Tour of garage door manufacturing plant

Earlier this year the team at Roller Doors Ltd finally got an opportunity to visit the Gliderol factory in County Durham to see how some of our doors are manufactured.

Gliderol`s core business activity has always been roller garage doors. However in recent years the company has invested heavily in manufacturing equipment that allows them to make doors that in terms of quality are second to none.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Gliderol`s Director of Sales and Marketing Ian Hetherington. The passion and experience Ian has was clear to see as we discussed products and toured the manufacturing plant.

According to Ian “Gliderol operates the world`s most extensive network of garage door and automation manufacturing companies. Our UK facility, based here in County Durham has been “opening doors around the world” for over twenty years. Our reputation is second to none for the high quality and outstanding value our products and services represent.”

First stop on the factory tour was the sectional garage doors production line. This is a great piece of kit and at 103m long and costing in excess of £5m it should be. It was highlighted that it is the only panel forming plant in the UK that is capable of forming panel at 6metres a minute.



Ian enthusiastically explained that the first step in the process starts with the coils of raw material. Once placed on the production line, manufacture starts by passing the steel through a series of presses and roll formers. This embosses the steel to the required design in either a textured finish or a smooth finish depending upon the door specification.

Next stage in the process sees the doors been trimmed to the required length using a computer aided guillotine. If the door specification does not require insulation, it is at this point that the panels are taken to be completed by hand.



When the specification is set to include insulation, the door panel continues to the final stage where the front and back panels are joined together and the insulation is automatically poured into the panel, As the foam expands, it fills all the voids creating a complete insulated panel.

As Ian explained, having the capability to manufacture doors panels on site allows Gliderol the ability to strictly control quality.

Other big advantages achieved from having the ability to manufacture the door panels on site include;

·    60 height and 16 standard width variations in the single skin Safe-T-Glide doors range.

·    23 height and 16 standard width variations in the insulated Insul-Glide door range.

·    4 standard colours.

·    Golden Oak and Rosewood panels are available in the insulated and single skin doors (a first for the UK)

·    Made to measure widths available.

·    Georgian squares on the Oxford and Hampton doors are evenly spaced to suit the width of the door. (not every manufacturer does this)

·    Ability to produce smooth or woodgrain finishes.

        

•  In addition to the above, Gliderol sectional garage door hardware is a new evolution of a proven design that has been tried and tested across Europe. It brings all the engineering quality you expect and adds the easy fit system making it an installers dream.

All sectional doors are now supplied with a low headroom kit a standard. The internal headroom required is now only 110mm for a manual door or 130mm for an automatic door.