Folding doors are a very cost-effective alternative to conventional swing doors. Due to their ability to fold, there is a significant space saving. In addition, this design has a very attractive appearance from an aesthetic point of view.

Design and types

Folding compartment doors consist of several canvases and shutters moving along a special guide. Installation of such a door is not recommended as an entrance or in an area of frequent use. Such restrictions are justified by insufficient structural strength and wear resistance of fittings under heavy loads.

Bedrooms, walk-in closets, and bathrooms are ideal places for installation. Such a design will be an excellent solution if you need to create a screen to divide the space into functional areas. In addition, a significant advantage of using this kind of canvas is the possibility of using it in non-standard openings, as well as protection against spontaneous closing as a result of a draft.

Accordion

The design of a folding compartment door of this type is very popular. The reason lies in the design of the door, which consists of many sections 10-15 cm wide, united by hinge mechanisms. All strips are necessarily fixed on the upper guide rail. In some cases, lower guide rails are also used.

During the opening of the door, all the lamellas are collected near the wall in the form of an accordion. In this case, the first canvas is hinged on the door frame. The remaining canvases with roller mechanisms installed on them in the end part move along the guide rail.

Doors, depending on the number of common folding canvases, they can open in one of the sides, or in both. However, for the effective functioning of the product, the use of leaves in excess of 7 units is not recommended. To determine the extreme open position, the installation of special stoppers is used.

To ensure the smooth running of the folding door structure, special synchronizer devices are used. Their main function is to ensure the parallelism of the canvases in the process of folding and unfolding. It is also possible to install a mechanism that automatically folds the leaves and opens the doors after pressing the corresponding button.

Book

Door designs with 2 wings are called book doors. Such a product stands out, in comparison with an accordion, with its reliability and durability. However, such a system implies an increased weight of the structure. In addition, book doors have greater versatility. Their installation does not require careful selection of the place for installation.

Such systems can also be used as canvases for closing a doorway or as a tool for zoning free space.

Unlike an accordion mechanism, folding doors of this type require more free space to open them. But at the same time, when folded, the width of the canvases is much less, since there are only 2 of them. Such models can open and close both in one direction and in both. Quite convenient is that when folded, the lamellas can be placed not only along the edge of the opening, but also folded along the wall or even go into it.

In the design of the product, it is possible to manufacture both symmetrical and different-width canvases. The asymmetric design at the same time looks quite unusual and impressive.

Door materials

The folding type door design will easily fit into any interior with the right choice of leaf material. The most popular for such products are combinations of aluminum and glass.

Folding doors, which allow not only to visually expand the room, but also significantly brighten it up, look very presentable and aesthetically pleasing both in life and in the photo. The undoubted advantage of the material is the ability to use a fairly wide range of colors, as well as applying decorative elements to the canvas.

Advantages of aluminum profile

Folding aluminum door has a lot of positive properties. So, the material in combination with glass inserts allows you to very effectively maintain a warm microclimate in the room. The sliding design contributes to both the actual and visual expansion of the space.

Due to the use of a wide aluminum profile and sealed glass at the base of the product, the canvas has a high degree of strength. And due to the physical properties of the material, the durability of the product is ensured. In addition, aluminum parts of folding doors are not affected by external factors and therefore resistant to corrosion.

Despite the apparent thinness of the canvases, the presence of an aluminum profile and glass inserts provides effective sound insulation of the room. Given the lightness of aluminum, it becomes possible to minimize the load on the fastening mechanisms, roller elements and guides.

One of the significant advantages that folding aluminum doors have is the ease of maintenance of their surface. Due to the resistance of the material to moisture, in case of contamination, it is enough to simply clean the product with a detergent.

Types of aluminum profile

In the construction of door mechanisms using aluminum as a material for the profile, two main types of material are used:

• Cold;
• Warm.

The cold profile of folding aluminum doors includes a one-piece closed-type contour, empty inside. This profile design allows you to effectively select both the color scheme and the necessary content.

The warm profile in folding glass doors is made in the form of two closed loops, in the middle of which there is a bridge-like layer of polymers. Such a partition inside the canvas allows you to increase the degree of temperature and sound insulation.