Engineering
The geometry of a disappearing gate.
A swing gate spends the opening as an arc. A single slider spends it as a pocket the same width as the clear opening. Telescopic leaves stack, so the hardware parks in a bay a fraction of that width.
Runback versus opening
For a 6 m clear opening. Parking width required beside the piers.
- Swing6.0 m · Full arc into the court
- Single slider6.0 m · 100% runback
- Two leaf3.3 m · 55% runback
- Three leaf2.3 m · 38% runback
- Four leaf1.8 m · 30% runback
Cantilever drive
The leaves hang from a counterbalanced beam. Nothing touches the ground across the opening — no track to fill with snow, gravel, or a settling drive. A tracked rail is available when wind on a very wide leaf demands a second reaction.
Underground motors sit in a service hatch in the runback. Surface motors sit beside the trailing leaf. Both are 24 V DC with soft start, encoder position, and a battery close on power loss.
Studio specification
- Opening width
- 3.0 – 12.0 m
- Leaf height
- 1.2 – 2.4 m standard; 3.0 m on review
- Leaf count
- 2, 3, or 4
- Travel speed
- 0.18 – 0.25 m/s
- Duty
- 2 500 cycles / day (24 V DC)
- Wind
- Rated to site; tracked option for exposed spans
- Safety
- Photocells, safety edges, loop detectors
- Compliance
- CE / UKCA; PAS 68 on request