The Shard in London is currently Europe’s highest building and has 72 floors. The square-shaped tower, which reaches a height of 310 metres has façades that tilt up at an angle (85°), causing the building to taper to a point. The tower has all-glass façades on all four sides, totalling 80,000 square metres of glass spread across 11,000 façade elements. This glazing requires regular cleaning, and maintenance work also occasionally needs to be carried out on the façades. In order to reach the lower half, eight doors have been installed halfway up the façade structure, on the thirtieth floor, concealing window-washing equipment. Everything about these eight doors is special. They are overhead doors that are activated by means of a combined drive system. The doors are all-glass and identical to the rest of the façade, as well as incorporating various safety systems. The drive system for the overhead doors and all associated components were developed, produced and supplied by Protec.
