Door Downtime: Time to Upgrade Your Loading Bay Industrial Doors?

Among the words that strike dread in the hearts of loading bay managers, ‘door downtime' ranks highly. Door downtime is dead time. Should it be impossible to close an industrial door serving a loading bay, concerns about security and weather protection arise. Finding an industrial door that is broken and cannot be opened is still more serious - neither loading nor unloading can occur at an inaccessible loading bay. Moreover, while getting the best from existing industrial doors is praiseworthy, a certain point will arrive. At this point, poor operation, inadequate insulation, wear and tear and even a scruffy appearance will no longer suffice. In short, it's upgrade time.

What, then, should a loading bay manager look for in a set of industrial doors? The first and most obvious requirement is efficiency. The operating system of a roller shutter industrial door incorporates cables, springs and, more often than not, an electric motor. Choosing doors equipped with these is fine, provided you know that they will give years of trouble-free service, despite a heavy daily operating cycle count. For this very reason, it makes sense to ensure that the doors carry a comprehensive warranty and that suitable service and maintenance services are available on a contractual basis.

What about the materials and the way they're finished? Many industrial doors boast stainless steel hardware, as well as external coatings that are tough enough to be practical as well as remaining attractive over time. One such finish is Plastisol, a powder coat surface that can withstand the ravages of both time and the weather.

Speaking of the weather, industrial doors have to defend the loading bays they conceal against this. What's more, it isn't only their coatings that must battle the elements. In addition to being rain proof, doors must be corrosion proof as well as retaining heat within the loading bay when closed. For this reason, industrial doors are frequently double-skinned and are offered with options such as weather strips and brush strips. Where ventilation is required – and it often is – suitably attractive and, more importantly, strong ventilating grilles are available.

One further point warrants careful thought. The buyer-errant's considering robustness, practicality, weather resistance and appearance is all very well. However, the matter of fitment must be borne in mind. The off-the-peg roller shutter industrial door is a rare thing nowadays. As well as being popular, industrial doors of this kind are generally tailor-made to suit their intended location.

This, in turn, generates the need for further care and consideration. Of what? The options that are chosen to both supplement and complement a new set of industrial doors. This is where the careful study of the door maker's catalogue is essential. Reliability and ease of use are givens here. However, do you want cable break and spring break devices to be incorporated? How about a wicket gate? Should the door be electrically operated, should it have a safety edge on its lower rail? Do you need a remotely controlled timed return? Photocells and an inductive loop are further options and here, knowledge is power. Time spent learning what is available, is time spent wisely.

Above all, achieving the desired loading bay appearance, in which your existing scruffy, unreliable industrial doors are replaced by a set of smart, dependable efficient doors, isn't so difficult. All it takes is the right choice - from the right supplier.

Chase Equipment are a leading international supplier of industrial doors. See our website at Chase Equipment for more information.

On The Level: Edge Of Dock Levellers In Detail

'Sitting at the edge of the dock' isn't quite a 1967 Otis Redding classic but edge of dock levellers offer a viable, not to mention economical, solution to the problems of loose bridging plates and the cost of inbuilt electro-hydraulic units.

The obvious questions are those concerning what edge of dock levellers do. The answers are simple enough. First, you need something to establish a strong, smooth path along which loading and unloading can be carried out. The loading dock is one part of this path, the lorry's bed is another; edge of dock levellers bridge the gap between the two.

How do these items work? A spring-assisted plate with a hinged lip comes into play after the lorry has been reversed in, square and central to the dock. In fact, the leveller has buffers to facilitate this accurate positioning. An operating lever, mounted in a sleeve between the lip plate and buffer, is pulled upwards and backwards. This causes the lip to rise higher than the vehicle's load bed. Moving the lever forward extends the plate, allowing it to rest on the vehicle's bed. The same lever is used for decoupling before the lorry moves off.

Knowing how an edge of dock leveller works is interesting but it doesn't tell us what such a device can handle. To say one can handle everything from a roll cage to a forklift truck goes without saying. However, looking in more detail at a representative specification reveals much, if not all.

Typically, edge of dock levellers can cope with roll over loads of 9,000kg. The extendable lip can stand 317mm proud of the face of the buffers and the quickly and easily positioned plate can be both engaged and parked when a vehicle is already docked. It's usual for such a leveller to accommodate lorry bed heights within 100mm of the loading bank. The steel chequer surface plate has a chamfered lip to make for seamless transition between the dock and the lorry bed, and maintenance is child's play. Normally, all that's needed is occasional lubrication of the edge of dock leveller's hinge tubes.

Compared to alternative dock-levelling equipment, edge of dock levellers have a great deal to recommend them. Conventional pit-mounted levellers require installation space and a pit; the former may not be available and the latter is invariably expensive. There's also the matter of complication and the consequently extended installation time. As we all know, time is money and time spent installing hardware is also downtime for the loading bay concerned.

Can edge of dock levellers be described in a word? Not quite but they can be described in no more than three words. Which are? How about unobtrusive, economical and efficient? The bottom line is inextricably linked with the final word here. Making a more than adequately specified, safe, smooth load path for the goods you have to handle is hardly rocket science, nor need the task be overly complicated and therefore expensive. This elegantly simple solution offers an efficient means of achieving a loading dock that is itself efficient and therefore productive.

Chase Equipment are a leading international supplier of dock levellers. See our website at Chase Equipment for more information.