Barrier-Free Evacuation
Specifying automatic doors on an escape route? The moment the power fails is the risk most often missed. Here's how to close it.
MF ServicesMF ServicesMF Services
Specifying automatic doors on an escape route? The moment the power fails is the risk most often missed. Here's how to close it.
For many building users, the automatic door is the escape route. A wheelchair user, an elderly resident, a parent with a buggy, anyone who cannot force a heavy leaf open against its closer — they all rely on the operator doing the work. And it does, hundreds of times a day, right up until the mains fails or the emergency services shut the supply down.
It’s also the part of the evacuation strategy most easily assumed away. Detection, alarms, signage and travel distances are all designed with care — while the question of whether the powered door at the end of that route still opens with the power down often goes unasked. After a power failure, evacuation may no longer be possible for everyone.
MF Services specifies, supplies and installs the ECO Schulte Evacuation System — extending existing automatic door installations so that barrier-free self-rescue remains possible after a power failure or smoke detection, without complex control technology and without reinstalling the door system. Here’s how it works, and what it means for your specification.
switches to uninterruptible power supply or building backup power
from hazard recognition to open escape doors
reinstallation of the existing door system required
from a single door to a whole-building solution
Irish fire safety design works from a simple principle: every occupant must be able to reach a place of safety. Part B of the Building Regulations and the fire safety certificate process behind it assess escape routes on that basis — and Part M’s access and use requirements mean those routes are increasingly step-free, automated and barrier-free by design.
That’s where the gap opens. Where a step-free escape route relies on a power-operated door, the route is only as dependable as the door’s power supply. On mains failure — or when the emergency services cut the supply — a standard operator stops being an automatic door and becomes a heavy manual leaf on a closer. For the very users the barrier-free route was designed around, that can mean no independent way out, precisely when it matters most.
A complete answer closes that gap at the door itself: the existing swing door operators are extended into an evacuation system with a protected power supply, so the doors keep opening in an emergency. And where those same escape doors are also electrically locked or access-controlled, the evacuation system sits alongside an EN 13637-compliant escape door system — secured in normal use, released and powered when everyone needs out.
The ECO Schulte Evacuation System extends an existing automatic door installation into a system that keeps working when the building’s power doesn’t. It operates in four steps: the system recognises the hazardous situation and switches to an uninterruptible power supply or the building’s backup power; on request, it issues control commands to the emergency exit doors; the swing door operators continue to function in evacuation mode and open the doors; and the escape route stays barrier-free — for everyone.
Because the system builds on the door technology already installed, there’s no complex control technology to add and no reinstallation of the door system. It works with ECO Schulte’s swing door operator ranges — including the ETS 42 and ETS 64-R families and the EPN 2000 III — and each solution is developed individually around the building: sized to the doors it serves, scalable from a single opening to a full evacuation concept, and economical because it reuses what’s already on the wall.
MF Services delivers it as one specified solution — planning, installation and maintenance — so the evacuation concept you sign off is the one that performs on the day.
How the system works, compatible operators and the specifier questions answered.
Barrier-free self-rescue stays possible after a power failure or smoke detection — so the escape route you designed for everyone still serves everyone, including the users who depend on the automation.
The system extends the existing swing door operators — no reinstallation of the door system, no complex control technology. An individual, scalable and economical solution, whether it’s one door or a whole building.
MF Services plans the evacuation solution around your building and delivers it as one system — planning, installation and maintenance together — not a set of parts left for someone else to make work.
It extends an existing automatic swing door installation so the escape doors keep opening in an emergency. The system recognises the hazardous situation, switches to an uninterruptible power supply or the building’s backup power, issues control commands to the emergency exit doors, and the swing door operators continue to function in evacuation mode — keeping self-rescue barrier-free for everyone.
That’s the situation the system is built for. On mains failure — or a shutdown by the emergency services — it switches to uninterruptible or building backup power, and the door operators continue working in evacuation mode. Without it, a powered door becomes a heavy manual leaf at exactly the wrong moment.
Yes — that’s the point of it. The system is designed to extend existing door installations without reinstalling the door system and without adding complex control technology. It builds on compatible ECO Schulte swing door operators already in service, or specified new.
The system works with ECO Schulte swing door operator ranges including the ETS 42 family (ETS 42, ETS 42-R, ETS 42-R SRI), the ETS 64-R family (ETS 64-R, ETS 64-R IRM, ETS 64-R IRM-SRI) and the EPN 2000 III. We’ll confirm compatibility door by door as part of the specification.
They solve two halves of the same problem. An EN 13637-compliant escape door system makes sure a secured door releases the instant anyone needs out; the evacuation system makes sure the powered door still physically opens when the mains is down. On many projects the right answer is both, specified together.
Yes — from early design through to installation and aftercare. Send us your drawings or door schedule and we’ll come back with a proposed evacuation solution, datasheets and indicative pricing.
Hospitals, clinics and care settings are exactly where occupants are least able to force a door open by hand — and where automated, barrier-free routes are most relied upon. Evacuation capability that survives a power failure is a duty-of-care essential.
Schools and campuses combine constant footfall with inclusive access commitments. If the accessible escape route runs through an automatic door, that door’s behaviour in an emergency belongs in the specification from the outset.
Offices, civic buildings and transport hubs carry both the compliance scrutiny and the universal design obligation. An evacuation solution built into the door system protects the building, its occupants and the design intent behind the accessible route.
Whether you’re at concept stage or finalising a door schedule, we’ll help you make sure the evacuation strategy holds up when the power doesn’t. Send us drawings, a sample specification or an outline of the project, and we’ll come back with recommendations, datasheets and indicative pricing.
You’ll also find us at Architecture Expo 2026, Stand B25, RDS Dublin, 7–8 October — come and see the system in person and talk through your current projects with the team.
MF Services
Unit 26 Doughcloyne Court Industrial Estate,
Sarsfield Road,
Wilton, Cork, Ireland.
