“Style’s moveable wall installation is proving a great success and perfectly complements the new-look Santander branch,” confirms Ruben Sesmero, architect with the in-house Santander design team. “Staff appreciate the additional functionality it delivers to their working environment whilst customers welcome easy access using their bank debit card into a bright and spacious, 24hr ATM facility.”

Style, the sole UK supplier of DORMA moveable wall systems, worked closely with the Santander design team to deliver a solution that offered the desired level of functionality and security.

Incorporating the DORMA ComfortDrive system, the Santander moveable partition slides effortlessly into place at the press of a button for night-time set up. During branch opening hours, the glass panels neatly retract through a slim opening in the back wall to stack in a small recessed area out of sight. The floor-mounted guide rail is extremely shallow and compact, ensuring no trip hazard when the glass wall is retracted.

Understandably security was an important consideration for the bank’s design team. A high specification solution, the Varitrans system is constructed using anti-bandit, 11.5mm laminated safety glass. The individual panels themselves feature interlocking profiles, effectively preventing a lever attack, or ‘jemmying’, whilst an electronic lock shoots out a bolt to secure the final panel in place. Ensuring staff and customer safety, an integral sensor activates the wall to stop and reverse if an obstruction is encountered.

“We have seen a significant increase in demand for fully automatic partitioning walls in recent years,” confirms Style’s group managing director, Julian Sargent. “People like the fast simplicity of the ComfortDrive system and recognise the health and safety advantages too. There is no manual handling and the panels are always correctly positioned with no chance of operator error.”