Making the Workplace Safer, One Commercial Door at a Time

Commercial and Industrial environments are often considered high risk because of how frequently they experience injuries and damage in the workplace. But these environments don't have to be dangerous! There are a variety of enhancements and precautionary steps to incorporate with your commercial doors to make the workplace safer for all involved.

Before we dive into which products can maximize the safety in your workplace, did you know.. A safe working environment begins with choosing the right door, proper installation, and regular maintenance?

Choosing the Right Commercial Steel Door

People often don't know which overhead door is the best fit for their specific operation. Most people are choosing between roll-up sheet doors and sectional doors

• Sectional Doors: A sectional door is constructed of panels that operate up and over, resting parallel with the ceiling. Most commonly found in a garage.
• Roll-up Sheet Doors: A sheet door is constructed of corrugated sections of steel, lock seemed together to form one continuous curtain. Rather than resting out and exposed on the ceiling, roll-up sheet doors coil up and around a barrel, located above a doors opening. The barrel protects important elements for the door, in our case, it protect's factory lubricated springs. This compact design ensures a variety of advantages, such as a decreased risk to damage, maximized space, and faster installation times. See the image below for reference:

Properly Installing Your Commercial Steel Doors

Next, it's important that you have a certified installer to install, repair, and maintain your commercial doors. By following the specific instructions Janus provides during installation, you'll receive the best result out of your commercial steel doors. For more details on proper installation, check out our specific Installation Guides here!

Common Errors During Installation:

• Misalignment- Use a leveling tool when installing your commercial door to ensure proper alignment. "Eye-balling" measurements creates room for error, where proper alignment creates easy operation!
• Over-tensioning- Following the Janus Installation Guide is vital to the success of your installation, especially when it comes to tensioning. If the spring is over-tensioned, it could break and cause the door major difficulty when operating.

Maintaining Your Commercial Steel Doors

While steel doors have the advantage of little and easy maintenance, it's still vitally important to your daily operations that you complete the suggested maintenance and inspections on a regular basis. This helps you stay ahead of any problems that may arise with your door, ensuring decreased downtime and efficient productivity! 

For more details on our suggested maintenance and inspections, check out our Operation and Maintenance Manual!

Safety Enhancements for you Commercial Steel Doors

Now, for added security elements, there are a number of things you can incorporate into your daily operations, such as vision panels, photo sensors, reversing mechanisms, and sensing edges (just to name a few!). Let's go into more details below!

Vision Panels: Windows for your commercial steel doors that are constructed of translucent polycarbonate. 

• Allows inside visibility so you can see into specific areas without entering them and compromising personal safety.
• Allows outside visibility so you can see who's approaching your building before entering it.
• Reduces the risk for lateral impacts.
• Allows light entry for a better lit and safer working environment.

Reversing Mechanism: A system for motor-driven doors that forces the door to quickly reverse under specified conditions.

Photo Sensors: Equipment used for motor-driven doors to discover the distance, absence, or presence of an object by using a light transmitter and photo-electric receiver. When object is sensed, it initiates the door's reversing mechanism.

Sensing Edges: Attached to the leading edge of a motor-driven door, electrically activates the reversing mechanism when the sensing edge is compressed.

Even after taking precautions to avoid damage to your commercial doors, they're still at threat from unpredictable accidents such as damage from a forklift operation gone wrong. With that being said, not only is stocking your door to resist damage beneficial to both your wallet and operations, but having a door that can be quickly repaired is a HUGE advantage - and steel roll-up doors do just that!