Industrial Steel Folding Doors
The use of steel, double skinned, insulated folding doors on industrial and commercial applications makes perfect sense and they are an ideal door choice for wider openings or when the building has many internal obstacles. More customers should consider an industrial specification folding door for their building as they offer so much more for daily practical operation and also performance.
A folding door does not rise up and over your head or require complex tracking internally. A steel folding door is a simple and quiet door operation, offering maximum flexibility for pedestrian access to the building in most cases. You can partially open a folding door and walk through far easier than most other door types but also have specific wicket doors inset into the main door panels which can also be perfect for an emergency exit point when fitted with panic furniture.
Our steel and aluminium folding industrial doors are all double skinned steel panel construction, with varying depths of panel depending on size and specification. The arrangement of the door panels can be varied to suit the application or customer requirements, whether that is the panel sizing or the number of panels and their configuration in the opening. They are extremely flexible in terms of configuration to suit obstacles or other requirements.
Benefits of Steel and Aluminium Commercial Folding Doors
- Flexible opening configurations to suit the building shape or customers exact requirements for access to the building
- No internal tracking and minimal headroom requirements with stacking panels to one or either side of the opening – perfect when internal space is limited
- Insulated panels providing energy conservation and greater security
- Easy pedestrian access without opening the entire door, with multiple wicket door options offering emergency exit provision when specified with panic furniture
- Effortless manual operation for users at any size – electric motor drive options available for most models including fast opening versions
- Window options almost limitless, with models offering maximum glazing within a slim door panel framework
- Fire and emergency exit pedestrian door options within the main door structure
- Low maintenance, reliable operation and a far longer lifespan than most other commercial or industrial doors
- Ideal for very large openings where other door mechanisms become problematic due to fixing or weight support
- Minimal safety issues and easier compliance on commercial applications
- Quiet operation at any size
We can provide folding doors with top tracking only and nothing on the ground with a floating bottom panel, a complete bottom rolling track system, or a combination of both, mainly depending on the final size of the door and panel configuration. The ability to adapt the door panels to suit site restrictions is ideal for so many buildings.
The folding door can be face fitted internally to maximise the drive-through aperture, or fitted between the aperture. The ability to place optional windows almost anywhere, along with ventilation grilles, inspection hatches and smaller pedestrian doors, makes this door very flexible for our customers.
Fully glazed aluminium folding doors are also offered within our extensive range where maximum light and vision might be required.
Although most folding doors are manually operated and easy to use, we can also provide electric motor drive options, including faster opening doors for applications such as fire stations or where speed is important. Single and three phase motor drives are available with a wide range of control options.
FAQs
Are Steel Folding Doors Strong?
All the double skinned steel folding door systems are very strong, with steel panels varying between 40mm and 80mm in depth with a foam core centre, making the panels very strong and able to be offered up to 8m in height. With fewer moving parts than roller doors, the doors use larger hinges for connection, and with top or bottom tracking the door panels are very stable in their parked positions.
The strength of the folding door comes from its ability to extend the width on some models to almost limitless sizes because the panels are always supported along the width, making the size almost irrelevant — where roller doors tend to sag as they get wider.
When Should I Consider Installing a Steel Insulated Folding Door?
A folding door is an excellent solution for almost any opening but particularly when the sizes are larger — typically above 5m in width or height — where traditional roller or sectional industrial doors can become problematic depending on the building structure and available supports.
A folding door has the door weight evenly spread across the aperture and offers a great solution when only partial opening is needed for pedestrian access or where electric operation isn’t required. A 5m x 5m industrial folding door can be easily operated manually, while a roller shutter of the same size usually requires electric operation — an issue that increases with larger door sizes.
It is possibly the best and most cost-effective solution for apertures wider than 7 metres, offering an insulated, double skinned steel panel solution for better overall performance as standard.
If your building opening doesn’t need frequent access, the folding door is also ideal, providing a double skinned folding ‘wall’ with almost no internal obstacles in terms of the mechanism.
Can I Have Windows in the Industrial Folding Doors?
Yes, absolutely. Most doors are specified with windows of some kind for natural light and outward vision. Round, oval, square, oblong and other shapes are all available in double glazed units fitted directly into the double skinned panels.
There are also aluminium models designed for maximum light and vision, with the panels manufactured using the slimmest profiles to accommodate large glazed sections — either as fully glazed doors from top to bottom, or partially glazed with a solid lower half.
Glazing is perfect for natural light, external visibility for visitors or deliveries, and improved safety when entering through a pedestrian door on foot.
