EN 16005 explained — the safety standard for automatic doors
EN 16005 is the European safety standard for power-operated pedestrian doors. It governs how automatic sliding, swing and revolving doors are risk-assessed, safeguarded, inspected and documented — and in practice it is the route to a correct CE marking. Here is what the standard requires and who is responsible for what.
What is EN 16005?
EN 16005's full title is "Power operated pedestrian doorsets — Safety in use — Requirements and test methods". The standard covers power-operated doors for pedestrian use: automatic sliding, swing and revolving doors, as well as balanced and folding doors with horizontally moving leaves — indoors and outdoors, including doors on escape routes.
Industrial doors, garage doors and gates are not covered — they fall under EN 12453 — and power-operated pedestrian gates and barriers are handled in EN 17352.
EN 16005 and CE marking under the Machinery Directive
A power-operated door counts as a machine under the EU Machinery Directive and must be CE marked before it is put into service. The standard itself is voluntary — the legal requirement sits in the directive — but EN 16005 is harmonised under it. Following the standard therefore gives presumption of conformity with the directive's safety requirements, which makes it the established route to CE marking.
The responsibility for the CE marking lies with whoever completes the door as a machine. The party that assembles door leaf, operator and sensors into a finished doorset — often the installer — takes on the manufacturer's obligations: risk assessment, technical file, declaration of conformity and the CE mark.
The requirements in brief
The standard sets requirements in three main areas:
- Risk assessment: every installation must be risk-assessed for its environment. In the 2023 edition the assessment is based on the consequence of an accident rather than on user groups — in practice, most powered doors should now be treated as high-risk.
- Protective measures: crushing, shearing and impact points must be safeguarded up to a height of 2.5 metres, with safety distances for fingers, head and body. Protective sensors must comply with EN 12978 and be function-tested every door cycle, and safety-related control systems must reach performance level PL c — PL d on escape routes.
- Low-energy operation: without sensors, the door may only run in low-energy mode, with at most 67 N stopping force at the closing edge and at most 1.69 J of kinetic energy.
Inspection, service and maintenance
EN 16005 requires the doorset, including its protective devices, to be regularly maintained per the manufacturer's specification, and the standard states that the safety systems should be checked at least once a year by a competent person — more often in high-traffic environments.
National rules can add requirements on top. In Sweden, for instance, correctly CE-marked automatic pedestrian doors are exempt from the building authority's accredited periodic inspections — while the owner's duty to service, maintain and keep records remains in full. Check what applies in your country.
Logbook and documentation
Documentation is central to the standard. At handover the door must come with a risk assessment, technical documentation, a declaration of conformity and user instructions including maintenance instructions. EN 16005 additionally requires that the owner is informed of the importance of recording all maintenance — in the industry this is implemented as a per-door logbook where service visits, inspections, defects and repairs are entered as they happen.
That is exactly what Digilog does digitally: every door gets a logbook reachable from a QR label or CE sign on the door, risk assessments and declarations are generated in the same flow, and installer and building owner see the same history.
Who is responsible for what?
Until handover, the responsibility sits with the installer as manufacturer: meeting the standard's protective requirements, risk-assessing, documenting, issuing the declaration of conformity and affixing the CE mark.
After handover, the building owner or business takes over: making sure the door is serviced and maintained per the instructions, that the annual safety inspection gets done, and that everything is entered in the logbook. Installer and owner share the same documentation, in other words — which is the reason to keep it in one place, digitally.
Frequently asked questions about EN 16005
Is EN 16005 mandatory?
The standard itself is voluntary — the legal requirement is the Machinery Directive. But because EN 16005 is harmonised under the directive, following it gives presumption of conformity, and in practice it is the accepted way to show that a powered pedestrian door is safe and may carry the CE mark.
How often must automatic doors be checked under EN 16005?
The door must be maintained regularly per the manufacturer's specification, and the standard states that the safety systems should be checked at least once a year by a competent person. In high-traffic or demanding environments the industry recommends shorter intervals.
What is the difference between EN 16005 and EN 12453?
EN 16005 covers power-operated pedestrian doorsets — sliding, swing and revolving doors. EN 12453 covers industrial, commercial and garage doors and gates, and EN 17352 covers power-operated pedestrian gates and barriers.
Who is the "manufacturer" of an automatic door?
Typically the party that completes the doorset — assembling door leaf, operator and sensors into a working machine. That party, often the installer, signs the declaration of conformity and affixes the CE mark.
What does "CE 16005" mean?
It is a common conflation of two things: the CE marking is done under the Machinery Directive, while EN 16005 is the harmonised standard used to demonstrate that the directive's requirements are met. A correctly CE-marked automatic door is therefore normally built and documented per EN 16005.