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The Faculty of Medicine at Jena University is one of the oldest in Germany. Founded along with the university in the year 1558, its first students began training as doctors in the same year. For a long time, the various facilities of the University Hospital were spread over different sites throughout the area of the city, which meant considerable time and expense, both for student training and for patient care. Each year, for example, more than 32,000 trips had to be made to ferry patients between the different sites. Hence, for almost 20 years a comprehensive construction plan has been underway with the aim of bringing together all the institutes and specialist clinics on one single site in the district of Lobeda.
The second major section of the construction project, which was finished some time ago, comprises 710 patient beds, 12 operating theaters and three medical centers, as well as two research buildings with 15 clinics and institutes. The investment volume amounted to 310 million euros overall. The requirements of a hospital building and its facilities are immense: The building and all its parts not only had to meet strict safety standards, but also withstand the intensive use and highly efficient routines of day-to-day hospital operation – preferably for decades to come. The same applies, of course, to the hinge system of the doors. This had to allow for patient beds, wheelchairs and medical equipment to be moved from one room to the next with minimum effort, time and human resources – including when it is literally a matter of life and death.
Hence, for construction of the Jena University Hospital, the architect and developer decided on the “VARIANT VX 7749/160-4 Care” hinge system from SIMONSWERK. This permits use of the full width of a door frame, because the leaf of the door pans out of the frame completely. This makes it possible to utilize the full width of the doorframe – for example so that patient beds can be wheeled through it. At the same time, the SIMONSWERK hinge system is designed to meet the particular requirements of a clinic – for example being opened and closed dozens of times in a day, as well as the heavy weight of the doors that have to be used in hospitals for reasons of noise insulation.
This is why for each single-leaf door, three hinges of type “VARIANT VX” were fitted instead of the usual two. The version used can hold doors weighing up to 100 kilograms, and boasts stable rollers measuring 160 millimeters in length and 22.5 millimeters in width. The pick-up elements include 3D adjustment technology, permitting seamless side and height adjustment by +/- 3 millimeters, while the contact pressure can also be adjusted by +/- 3 millimeters. The opening angle of the hinge is 180 degrees, and the hidden, maintenance-free friction bearings ensure safe functioning for the long term. The hinge technology of the VARIANT product brand can be used for unrebated doors with leaf thickness of 40 to 70 millimeters and can be fitted in wood, steel and aluminum frames. They are approved for use for the functional purposes of fire, smoke and noise protection and are supplied in series with a matt-brushed stainless steel surface as well as other surfaces on request. (fap)
