A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a doorway or portal. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by controlling access to the doorway (portal). Conventionally, it is a panel that fits into the doorway of a building, room, or vehicle. Doors are generally made of a material suited to the door's task. They are commonly attached by hinges, but can move by other means, such as slides or counterbalancing.
A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include yett and port. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall or fence, rather than a barrier which closed it. Gates may prevent or control the entry or exit of individuals, or they may be merely decorative. The moving part or parts of a gateway may be considered "doors", as they are fixed at one side whilst opening and closing like one.
A turnstile is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a turnstile can restrict passage only to people who insert a coin, ticket, pass, or other method of payment. Modern turnstiles can incorporate biometrics, including retina scanning, fingerprints, and other individual human characteristics which can be scanned. Thus a turnstile can be used in the case of paid access, for example to access public transport, a pay toilet, or to restrict access to authorized people, for example in the lobby of an office building.
A suicide door is an automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on horse-drawn carriages, but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are perceived as being less safe than a front-hinged door. Being rear-hinged, if the vehicle was moving and the door opened, the driver/passenger would have to lean forward and out of the vehicle to close it. As seat belts were not in common use at that time, the risk of falling out of the car and into traffic was high, hence the name "suicide door".
A stile is a structure or opening that provides people passage over or through a boundary via steps, ladders, or narrow gaps. Stiles are often built in rural areas along footpaths, fences, walls, or hedges that enclose animals, allowing people to move freely.
A crash bar is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. While originally conceived as a way to prevent crowd crushing in an emergency, crash bars are now used as the primary door opening mechanism in many commercial buildings.
Door furniture or door hardware refers to any of the items that are attached to a door or a drawer to enhance its functionality or appearance.
A door handle or doorknob is a handle used to open or close a door. Door handles can be found on all types of doors including exterior doors of residential and commercial buildings, internal doors, cupboard doors and vehicle doors. There are many designs of door handle, depending on the appropriate use. A large number of handles, particularly for commercial and residential doors, incorporate latching or locking mechanisms or are manufactured to fit to standardised door locking or latching mechanisms.
A fire door is a door with a fire-resistance rating used as part of a passive fire protection system to reduce the spread of fire and smoke between separate compartments of a structure and to enable safe egress from a building or structure or ship. In North American building codes, it, along with fire dampers, is often referred to as a closure, which can be derated compared against the fire separation that contains it, provided that this barrier is not a firewall or an occupancy separation. In Europe national standards for fire doors have been harmonised with the introduction of the new standard EN 16034, which refers to fire doors as fire-resisting door sets. Starting September 2016, a common CE marking procedure was available abolishing trade barriers within the European Union for these types of products. In the UK, it is Part B of the Building Regulations that sets out the minimum requirements for the fire protection that must be implemented in all dwellings this includes the use of fire doors. All fire doors must be installed with the appropriate fire resistant fittings, such as the frame and door hardware, for it to fully comply with any fire regulations.
A latch or catch is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on the other mounting surface. Depending upon the type and design of the latch, this engaged bit of hardware may be known as a keeper or strike.
Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel or barrels are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be required for the cocking of a hammer to fire the new round. There are many types of break-action firearms; break actions are universal in double-barrelled shotguns, double-barrelled rifles, combination guns, and are commonly found in single shot pistols, rifles, shotguns, including flare guns, grenade launchers, air guns, and some older revolver designs. They are also known as hinge-action, break-open, break-barrel, break-top, or, on old revolvers, top-break actions.
A swimming pool fence is a type of fence placed around swimming pools, to create a passive barrier to restrict the access of small children to the swimming pool. Swimming pool fences must have a self-closing and self-latching gate/s to be compliant to most countries' laws and codes.
A car door is a type of door opening, typically hinged on its front edge, but sometimes attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, for entering and exiting a vehicle. Doors most often integrate side windows for visibility from inside the car and can be locked to secure the vehicle.
A bump gate is a drive-through gate used in rural areas to provide a barrier to livestock but does not require the driver to exit the vehicle.
A cattle chute or cattle race also called a run or alley, is a narrow corridor built for cattle that separates them from the rest of the herd and allows handlers and veterinarians to provide medical care or restrain the animal for other procedures. A conventional cattle chute consists of parallel panels or fences with a space between them that is slightly wider than one animal so they are unable to turn around. Cattle chutes gently restrain the animal using a squeeze mechanism. The chute is connected to an alley, forming the animals into a queue that only allows them to go forward. Cattle tubs or a BudBox can also be used to help with animal flow and maintain low-stress cattle handling principles. It is used for routine husbandry activities such as drafting (sorting) or loading animals via ramp or loading chute into a vehicle; placing them one at a time in a cattle crush (variations also called a squeeze chute or standing stock) for examination, marking or veterinary treatment. They are also used at packing plants to move animals into a crush designed for slaughter.
Window shutter hardware, usually made of iron are hinges and latches that attach to the shutter and a window frame. The hinges hold the shutter to the structure and allow the shutter to open and close over the window. The latches secure the shutter in the closed position. Tie-back hardware can be used to hold the shutter in the open position.
A folding bicycle is a bicycle designed to fold into a compact form, facilitating transport and storage. When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings, on public transportation, and more easily stored in compact living quarters or aboard a car, boat or plane.
Clapper Gates are a distinctive type of self-closing double gate, unique to the navigable reaches of the River Trent. They were erected along the towpath of the river in the 18th century, and allow people and horses to pass through the field boundaries on the river bank, but prevent livestock from straying.
Slip Gates, also known as Stang Stoops, Yatsteads or Stang Pole Gateways are a form of simple gate that once commonly in Europe controlled access to fields, lanes, etc. using removable cross-bars and two fixed posts, often of stone. The usually wood spars or stangs were slotted into grooves cut into the stone piers and held firmly in place at one end with wedges and on the other end by being placed in a deep square or circular socket. Most other gates are formed of a fuller frame; many instead have hinges.
A rambler gate is a self-closing footpath barrier that is in common use in some parts of Britain. It is designed to allow pedestrians to pass but to provide an effective barrier to livestock. It resembles a squeeze stile but the gap can be expanded by pushing a pair of pivot posts apart. The pivot posts will close under their own weight but are held back by a number of short chains so that they cannot touch. In the closed position, the pivot posts and the chains prevent the passage of animals. There may be a simple latch to hold the two pivot posts together.
