About us
Automatic entrance systems, and the people who keep them running.
MC Automations was established in 2017, on more than a decade of hands-on experience with automatic entrances. We supply, install, commission and service automatic entrance systems across South Africa, from our facility in Laser Park, Johannesburg.
What we do
Five ways to open a building, and one supplier behind all of them
Choosing the best automatic doors for a building comes down to three things: how fast people need to get through, how much floor space you can give up, and how tightly the opening has to seal. We supply the full range of automatic entrance systems so the answer is driven by the building rather than by what one supplier happens to stock.
Automatic sliding doors, sometimes called electric sliding doors, handle high-traffic retail and healthcare entrances, and double automatic doors clear a wider opening because each leaf only travels half the distance. Telescopic sliding doors fit a wide clear opening into a short track where the facade cannot give a standard door room to park. Automatic swing doors convert a new or existing entry door without replacing it. Automatic revolving doors move people in and out at once without opening the lobby to the street. Hermetically sealed doors shut tight for theatres, cleanrooms and controlled environments.
Behind all five sit the same things: activation and safety sensors, access control, locking, and the service that keeps them working once the building is occupied. Complete automatic entrance systems, in other words, rather than a door and a shopping list of parts to be sorted out on site.
Our own operators
The operators behind our automatic entrance systems
Our MC-125 sliding door operator and MCW-100 swing operator are imported and assembled at our Laser Park facility. We do not claim to manufacture the components. What local assembly buys you is practical: spares on the shelf rather than a six-week wait on a container, technicians who know the units because they build them, and support in your time zone.
The MC-125 auto door unit drives single or bi-parting leaves with clear openings from 1450 mm to 5000 mm and leaves up to 150 kg, and is tested to one million cycles. The MCW-100 opens between 60° and 110° on leaves up to 150 kg. Both carry a 24-month warranty.
Who we work with
Specified early, or fixed after the fact
We work with architects, specifiers, main contractors, sub-contractors and building owners, which means we get involved at very different points in a project.
Sometimes that is at design stage, where automatic entrance systems are specified from the start: the operator, leaf build, sensors, access control and locking chosen against the traffic the entrance will actually carry. Sometimes it is a building already in use, where an entrance has failed on a Saturday morning and nobody is certain who installed it. Both are normal work for us.
Because we service automatic doors from other manufacturers as well as our own, a property group with a mixed estate across several buildings can put the whole portfolio with one supplier instead of chasing the original installer of each door.
After the handover
Servicing automatic entrance systems
An automatic door is a machine that opens and closes several thousand times a day. Wear tracks cycles rather than the calendar: belts stretch, rollers flatten, floor guides fill with grit and sensors drift out of alignment. A well-specified entrance should give around 20 years of service if it is looked after.
In high-traffic areas we recommend servicing every three months, with quieter entrances running longer between visits. Sensor and safety testing is routine work at every visit rather than something we look at only after a fault, and we hold sensors, controls, operators and replacement components for sliding door systems and swing systems. We also carry out automatic door repairs on other manufacturers’ equipment, not only our own. Most of what fails on automatic entrance systems is wear, and wear is predictable if somebody is looking at it.
Sectors
Where our automatic entrance systems work hardest
Retail and shopping centres run the highest cycle counts we see, and they are unforgiving: an entrance that stops working on a Saturday is a trading problem, not a maintenance one. Healthcare needs hands-free entry for trolleys and beds, and in theatres and cleanrooms the opening has to seal rather than simply shut.
Hotels and hospitality want an entrance that is quiet and unhurried. Banking and corporate buildings want controlled access during trading hours and a secure building outside them. Public facilities and transport interchanges need openings that stay usable for everyone arriving, all day. Industrial sites want wide bi-parting openings that clear quickly and take daily traffic without complaint.
Where we are
Laser Park, Johannesburg, working nationwide
Our facility is at 84 Ridge Road, Unit 2, Laser Park, Roodepoort. Operators, sensors, controls and spares are held there, and we supply and install automatic entrance systems nationwide across South Africa.
Aluminium and glazing are handled alongside the door automation by our sister company, Coetz Glazing, so an entrance can be specified as one package rather than split across trades who each blame the other when something does not line up.
Automatic doors are covered by South African building and safety requirements, and there is useful general background in this overview of automatic doors. Requirements for powered pedestrian doors in South Africa are published through SABS.
Automatic entrance systems across South Africa
Opening Doors Across South Africa
From our Johannesburg head office we supply, install, commission and service automatic entrance systems for commercial, retail, healthcare, hospitality, corporate and industrial buildings across all nine provinces.
- Head office — Laser Park, Johannesburg
- Installation location
- Service coverage: nationwide
Automatic door coverage across South Africa
Gauteng
Johannesburg, Pretoria, Sandton, Midrand, Centurion, Roodepoort, Randburg, Fourways, Germiston, Boksburg, Benoni, Kempton Park, Alberton
KwaZulu-Natal
Durban, Umhlanga, Pietermaritzburg, Richards Bay
Western Cape
Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Paarl, George
Eastern Cape
Gqeberha, East London
Free State
Bloemfontein
Limpopo
Polokwane
Mpumalanga
Mbombela, Emalahleni
North West
Rustenburg, Mahikeng
Northern Cape
Kimberley
Our operators, sensors, controls and spares are held in Johannesburg, and technical support runs 24/7. We supply and install automatic sliding doors, swing door automation, revolving and hermetically sealed entrances, and we service and repair all major automatic door brands.
In short
Automatic entrance systems at a glance
- Automatic entrance systems are quoted against the opening we measured, not a catalogue price.
- Ask about automatic entrance systems and we confirm the opening, the head and the power position first.
- Automatic entrance systems are installed and commissioned by our own technicians.
Planning an entrance, or inheriting one?
Send us the opening dimensions, what sits above the opening and any access-control requirement, and we will come back with automatic entrance systems specified for the building, with installation and commissioning quoted together. If you have an existing door that keeps failing, we will look at that too.