Time was when buying industrial doors was a far simpler exercise than today because they were nearly all manually operated and, therefore, having no powered, moving parts needed relatively little maintenance. Under the pressure of legislation dealing with hygiene, energy consumption and safety issues, however, doors have become more complex, and with complexity comes the need for a robust maintenance regime. On loading bays, in particular, the safety issue now sees doors integrated with traffic lights, for example, whilst elsewhere sensors can alert forklift drivers whether or not their approaching truck is too big for the door size.
What all these advances mean is that door buyers should be aware of two key issues, the quality of the door build and a maintenance regime fit for purpose. Yet the fact remains, according to door manufacturer, Union Industries, there is still much neglect of door maintenance issues, many of whose customers came to them because they were disappointed at having to replace their existing doors after a relatively short time.
What this highlights is that all prospective door buyers, particularly for large installations, should visit the door makers’ production sites to gauge the build quality, the stock of spare parts and the after-sales servicing regime offered. This should then be augmented by site visits to the suppliers’ customers where they will form an unbiased view of door reliability and quality of after-sales support. All of the leading door producers will encourage their prospective customers to make such visits but where this is not done then buyers should beware.
Obviously, all these extra complexities add to the purchase price of the doors but, as with buying forklifts, the initial purchase cost should be subordinated to the life cycle costs. One of the key issues that can help buyers decide on the value of changing from one type of door to another is the expected payback from the investment through energy savings. The most popular door for achieving this is the fast-acting PVC roller door, though other materials are also used, particularly found on insulated roller, slatted doors which are robust enough to serve as external security doors and so do away with the need for two doors.
Such paybacks will depend on issues like the type of operational environment, i.e. cold, chilled or ambient, production processes that could be temperature or hygiene sensitive, operational periods, quality of maintenance and so on, but rapid-roll doors can be expected to render a payback within two years and sometimes much less, mainly through energy cost savings. All of the leading door suppliers help their prospective clients in this by providing free energy audits, some of which are available on line.
The payback issue, however, can be affected by safety issues because doors and forklifts are not easy bedfellows. Wind resistance and door neglect are other issues that will lengthen payback periods. To help keep operational costs down, door suppliers offer crash-out facilities that often allow users to repair the doors quickly themselves. But there is no evading the fact that accidents highlight the need for safer practices, particular for forklift drivers, and safer practices save money.
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