Norton Door Controls

Surface Mounted Door Closers/Concealed Door Closers

Norton Door controls can be surface-mounted or concealed in the door or frame. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages.

Surface-Mounted Closers

This type of door control is easiest to install, with three or four drilled and/or tapped holes for the body, and two or four holes for the arm bracket. They require a minimum amount of preparation of the door and frame. The surface-mounted closer is also more accessible to the occasional adjustment that may be necessary with changes in usage or environmental conditions. Although surface-mounted closers, by definition, are never truly concealed, most Norton closers can be ordered with covers in a variety of painted, plated or wood veneer finishes to soften the closer's affect on the building design.

Concealed Closers

On the occasions where the architect's design calls for a door closer that is not visually obvious, there are two types of "concealed" closers; each varying in the degree to which the total installation is concealed. All require more door and/or frame preparation than a similar surface-mounted closer.

Overhead Concealed Closers are normally mortised into the transom of the frame above the door. A slide track is normally mortised into the top rail of the door. All elements - closer, arm and slide track, are totally concealed when the door is closed. Norton Overhead Concealed closers provide sweep and latch speed adjustments, backcheck cushioning and shock absorption. The Series 7900 closers also provide a 50% power adjustment feature. They are available with or without Hold-Open feature.

Concealed-In-a Door-Closers are concealed in the top rail of the door. There are several arms available: a sliding arm that is completely concealed when the door is closed; an exposed parallel arm and an exposed regular arm. The Norton Concealed In-a-Door Closer is the Series 900, a control which provides sweep and latch speed adjustments and backcheck cushioning. Hold-open arms are available.

Regular Arm, Top Jamb and Parallel Arm

There are three basic methods of mounting surface door closers to the door and frame. The method the architect chooses is influenced by some combination of these five factors:

Closer position, relative to the locations of door, frame and hinges;

Space limitations on the top rail of the door;

Space limitations on the frame face above the door;

Appearance;

and, (especially in schools) Accessibility of the closer arm.

The three basic mounting methods which follow are illustrated with a double lever arm. Similar applications, using a single lever arm and a slide track in place of the double lever arm, are available with the Norton Series 7700 and Series 7500 Door Closers.

Regular Arm

The closer body is mounted on the top rail of the door on the hinge side of the door. The forearm is mounted to the frame face by means of a mounting shoe. The closer body requires less space on the door's top rail than a parallel arm installation, but more space than a top jamb installation. (The top jamb installation requires space for the arm fastening only.) The arm projects from the door at approximately a right angle. Finally, the geometry of the assembly makes a regular arm closer somewhat more power-efficient than a parallel arm closer.