by Amanda Banes
The industrial revolution paved the way for huge industries all over the world fueled by the advancements in science and technology. Huge industries were accompanied by large factories, storage and production lines. Such establishments required industrial-grade components. The industries were given certain safety standards to follow for which they had to come up with solutions specifically for their own unique purposes. Among the various types of infrastructural requirements, there were certain types of doors and gates that these industries and buildings required. Unlike the domestic doorways made of light and aesthetically inclined materials, the industrial counterparts were made specially to be strong and to adhere to safety requirements. Let’s have a look at some examples of these doorways designed to serve industrial purposes.
Bi-fold
Since the industrial purpose of doors is much different than that of domestic settings, industrial doors sometimes focus on the economical aspect along with maintaining durability. Bi-fold doors are doors that can fold in half and can be lifted overhead. These are used extensively by the aircraft industries to be fitted in the hangars. The hangars require doors that are sturdy and do not take up a lot of space. Aluminum is the preferred metal used for such doorways. The Bi-fold doors made of aluminum offer quite some durability along with being lightweight. This makes them easy for transportation and uses little energy to be folded up by the motor. Durability and offering economical usage is the mantra for these doors. Other industries have also followed suit and installed bi-fold doors in their factories and warehouses.
Bottom Rolling Doors
Some specifications in industrial settings require the doorways to slide sideways instead of lifting upwards. In such cases, the heavy doors were fitted with rollers under them so that they could be easily pulled open. Such doors are also used by the aviation industry at places where they are required. These doors are also primarily made of aluminum which provides enough strength to such huge structures. The aluminum also makes these doors lightweight which sometimes removes the requirement of a motor to operate them, in turn making them highly economical.
Tip-Up
Tip-Up doors were invented specially for the places where conservation of space is paramount. These motor operated doors are usually quite large in size and as the name suggests they tip up towards the roof to make an opening. Some tip-up doors featured at https://www.appliedrite.com/tucson_industrial_hangar_doors.html are the perfect mix of aluminum and steel used in the manufacture of these doors to make them everlasting and lightweight for quick and smooth motion. Again, these doors are used in the main aircraft hangars and provide immunity from all types of weather conditions. These are obviously impervious to dust, water and strong winds.
Vertical Lift
For extraordinarily large doorways, people prefer to get a vertical lift gate installed due to its simple and economical design which can also easily fulfill the industrial-grade requirements. Such gates that are lifted directly upwards are either multi-leaf or single. These are used in multiple scenarios in various industries where the scale of operation and production is larger than normal in size. Such industries include mining industries, shipyards, etc. These doors are made with such advanced technology and sturdy material that they can even outlast the life of the building itself. They easily stand extreme environmental conditions and are impervious to drastic pressure changes. These doors are also used in a lot of bunker facilities that are made to resist atomic and nuclear blasts.
Four-Fold Doorways
Places with limited headroom and requirements of wide horizontal openings usually prefer four-fold doorways. As the name suggests these gates/doors fold 2 times each in both directions to allow for maximum utilization of space without having to depend on a vertical component. These doorways are mostly seen at fire stations and rail entry roads. These doorways are not donut sturdy but cannot compare to the high durability of doors like vertical-lift and tip-ups. Four-fold doors are also aesthetically more sound than the other above mentioned door types.
Rolling shutters
There are always challenges in the industrial setups where overhead and side pocket areas for doors will be limited and we would have to look at other options apart from the ones we have talked about. This would bring us to the genius design of the rolling shutters. Mostly made of steel, these doors are made of thin layers of steel that are rolled overhead when open and they roll back straight down when they need to close. These doorways, even though made out of thin metal, are quite sturdy due to the qualities of steel. Even though these can be spotted in almost every industrial setting, domestic areas sometimes also have these doors installed in garages and outhouses of residencies.
Fire Doors
With high safety standards for different conditions in the industrial sectors, a requirement for fire doors came up with high demand. Fire doors are overhead rolling steel doors built to withstand fires and high temperatures. These doors are designed to automatically close by themselves in case of a fire. A fuse link fitted in such doors is set to break at a certain temperature after which the door is immediately closed with a high-speed motor. Such doors are made compulsory by government regulations in a lot of industrial places where there are high chances of fire outbreaks.
Security Grills
Security grills, unlike the rolling steel shutters, are overhead grills that collapse together and are not made by a seamless sheet of steel. There are numerous designs available for the security grill. For instance, Side-folding Grilles, Motor-operated Grilles, and Chain Hoist Grilles. These are usually installed in commercial and industrial areas where the requirements ask for a see-through barrier. Such grills come in various patterns and have different collapsible potentials depending on the requirement. These grilles aren’t as tough as the rolling steel shutters but aren’t fragile either. They can withstand enough force so as to prevent burglaries.
Industrial shutters and doors, as we can see from the above descriptions, are mostly made to serve certain purposes like safety, to save money and to last for as long as possible. Manufacturing of these gateways is done carefully as they have to meet certain industry standards to fulfill their requirements.
