Image: Rite-Hite’s Barrier Glider cold storage door improves on the technology of traditional cold storage doors. Innovative Iso-Tek® panels are combined with a Thermal-Flex Sealing System to help achieve superior environmental separation at the opening with lower energy costs.

Doors and walls play important roles in facility safety and work zone separation, as well as cold chain integrity. High-speed fabric roll-up doors are becoming more popular across all types of industrial facilities due to their forklift-friendly safety design. A forklift collision with traditional, bi-parting doors can lead to driver injury, product or equipment damage and costly downtime due to repair. Fabric doors allows them to withstand forklift impact and snap right back into their tracks – greatly reducing both downtime and energy loss as compared to traditional doors.

Cold storage facility managers are also becoming increasingly aware of the energy-efficiency benefits of high-speed doors as opposed to slow moving traditional doors. In addition to food, they are highly applicable for keeping pharma product within heavily regulated set temperature levels mandated by government agencies. This awareness shift is taking place globally, with the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) recognising the importance of high-speed doors. Its 2015 edition includes a revision to Table C402.4.3, which describes the maximum air infiltration rates for fenestration assemblies. As a draft copy of the table notes, their fast cycle times (up to 2.5m per second) minimises air exchange, which is a key part of reducing overall energy
losses through a door opening.

Image: High-speed, roll-up doors are becoming a must for cooler and freezer applications.

Blast freezers present their own unique set of door challenges. Also known as “shock” freezers, blast freezers are widely used in the food industry to quickly freeze everything from TV dinners to fish to ice cream. Unfortunately, these massive blast freezers present a threat to in-plant safety for employees and equipment. The size, pressure and frost build-up in many blast freezers often makes the insulated panel doors very cumbersome to move. In some cases, these large doors (which can be as a large as 7m by 7m) have become so heavy and hard to open that employees have resorted to dangerous methods to open them, such as using a forklift. When left open even a crack, these doors can waste large amounts of energy.

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