High Speed Door Selection Guide

Several factors come into play when finding the right high-speed door for your specific application. Most decision makers know to consider things like environment, traffic, and your specific safety and security needs.

Other considerations in knowing how to choose industrial high-speed doors will make you successful, though. Here we walk through what you might know to think about and what’s not so obvious when identifying the right door for your facility.

Faster Doors for Material Handling Applications

Warehouses and distribution centers usually have more loading dock doors than in-plant doors. But when you install interior doors — like in processing or manufacturing areas — you want doors that move fast.

Pedestrians might need to use material handling doors, but most traffic is forklifts. So these openings need big, fast-cycle doors.

You essentially have two high-speed options in fabric roll-up doors and bi-parting doors. Choosing between the two might depend on the immediate space around the door and management’s preference.

Roll-up doors like Rite-Hite’s FasTrax® offer speeds of up to 100 inches/second and safety options that include clear window panels and soft-edge technology. The roll-up operation gives them an extremely small footprint, too.

What happens when a forklift hits your door, though? Some roll-up doors are designed to be impactable — they hold up better in tough environments. For many doors, though, a forklift hit causes downtime. FasTrax is designed so the door curtain re-sets on its side-frame tracks if it gets knocked out of alignment.

Bi-parting doors can be an attractive option for facilities with high-mast forklifts that need quick access. Rite-Hite’s SplitSecond® doors open from the center outward at speeds as fast as 120 inches/second. The ability to see obstacles on the other side of the door faster can be an added safety benefit with this option. However, these doors need more space on either side of the opening to allow for door panels to open horizontally.

Fast Cycle Times and Better Air Filtering for Cold Storage Applications

Doors are critical in food and beverage plants for temperature separation, which is key in ensuring product integrity. Cold storage managers know finding doors that meet regulations while delivering fast cycle times so temperature-sensitive products aren’t ruined is critical.

The traditional approach to refrigeration is heavy, insulated, rigid doors with a high R-value. These work well for low-traffic areas with fewer cycles. But they require strong, load-bearing infrastructure and don’t hold up well if impacted by a forklift.

Folding doors or low R-value, high-speed doors minimize air infiltration. However, some models have poor sealing characteristics or an R-value too low to prevent frost from building on its panel surface. This often requires heat lamps or air curtains for higher costs for operation.

High-speed fabric doors have fast cycle times, excellent for heavy-traffic areas. Doors with high R-values give better temperature separation, but only when closed — high R-value doors’ slower speeds mean they’re open longer for traffic.

Material handling traffic in cold storage tends to be heavy. That makes doors with slightly lower R-values but fast cycle times and automatic closing more practical. Additionally, fabric roll-up doors with a single overhead assembly (like the FasTrax® FR Cold Storage Door) or low-weight bi-parting tracks (including the Barrier Glider®) give you options for walls that don’t support big, heavy doors.

Speed and Security for Your Building’s Exterior Access Points

Doors on a facility’s exterior have to address security in addition to high traffic and (extreme) temperature changes.

It’s a tough balance. Some go with a double-door solution for all three factors — high-speed fabric for temps and traffic plus a rolling steel or sectional door for security. That’s not entirely practical or economical, though.

Fast-cycling rigid overhead doors cover each concern while helping reduce energy costs and increase employee comfort. These security doors, like Rite-Hite’s Raptor Rigid line of security doors, are much faster and more secure than conventional doors. They can also be lower maintenance and safer than conventional exterior doors.

High Speed, Easy-to-Sanitize Doors for Clean Room and Wash down Applications

Clean room doors typically are for pharmaceutical and food applications, two of the most strictly regulated industries. They must accommodate stringent cleaning and wash-down protocols.

High-speed, anti-microbial doors with wash-down capabilities are essential for clean operations and food product integrity. In addition to cleanliness, their designs address environmental control, productivity and safety.

In these environments, USDA and FDA standards demand solutions that hold up in wet, harsh conditions. Sealed, protected doors, including Rite-Hite’s FasTrax® Wash down and LiteSpeed Wash down, withstand high-pressure cleanings. They’re built for fast, easy, thorough wash downs with fewer areas and materials that can trap particles and bacteria.

Doors with exposed fasteners and coils take longer to clean and could harbor contaminants. To ensure complete 360-degree clean capability, look for doors with side frames that can be removed for cleaning so the drive system and controls are completely sealed and wash down rated.

In clean room applications, doors like the ISO-Clean® Roll-Up prevent cross-contamination and help maintain correct room pressures, air circulation rates and optimal operating efficiency. Rite-Hite's ISO-Clean Glider helps control contamination risks and pressure leaks with its robust construction and innovative Smart Seal System.

FDA cleanroom standards outline recommendations and requirements for manufacturers. As a starting point, look for doors compliant with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) Regulations.

In all cases, these doors must stand up to repeated cleaning with chemical solvents and have a smooth, non-porous surface resistant to microbial and fungal growth.

Doors should also have tapered surfaces and edges that help eliminate hiding places for dust or other contaminants, with no sharp angles to minimize places where microbes might reside.

Additionally, they should:

• Be corrosion-resistant (often a problem with older door systems)
• Use stainless steel side frames and shrouds
• Incorporate a design free of lubrication, which can attract particulates

Whether roll-up or bi-parting, these kinds of doors weigh less than traditional stainless steel and fiberglass options that require stronger walls.

Machine Guarding Doors in Manufacturing

Robots can help manufacturers reduce labor costs and unplanned downtime. They might also increase output, improving quality and workplace cleanliness.

However, any manufacturing facility that operates machines with integrated robots needs to consider point-of-operation safety. Machine guarding products have an increased level of protection with safeguarding that can be seen, unlike traditional invisible light curtains. Physical guarding greatly reduces opportunities for accidental work stoppages, improving productivity of the operation.

A fully customizable safety guard is best for protecting employees, the machine itself, nearby machines and materials. It will predict and account for application-driven hazards including airborne debris, heat, fumes, smoke, sparks, accidental discharge, spray/mist/fluids and mechanical movement.

An automated machine guard accomplishes all of this while requiring less manual interaction to help reduce operator fatigue and operator error.

Rite-Hite automated barrier doors and industrial safety doors protect personnel by containing the process of and restricting access to dangerous robot/machine movement.

Rite-Hite's automated safety curtains, including the Slide-Air, protect employees from secondary hazards associated with your manufacturing processes, like robotic welding/fixed automation, production lines, machine centers, robotic machine tending applications, cutting systems, environmental separation, clean room applications, CNC routers, etc. All products can be integrated into existing controls to completely automate the manufacturing process.

Look for Features that Enhance Safety and Efficiency

Rite-Hite high speed doors are all powered by the Rite-Hite ONE digital platform. Real-time insights and predictive capabilities assure smoother operations with fewer disruptions and increased performance across the facility. Connected door equipment provides insights into false activations, excessive door opens, and door breakaways allowing you to prioritize maintenance and mitigate safety incidents.

Additionally, all Rite-Hite high speed doors come standard with Door-Commander™ Advanced Controls, featuring the industry's only 10" LCD touch screen interface. These controls allow for seamless adjustments and troubleshooting from a convenient location near the door opening. Door-Commander also offers insights into the door’s operation, including number of cycles, false activations and more. Additionally, it integrates the Safe-Alert Countdown Timer to show vehicle operators how many seconds remain before the door closes. Door-Commander Advanced Controls also include the hardware needed to connect to Rite-Hite ONE (subscription required).

Understand How the Door Will Be Used

A facility’s in-plant doors might not seem like the most important part of any large plant. But choosing the right door for the specific application it’s designed for can have a crucial, long-lasting impact. Your doors can have a major impact on business operations, whether it’s energy use, productivity or safety.

If you are a facility manager, architect, general contractor, or anyone else tasked with selecting an interior door at a facility, contact us to learn more about making equipment selections for your application.

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