Operations at a recycling facility can be extremely tough on your assets. Heavy truck and equipment traffic, crowded facilities, dust, water, and debris take a toll on all the machinery on site.
Particularly at the entrances and exits of buildings, it takes only one unwary operator to cause significant damage to both the building and the equipment.
While the answer to damage at a scrap yard is often “armor it up,” when it comes to overhead doors, the answer, unintuitively enough, may be to seek a softer material, such as rubber.
Steel roll up doors have their advantages, but they’re better suited to locations where impact risk is low. Any significant impact to a steel slatted door from vehicles or machinery is likely to bend the slats past the point of repair.
A customer who uses steel doors on their site, for example, was disappointed to learn that only two months after the installation, a door was damaged beyond repair and required replacement of the entire door curtain. They have since switched to rubber doors at many locations.
Rubber rollup doors for heavy industry
Today’s rubber and PVC vinyl doors are feature-packed and much more durable than those you may have encountered in the past. They come in hurricane-wind rated versions, are fire-resistant, and can be repaired with a simple patch in the event they do sustain damage.
Photo courtesy of Albany Doors
One company we work with and recommend is Albany Doors in Kenosha, WI. The company manufactures high performance rubber doors for heavy duty, industrial applications — including scrap yards. The doors are built to withstand accidental impact from collisions, keeping your workers secure and your operations on schedule. They also help reduce energy costs.
The most important feature, in our experience, is the ability of these door curtains to breakaway in the case of a significant impact.
Rather than damaging the door curtain or mountings, the curtain will tear free from the side rails and can be re-seated with just an hour or two of labor — depending on the size of the door.
More advanced models include automatic reseating at the push of a button, returning the door to operation near instantaneously.
