Industrial & Sectional Doors — Specification and Safety Standards for Commercial Premises
The type of door selected for an opening in an industrial or commercial building affects operational efficiency, thermal efficiency, security, and compliance with safety of machinery regulations. These are distinct product types, each appropriate for different operational situations, traffic volumes and patterns, and functional and structural limitations. Specifying a type that is unsuitable for the circumstances will lead to issues that are costly to remedy after the door is installed.
The primary standard applicable to industrial, commercial, garage and loading bay doors in the UK is BS EN 13241, which outlines the basic requirements for safety, mechanical integrity, and thermal performance. Products placed on the market are required to display UKCA marking (CE marking for products placed on the market under certain transitional provisions) as evidence of compliance with the standard. The limits for force and kinetic energy for powered movement of doors and, therefore, the thresholds which determine the need for automatic reversing and safety edge devices, are specified in BS EN 12453 which is a normative reference in BS EN 13241.
Recessed and Sectional Overhead Doors
Sectional overhead doors are designed to move vertically. The panels are designed to move up on tracks and hinge to convert and slide to the horizontal position above the door opening. The door panels are segmented and typically made from insulated steel.
Due to the above described mechanism, overhead sectional doors are the default choice for warehouses and distribution centers that need direct access from loading vehicles to the building front. The design alleviates the need for the opening door to have a jaw for the door so the vehicles can park up to the building and this is important in tight yard spaces.
For cold storage warehouses and temperature-controlled storage, the thermal performance of the sectional doors is important. The insulated door panels have declared U-values for the sections that must be considered against the thermal envelope of the building. The thermal performance of the doors is a function of design of the panels, application of weather seals and the quality of the bottom seal to the floor unevenness.
Sectional overhead doors can be manual or automatic. For automatic doors with built-in controls, as per BS EN 12453, the doors are subject to force and energy limitations. Therefore, these doors must also have safety edges or other obstruction-sensitive contact safety systems, which reverse, or stop the door from moving.
Roller Shutter Doors
The design of roller shutters consists of horizontal, interlocked slats which form a door. Upon door opening, these slats coil around a drum above the opening. Additionally, the motor drum assembly is fitted within the opening. This design allows the roller shutters to require less headroom clearance than sectional doors. Furthermore, roller shutters can be more easily added to older structures.
Steel roller shutters are commonly used in security-sensitive areas like perimeter security doors, storage cage doors, and areas where controlled access is a must. This is because the construction of the slats, locking systems, and the side guides define the overall security of the door. In these areas, roller shutters that have been tested to Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) standards are preferred because they provide proof of security against determined attacks.
Insulated roller shutters can be used for openings that require thermal separation. However, because of the construction of the slats and the uneven floor, the thermal performance against sectional overhead doors is quite poor due to the thermal gaps present.
Situations where airflow is necessary or where some visibility through the closed door is needed utilize perforated slat variants — including internal security screens, counter shutters, and ventilated storage areas.
High-Speed Doors
High-speed doors are used for high cycle openings — of several hundred per day — where the main aims are to reduce the exchange of air between zones, keep thermal breaks, and maintain operational throughput. Their standard opening speeds are between 1 and 3 metres per second, with some special editions that go above this.
High-speed doors are primarily used in chilled distribution and cold store facilities. A standard door would generate a high level of thermal loss and condensation. They are useful in manufacturing facilities where there is a need to control the level of contamination at differing production zones, and at locations where the traffic is heavy and there is a potential for a queue to form where there is a door that opens slowly and creates a throughput blockage.
At high speed doors, the most common material used is fabric, which is used as a flexible curtain on a fast-operating mechanism. In case the curtain is hit by a vehicle, the mechanism is designed to reset automatically, allowing the door to avoid serious structural damage that would require the attendance of an engineer. As a result, this reset-on-impact feature, is critical for high volume traffic areas.
High speed powered doors fall under the same regulations as other industrial powered doors do, which is BS EN 12453. Given the speed of the doors, the edge/safety detection systems are the most important part of the door. A door that is designed to open in 2 seconds (2 metres per second) poses a much greater risk, and requires more safety systems, than a door that is designed to open in 10 seconds (0.2 metres per second).
Industrial Personnel Doors (IPD)
Industrial personnel doors are the access doors that are typically situated on the side of an industrial door, allowing pedestrians to access the building without having to open the main vehicle door. In warehouse and distribution facilities, this is the usual setup: the large door facilitates the movement of vehicles, while the personnel door serves the staff on foot.
If a personnel door is integrated into a roller shutter or a sectional door panel, the design must consider the structural continuity of the main door when the personnel door is closed and also ensure that the main door cannot be operated while the personnel door is open. For powered doors of this type, interlocking the personnel door and the main door is a standard practice.
The personnel doors on escape routes from the industrial premises are subject to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and therefore, the doors must adhere to either BS EN 179 (Emergency Exit Devices) or BS EN 1125 (Panic Exit Devices) based on the findings of the fire risk assessment. If the personnel door is also a fire door, it must be certified as such — it is important to note that an industrial personnel door and a fire-rated personnel doorset are not the same product.
Maintenance
Powered industrial doors are classified as mechanical plant and therefore entail periodic maintenance to remain operational safe and legally compliant. The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) states that work equipment (which is inclusive of powered doors), must be maintained in an efficient state and good repair. If a maintenance log is required, it must be continual and up to date.
This typically means that an annual service must be carried out by a qualified engineer, and a sufficiently safe, maintenance-free check of the safety edges, auto-reversing function, and any access control or interlocking systems must be carried out. The Door Hardware Federation and DHF Group TR 19 are guides for the door industry on the different types and usages of doors and the corresponding maintenance frequency needed.