High Speed Fabric Doors were introduced as a main-stream product in the United States back in the early 80’s. The original designs were somewhat maintenance intensive and offered value in very selective and specific applications.
Today, higher quality fabric doors are extremely low maintenance because they are designed to handle hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cycles of use before replacement. This translates to life spans of 10 – 20 years in active environments. “Original designs” required the use of high maintenance components items such as bottom bars, coil cords and safety edges. The higher quality offerings today eliminate these failure points through technological advances. They also are designed to handle impacts from lift truck traffic without damage while re-feeding the curtain after impact. This eliminates the need to trouble the already overworked maintenance personnel.
So, now that Fabric Doors are high speed, designed to take a hit and are low maintenance and reliable, where do customers utilize them?
The sweet spot for a fabric door includes any location within a plant environment that has a need to separate two environments from weather or contaminants. For example, an active “traditional style” ramp door (moving at 8-12” per second) can be replaced with a fabric door (moving up to 100″ per second). Depending on usage, an ROI of 6 months to a year can be easily achieved on energy alone (not to mention productivity gains and maintenance cost reductions).
Other areas to consider are locations where door damage and maintenance is hurting your budget. If you have a door getting hit or breaking springs, it is likely a great location to consider the benefits of a high speed fabric door.
Energy conservation and protecting finished goods from rain and snow have never been more important. A properly designed dock enclosure will keep the outside elements out during the loading cycle. Frommelt seals and shelters offer unique solutions, such as Firefighter Technology, for protecting against trailer marker light fires at the dock. The Eliminator Gapmaster provides full access loading while sealing the trailer hinge gap.
