Purchasing an industrial overhead door for your facility can be an overwhelming task, as there are several factors that must be considered such as:

1. Functionality     2. Safety/Security    3. Quality/Value

Insulated & Non-Insulated Sectional Overhead Doors

1. Functionality:

1.1 Model and Size
For the overhead doors, the model and size are the first criteria to be considered.
The architect can choose from an already existing door or can ask for a custom-made door. Although overhead doors can be made in different sizes, there are limits on the doors' sizes mainly because of their weight. Oversized doors (40+ feet wide) are available, these may become too heavy, slow, and unwieldy for many applications.

Oversized Commercial & Industrial Overhead Doors

1.2 Design
Although industrial overhead doors are usually not seen by the general public, it may be important in some specific applications that doors are aesthetically pleasing. Still, architects will want doors that fit well on the facility. Some of the characteristics that an architect must keep in mind are:

✓ Desired Light Infiltration:
Some facilities will require maximum visibility and call for clear-panel doors made of tempered glass, or other transparent materials. Some other facilities may want complete privacy/security and use doors with no lites/windows at all.

Sectional Overhead Door with No Windows (Thermacore Sectional Door 599 Wide)

✓ Overhead Door Color:
Fancy hardware is usually not used in industrial settings, however, some industrial settings have public functions or may be visible to the public. In those cases, the architect may want to make sure that the industrial doors that are selected work well with the building’s aesthetic.

Insulated Sectional Overhead Door (Thermacore Door 592 Wide)

✓ Operation:
When choosing the overhead door, it is important to keep in mind how often the industrial overhead door is going to be used as well as the speed that is needed in some specific cases.

→ Some facilities may open the door early in the morning and close it at night.
→ Some facilities need to open and close the overhead door several times per day.
→ Some facilities operate around the clock (24hrs).
→ Some facilities will use the overhead door infrequently and will remain closed most of the time.
→ Some facilities may need a high-speed door to make sure that it opens and closes rapidly for environmental or safety reasons.

High-Speed Fabric Door (High-Speed Freezer Cooler 997 Wide)

✓ Environment:
Due to the environmental challenges, many industries may need an overhead door that has special characteristics such as:

→ Climate Control:
Heavily insulated overhead doors are required when applications involve refrigeration, as well as facilities that have substantially different internal and external temperatures. At Overhead Door Company of The Meadowlands & NYC, we insulated overhead doors that provide an R-value of 26, which are perfect for:

- Agricultural buildings
- Food and beverage storage facilities
- Pharmaceutical plants
- Other heavy-duty applications

Sectional Steel Insulated Overhead Door 432 Series

→ Weather and Wind:
Some applications may call for high-wind pressure overhead doors and/or doors that are sealed tightly against water and air infiltration.
To support their high performance, these types of doors require flexible weather seals and thermal breaks.

Non-Insulated Wind Load Sectional Door 421 Series

→ Sound Attenuation:
In order to attenuate sounds entering or leaving the applications, doors may require heavy insulation to diminish the sounds entering or leaving the application. It is most common in mixed-use developments.

2. Safety / Security

It is of utmost importance to create a safe working area for the workers. Most industrial applications strive for zero tolerance of unsafe conditions as well as aiming for physical security in the work locations. In order to reach these goals, companies for both, safety and security, with extreme care. Some of the factors that are usually considered are:

Security meaning in this context is:

✓ Only personnel authorized can operate the overhead doors.
✓ Video monitoring is also required for a secured communication network so that the door at all times can be observed and controlled.
✓ Control of the vehicles entering or exiting (through a high-security protocol)
✓ Trigger floodlight and/or alarms.
✓ There must exist an automated record of all movements of all doors.
✓ There must be a central security control that locks down all doors.
✓ In order to prevent code stealing when the doors are locally managed with remote controls, the units should be equipped with rolling code technology, so every time the remote is operated, a new code will be used. Tightly controlled for remote openers must be used in high-security situations.
✓ Pressure sensors, electric eyes, and emergency-release mechanisms are items that all power-operated doors should be equipped with as part of the safety equipment.
✓ It is recommended that once a month door safety should be tested so as to be sure that closing doors automatically reverse when they hit obstacles.
✓ Trained personnel must regularly maintain and keep the doors in good shape.

3. Quality/Value

One of the most common mistakes is to try to save money by using inferior quality industrial overhead doors as the door will be compromised in its lifetime, and it will require maintenance and repairs more frequently to keep it working.

Avoid Using Inferior Quality

To be sure that the door provides the thermal and sound diminish characteristics, managers must have a clear preventive maintenance plan for their industrial overhead doors.

If a door is for rough use, the best materials to be used are heavy gauge steel and aluminum, as they live for a long time and they can also be painted or powder coating. On the contrary, wood overhead doors are usually avoided for industrial settings except for breweries or facilities that have a public component.

We highly recommend contacting us when renovating an industrial facility or designing one, as there is an enormous variety of choices and our experts will give you the best solution for your requirements.

It will be our pleasure to assist you when looking for a new industrial overhead door. Call 973-471-4060 or email us at info@dockndoor.com 

We've been serving the NYC Metro area and NJ area for 40+ years. 

As an official distributor, today we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Overhead Door Company™!

The History of the Overhead Door

Did you know that the overhead garage door was invented by our founder, C.G. Johnson, in the year of 1921?

Henry Ford introduced the very first inexpensive and reliable car in the early 1900’s. It was known as the Model T. From here, other car makes began to make affordable cars, which allowed more people to own cars.

In the past, people would keep their carriages and their horses in their carrier. These carriage houses were gradually replaced with garages as more and more people bought vehicles. At the early stages, garages had side panel doors that worked but not in the most convenient way as those doors needed twice as much space to open.

C.G. Johnson - Founder of Overhead Door Company™
Inventor of the overhead garage door & the garage door opener

In 1921, C.G. Johnson invented and patented a sectional overhead door. This was the beginning of Overhead Door Corporation™.

To promote this new invention, Johnson drove to fairs and exhibits with a prototype door attached to his vehicle, the Model T. Johnson created a network of distributors with the help of clever marketing techniques, such as consumer coupons and bulletin boards in different communities. Five years later, Johnson gave the industry another useful piece of technology to help those who couldn't lift their doors manually: he invented the first electric garage door opener.

Residential and Commercial Overhead Doors

These two inventions laid the foundation for Overhead Door Company™, which has proven to be an industry leader. ​​His brand quickly​ gained a reputation for quality, service and integrity.

As an official distributor of Overhead Door Company™ we like to think that we still offer to our valuable customers high quality, extraordinary service and always maintaining our integrity.

Congratulations to our supplier for 100 years! We hope there are many more to come!

Installing a high-speed/high-performance door in an auto dealership will allow them to perform efficiently as the service door may have to be opened and closed hundreds of times per day. Additional safety systems can be installed to ensure that the people and vehicles are protected as they enter and leave the auto dealership's service department.

Safety Systems for High-Speed Doors:

Basic Safety/Signaling Devices
Warning lights can be used to signal to traffic the door status, movement or issues.  Some of the basic devices that are available are:

✓ Traffic Lights and LED Traffic Lights - Red/yellow/green lights 
✓ Traffic Lights and LED Traffic Lights - Red/Green lights only
✓ Strobe Lights
✓ Rotating Lights

Traffic Lights & LED Traffic Lights

Sorbe Lights Rotating Lights

Dock Lights Communication Packages

If you choose one of these devices, it is important to take any other signaling devices that are nearby into account to ensure a clear distinction for all traffic.

Activation Sensors
Depending upon the application and the number of vehicular traffic, door manufacturers offer several door activation options, such as:

- Automatic activation devices: these offer a hands-free method of opening and closing high-speed doors. Some of the devices available are floor loop sensors, motion detectors and presence detectors.

- Enhanced activation devices: these devices monitor the areas immediately in front of the door as well as enable programmable operation based on activity in areas adjacent to it.

- Manual activation options: these options are best suited for areas with low traffic or predictable traffic levels. Some of the manual devices that you can find for high-performance doors are pushbuttons, remote controls and pull cords.

Benefits of Using Activation Sensors:
✓ These provide easy movement through the door threshold
✓ Reduce thechance of accidents by avoiding contact with the rollup door
✓ It helps controlling the environment differentials with minimal open time
✓ Maintain traffic patterns

Enhanced Safety/Signaling Devices - Safety Light Systems
There are different safety light systems available. Some of them flash amber lights help warn nearby workers that the door panel is about to move. Other systems detect if a person or another obstruction is blocking the door’s path and avoid it from closing. There are other safety light systems that provide visual indicators near the door and ensures that they will be seen in the most critical time. 

Pathwatch® Safety Light Systems

 Reversing Bottom Sensing Edge
When the responsive sensors located in the bottom edge of the door senses an obstruction, it will immediately instruct the high-performance door to immediately auto-reverse or to auto-stop. The Safe-T-Beam® is one of the safety devices that we offer at Overhead Door Company of The Meadowlands & NYC that senses an obstruction and signals the operator to stop or reverse the door. 

Photo Eyes The photo-eye sensor for commercial or industrial doors prevents them from closing when needed. It assesses the area around the door to verify if it is safe to close/open the door. This safety feature triggers an alert to notify building management that something is preventing the door from closing.

 Audible Alert Systems
It stores and plays back pre-recorded or user-created messages that can be played during various door activities.

Countdown Clock Countdown clock signals traffic how much time is remaining before the door begins closing. Adjustable time is set in the System 4 controller and automatically synchronizes the clock to the set time value. Includes articulating mounting bracket.

If you need more information on choosing the best safety systems for your high-speed door, please contact us, it will be our pleasure to assist you.

Service areas: Northern New Jersey (Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Union, Essex, Morris, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer and Somerset county/counties), Manhattan, New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx, Westchester, and Rockland.

What we do: We sell, install, repair and maintain commercial and industrial overhead doors, operators, and loading dock equipment since 1981.