Choosing the right strip doors for your business might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re running a bustling retail store, managing a warehouse, operating a cold room, organising an office, or even enhancing your home, strip doors can provide immense benefits. This guide will help you understand the different types of strip doors and how to select the perfect one for your needs. And yes, we’ll throw in a bit of humour because, let’s face it, picking PVC strip doors shouldn’t be a bore!
What Are Strip Doors?
Strip doors, or strip curtains, are essentially a series of overlapping PVC strips that form a barrier. You might know them as fly door strips or plastic door curtains, but we refer to them as pvc strip doors in the industry. These doors are incredibly versatile, offering solutions for temperature control, dust prevention, and noise reduction. They’re the unsung heroes in many environments, from welding areas to food outlets.
Benefits of Strip Doors
Energy Efficiency
One of the biggest perks of strip doors is their ability to conserve energy. By keeping the cool air inside during summer and the warm air inside during winter, strip doors help maintain a comfortable environment and save on energy bills. It’s like having a superhero cape that keeps the bad elements out and the good vibes in.
Improved Hygiene
In places like food outlets and open fridge food displays, maintaining hygiene is crucial. Strip doors help in preventing contamination by keeping out dust, insects, and other pests. They are also easy to clean, ensuring that your area remains spotless.
Noise Reduction
Got a noisy warehouse or an office full of chatty colleagues? Strip doors can help reduce noise pollution by acting as a barrier between different areas. This makes for a more peaceful working environment, allowing everyone to focus better on their work.
Safety and Visibility
Safety first! Strip doors provide an added layer of security by making areas more visible. This is particularly important in welding zones and hazardous areas, where visibility can prevent accidents. The transparent nature of the strips allows people to see what’s on the other side, reducing the risk of collisions.
Ensuring compliance with national safety standards is crucial when selecting strip doors. For detailed guidelines, refer to the Australian Government’s Business website on workplace health and safety.
Choosing the Right Strip Doors
Consider Your Environment
The first step in choosing the right strip doors is to consider the environment where they will be used. Here are some common settings:
- Retail: Clear PVC strips are ideal for retail environments as they allow customers to see through them, creating an inviting entrance that encourages customers to walk in and browse. They help in maintaining the store’s temperature, which is especially important if you have open fridge food displays.
- Warehousing: Heavy-duty PVC strips are perfect for high-traffic areas in warehouses, providing durability and long-lasting performance. In a warehouse, strip doors can separate different sections, helping to maintain specific conditions in each area. They also make it easier to move goods around without having to constantly open and close doors.
- Cold Room: Polar-grade PVC strips are designed to withstand low temperatures, making them suitable for cold rooms and freezers. These strips ensure that the cold air stays inside and the warm air stays out, effectively handling extreme temperatures.
- Office: In an office, strip doors can help reduce noise and provide privacy without closing off spaces entirely. They are great for creating quiet zones or private meeting areas.
- Home Use: At home, strip doors can be used in workshops, garages, or even as room dividers. At home, strip doors can be used in a variety of ways, from protecting your workshop from dust to dividing rooms in a more flexible manner. They’re practical and add a bit of modern flair to your home setup.
- Welding: Tinted PVC strips can protect against UV rays in welding areas, enhancing safety. In welding and hazardous areas, strip doors enhance safety by providing a visible barrier. Tinted strips protect against UV rays, and colour-coded strips can signal danger zones, helping to prevent accidents.
- Food Outlet: Strip curtains help in maintaining hygiene in food outlets, preventing the growth of bacteria.
- Open Fridge Food Displays: Strip doors in these settings help maintain the right temperature, keeping food fresh.
- Hazardous Areas: Colour-coded strips can signal danger zones, improving safety protocols.
Strip Size and Overlap
The size and overlap of the strips play a crucial role in their effectiveness. Wider strips with greater overlap provide better insulation and protection, making them ideal for larger doorways or areas with high traffic. For smaller openings or low-traffic areas, narrower strips with less overlap work just fine.
How to Choose the Right Strip Width
PVC strips come in widths of 75mm, 100mm, 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm.
75mm wide strips are ideal for regular domestic, shop, and restaurant doorways with light to medium traffic flow, especially where weather and wind impacts are not a concern.
100mm, 150mm, and 200mm wide strips are best suited for larger doorways, cold rooms, freezers, fridge displays, trolley traffic, low pallet truck traffic, high pedestrian traffic, and warehouse doorways.
300mm wide strips are designed for tall, wide doorways with heavy commercial traffic, such as pallet trucks and forklifts, or areas exposed to strong winds and other environmental pressures.
Colour and Transparency
While clear strips are the most common, coloured strips can be used for specific purposes. For example, tinted strips are often used in welding areas to protect against harmful rays, while coloured strips can designate different zones in a warehouse or signal hazardous areas.
How to Select the Right Strip Colour for Your Business
Choosing the right strip colour often enhances visual appeal or aligns with brand identity. However, in certain applications, these colour recommendations can be particularly useful:
Clear strips provide excellent light penetration and visibility, but they tend to show dirt more easily in high-traffic areas and may require frequent cleaning.
Yellow, red, green, and blue tinted strips create a glowing effect when light passes through them. They offer good to reasonable visibility and do not show dirt as readily as clear strips.
Dark smoke strips allow minimal light penetration and have lower visibility, but they are the best at hiding dirt and require less frequent cleaning.
Coloured or tinted strips are available only in 75mm width and 1.5mm thickness, with either flat or ribbed surfaces. Clear strips, on the other hand, are available in various widths, thicknesses, and surface types.
How to Choose the Right Strip Surface: Ribbed or Flat?
Ribbed strip surfaces are more durable due to their thicker impact points, which can better withstand impacts compared to flat PVC strips. The ribs also help reduce drag, scratches, and general wear, making them ideal for high-traffic areas.
Ribbed strips are particularly recommended for humid, wet environments and for cold rooms, freezers, and low-temperature applications. Moisture and condensation can cause flat PVC strips to stick or freeze together. The ribs prevent strips from sticking together, ensuring easier and safer traffic flow in these conditions.
On the other hand, while flat strip surfaces may stick together when exposed to moisture and are less resistant to damage, they offer a clean, sleek look and high visibility. This makes them appealing for open fridge displays and product displays where aesthetics are important.
How to Choose the Right Strip PVC Temperature Grade
Choosing the right PVC grade is crucial for cold room or freezer applications.
For various cooling needs, there are two types of hard-wearing PVC strip materials available that cater to different temperature ranges:
- Normal Grade PVC is rated for temperatures from 2°C to +50°C.
- Freezer Grade PVC is rated for temperatures from -50°C to +5°C.
Freezer Grade PVC contains special plasticisers that prevent it from cracking and breaking at extremely low temperatures. This type of PVC strip is available in clear strips with widths of 100mm, 150mm, 200mm, or 300mm.
Mounting Options
Strip doors can be mounted in various ways depending on your needs:
- Header Mount: Ideal for doorways with a solid structure above.
- Wall Mount: Suitable for areas where header mounting isn’t feasible.
- Suspended Mount: Perfect for when neither header nor wall mounting is an option, offering flexibility in installation.
How to Select the Right Strip Door Head Section
Selecting the right head section is crucial for your strip door’s application. Here are the three types of head sections or hanging systems we offer:
1. Removable Aluminium Head Section (45mm H x 20mm D)
This head section is a popular choice for retail shop fronts, domestic applications, and cool rooms. Strip doors with this head section are easy to hang and can be easily removed at the end of each day for storage. Made of anodised aluminium, the PVC door strips are securely stapled to a rigid PVC insert. The head section is mounted via figure-of-eight holes that fit precisely over the provided mounting screws.
2. Fixed or Bolted Aluminium Head Section (65mm H x 40mm D x 3mm Thick)
Ideal for strip doors spanning larger doorways with heavy traffic, this head section allows for the replacement of individual damaged or worn strips. It is made of right-angled anodised aluminium, with PVC door strips securely bolted on using stainless steel nuts, bolts, and washers, which facilitate easy strip replacement. The strip door is typically attached to the doorway using suitable fixings such as rivets or tech screws to accommodate the mounting surface and weight.
3. Hook-on Stainless Steel Head Section (30mm H x 30mm D)
This sturdy and easy-to-use hanging system is designed for heavy-duty strip doors. It is a great option for strip doors that require frequent removal for cleaning or regular strip replacements due to heavy motorised traffic. The stainless-steel construction is resistant to harsh cleaning agents used in some industries. The PVC strips are sandwiched between two hook-on stainless steel plates that neatly hang over strong hooks on the head section. The strip door is usually attached using fixings such as rivets or tech screws suitable for the mounting surface and weight of the strip door.
Installation and Maintenance Tips
Installation
Installing strip doors is relatively straightforward, but here are some tips to make it even easier:
- Measure Accurately: Ensure you have the correct measurements of the doorway.
- Choose the Right Hardware: Use sturdy mounting brackets to support the weight of the strips.
- Professional Installation: While DIY is possible, professional installation ensures a secure and proper fit.
Maintenance
Maintaining strip doors is a breeze. Here’s how to keep them in tip-top shape:
- Regular Cleaning: Clean the strips with mild soap and water to keep them clear and hygienic.
- Inspect for Damage: Regularly check for wear and tear and replace any damaged strips promptly.
- Seasonal Adjustments: Adjust the overlap of the strips according to seasonal changes to maintain optimal temperature control.
Conclusion
Choosing the right strip doors for your business doesn’t have to be a headache. By considering your specific environment and needs, you can select strip doors that improve hygiene, convenience, and safety. Whether you’re in retail, warehousing, cold room management, or even setting up an office or home workshop, strip doors offer a versatile solution.
Ready to enhance your business with the right strip doors? Contact us today to learn more about our products and how we can help you find the perfect solution for your needs.