "
NFPA 101®, known as Life Safety Code®, defines " means of egress "
similarly as " a continuous and unobstructed way of travel from
any point in a building or structure to a public way. " Both the IBC
and NFPA 101 describe a means of

1. Manual operation
through door counterbalancing: The
door should be easy to open from either side of the opening without special knowledge or effort. The force required to operate or set the door in
motion should not exceed 30 pounds
and should not exceed 15 pounds to
open the door to the minimum required height and width for egress.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DASMA

N DESIGNING A path of
egress for a building, there may
be instances in which a highspeed door becomes a component of the path. This article explains how high-speed doors can be
used as a means of egress, or exit,
by describing options, code guidance, and specification guidance.

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NFPA Journal - Summer 2021

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