Choosing a Hangar Door Getting the right type of door can make or break a hangar
Choosing a hangar door is a complicated process—from door type, price, aesthetics, ease of installation and maintenance re- quirements to strength, security and safety considerations—and making the wrong choice could lead to years of headache and thousands of dollars in additional costs. Door type remains one of the great debates
among aviators, and personal preference aside, hydraulic, bi-fold and fabric are the most common for hangar door applications. And there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to each type of door. Hydraulic doors provide a sleek, strong, effi -
cient design adaptable to a wide variety of fi nishes. Held down by the hydraulic rams, hydraulic doors deliver added stability and security when in the closed position and seal nicely from the elements. Because of the single-panel design, there is a clearance requirement to accommodate opening/ closing of any single-panel hydraulic door. The bi-fold design is well known in the aviation
industry and has been around for a very long time. Once basically just a utility door found on smaller hangars and t-hangars, the bi-fold door and has come a long way in terms of design and aesthetics. While requiring more headroom than a hydraulic door, the bi- fold requires less operating room in front of the door. Found primarily on larger aircraft hangar
doors, the vertical lifting fabric door is almost un-
limited in size and confi guration options as it can be divided into several sections. Like the hydraulic door, the fabric door requires minimal headroom, but can easily be penetrated which presents some security risk. Advances are being made on all door types,
across the door market, making your options better and your choices easier. One example is Minneota, Minn.-based ICON Door Systems, who has intro- duced signifi cant innovations in the ease of installa- tion, strength and safety of overhead doors. “ICON Door Systems has taken the approach
of talking to builders, contractors and door own- ers in the market and analyzing each step in the decision-making process and working to innovate accordingly,” states Stan Robinson, president of ICON Door Systems. Using the concept of the cost-effective, ef-
fi cient, single-panel hydraulic door as its foundation, ICON fi rst addressed the needs of the builder/con- tractor with the introduction of the ICON Knuckle Splice Connection. The Knuckle’s taper-lock design requires no
welding for standard doors under 90 feet (exclud- ing steel building attachment points) and pre-aligns the member, completely eliminating the time-con- suming step of re-aligning the door when hanging. “In most cases a 60-foot door can be installed in under three hours,” adds Robinson. “In fact, we
recently had a 120-foot door assembled and ready to be installed in less than 90 minutes!” The ICON Knuckle signifi cantly adds strength
to the door as well. Unlike the bolted joint method, the Knuckle delivers the same structural integrity as a solid piece of steel, while demanding virtually no additional load to the hardware. And once the taper-lock design of the Knuckle Joint is bolted to- gether it allows the members to be calculated as a single piece, eliminating consideration for the split, which can greatly impact wind load ratings. For the end user, there are innovations on the
safety front as well. The majority of hydraulic doors utilize a hydraulic pilot to control the fl ow of fl uid at the pump station. The ICON Safety Block was engineered for additional safety as it controls and regulates hydraulic pressure ensuring door stability. As Robinson describes: “What makes the ICON Safety Block different from methods used by other doors is that it only allows hydraulic line pressure during door operation, releasing it into the reservoir tank when the door is not in motion. This eliminates pressure on the lines that can fl uctuate greatly with temperature shifts causing rupture, and greatly reduces any risk of leak- age in the unlikely even that a breach should occur.”
Sheri Carr is the director of marketing for ICON Door Systems, Minneota, Minn. For more informa- tion, visit www.icondoors.com.
By Sheri Carr
This 122-foot ICON Hangar Door was assembled and ready for install in less than 90 minutes.