A lead-lined doorset specification usually begins with one number: a lead equivalence in millimetres, taken from the radiation shielding assessment for the room. It is a small piece of information to build a doorset around, and there are a handful of things worth settling before it reaches a schedule.
The Radiation Protection Adviser’s assessment gives you a lead code for the room, and that is the figure the doorset has to meet. SDS’s Shieldoor can be specified from Code 3 to Code 6 where the doorset is fire-rated, and from Code 3 to Code 8 where it is not.
Most lead-lined doorsets are built according to where the lead sits within the surrounding wall. That means the doorset cannot be finalised until the wall build-up is settled, and it creates a coordination burden for designers and a fitting problem for installers.
Shieldoor is universally designed, so it protects against radiation regardless of the wall construction, the orientation of the doorset, or where the lead sits within the wall. For a specifier that removes a dependency rather than managing one, which is the single most useful thing to know about it.
The design was developed with a Radiation Protection Adviser, healthcare designers and hospital estates teams, and is formally RPA approved.
This is the point most easily missed at design stage. Non-fire-rated and FD30 Shieldoors are suitable for dual orientation and can be installed opening either into or away from the fire risk side. FD60 Shieldoors are not — they can only be installed opening away from the fire risk side, which is typically the room side.
If that would put a door across a corridor, recessing the wall into the room resolves it. Worth establishing early, because it affects the room layout rather than just the door schedule.
A controlled area needs an illuminated indication when the equipment is live, which makes the warning light and the doorset one specification decision rather than two. There are two ways to handle it.
Priviglaze+ — the same panel with LED warning light modules built in and wording specified to suit the room, so one component carries observation, privacy and the warning indication. Available with x-ray shielded glass: Code 3 to Code 6 fire-rated, up to Code 7 non-fire-rated, Code 8 not available. Face-mounted laser blinds can be added where laser protection is also required.
Flush warning light panels — fitted directly into the Shieldoor leaf where no vision panel is wanted. Custom wording available to suit the room.
None of these can sensibly be retrofitted into a finished doorset, which is the practical reason to settle the question at specification stage rather than leaving it to the room data sheets.
Lead-lined doorsets are often handed to a separate specialist while the rest of the doorsets on a scheme come from elsewhere. That arrangement works, and it costs something: two delivery programmes to coordinate, two sets of certification paperwork for the handover file, and a boundary of responsibility running between the two.
Where both come from the same manufacturer it becomes one schedule, one programme and one set of evidence. And because ranges such as Dfendoor and Shieldoor share the same colour and finish options, the shielded doorsets match the department around them rather than announcing themselves.
SDS’ Specification Guide for PVC post-formed doorsets covers Shieldoor lead-lined doorsets, alongside SDS Dfendoor range with the selection criteria, ironmongery and other specification requirements set out in full.