Azul Door Services

Case Study: Cost-Effective Automation Upgrade & Critical Safety Improvements

The Challenge

During a recent service visit, our specialist engineer diagnosed a terminal fault in a customer's "in-head" (housed inside the frame) swing door operator. Traditionally, replacing this obsolete style of concealed automation requires an entirely new door and frame. This standard approach would have forced the customer into a major expenditure.

The Bespoke Solution

To accommodate the customer’s limited budget, we engineered a custom alternative. Instead of replacing the structural framing, we manufactured a bespoke-sized transom to infill the void left by the old in-head operator.
This custom-fit profile created a highly stable, secure mounting location for a new, premium Record DFA 127 surface-mounted door operator. By choosing this retrofitted engineering solution over a full replacement, we saved the customer approximately £4,000 in unnecessary door and frame costs.

Critical Safety Upgrade

Beyond the mechanical installation, our attending engineer identified a safety compliance issue with the existing setup:

• The Risk: The original standard sensors only covered 30% of the door's movement.
• The Danger: This left students exposed to a crushing risk against the barrier located behind the open door.
• The Correction: We advised the customer of these critical risks. Full-coverage safety sensors were included into the new automation specification to ensure 100% compliance and user protection.

Key Outcomes

• £4,000 saved compared to a full frame and door replacement.
• Premium upgrade to a reliable Swiss manufacturer Record DFA 127 automatic door operator.
• Upgraded full coverage achieved, eliminating a crushing hazard.
• Fully complaint system provided with a 24 Month comprehensive warranty

While everybody is winding down for a long bank holiday weekend, the are still hard at work……. Thanks to the commitment of everybody involved at Azul, we worked overnight to hand over another fantastic new entrance screen for Yorkshire Trading Company’s new store in Garstang, just in time for them to open on Saturday morning. The entrance screen designed in house to customers specification with reinforced glazing provides a modern and secure 1 way lobby system to ensure loss prevention while maintaining a DDA complaint solution for their customers. All that remains is the customer manifestations and directional signage.

I was going to post pictures of an amazing install this week with 7 new communal doors which we installed for a local customer but felt this picture from our staff wishing each other happy Friday on our WhatsApp group was more appropriate. The picture represents what the is all about, happy staff – happy customers and an amazing service with good value and best quality.

Well, that’s a wrap……. With all the publicised budgetary restraints of our local airport, over the last 8 years have been working hard in the background to keep the old, powered doors going by constant preventative maintenance and the care and attention of our engineers. When budget allowed, we have been replacing these as they failed and installing pocket screens to protect passengers.

Yesterday marked a monumental achievement for us all at Azul, as we have proudly replaced the last, poorly retrofitted sliding door on the arrivals inner which included bespoke glass pocket doors to protect users. As all the powered doors within the terminal are now we expect no further unreliability with the automation and look forward to keeping these doors operational for the airport for many more years to come.

We have included a few pictures of the last 8 years and feel privileged to be a part of the rebirth of our which included the renovation of the terminal back in 2021 when we are asked, at short notice, to design and replace most of the fixed screens on the departure gates including 5 Record E-STA 20 security powered sliding doors onto the apron, windows and several internal fixed screens.

At Azul, we believe our staff is our greatest asset. When your office is the inside of a van, it should be a pleasant place to spend time.

With that in mind we are pleased to welcome our newest acquisition. Soon to be on the road with our engineer Ash. Big thanks to Dave at for doing a wonderful job on the sign writing and Stuart at for the electronic security. Always happy to support local businesses

Normally we like to post pictures of our latest installations to showcase our quality and attention to detail. However today this is a picture of an installation from 2017, completed by our now lead engineer. The reason for the post, is this pair of Record DFA 127 swing door operators have, through an oversight of our customer not been serviced for the last 5 years due to losing touch with them during Covid. Our visit today was not due to fault or unreliability, but as the customer had realised the requirement for servicing and booked a visit. The reliability of the door operators over the last 5 years is testament to the quality of the product and the original installation. After a good clean and service, we would hope the product will continue for at least another 9 years of reliable operation.