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A FedEx facility in Michigan was having a hard time keeping up with the maintenance on their old roll-up steel doors. From constant spring maintenance to doors getting damaged from collisions, these costs were adding up. While commercial door repair costs were huge, so was the cost to productivity when a bay went down, directly affecting operations. Instead of the usual quick fix and band-aid repairs, Facility Manager, James Davis, looked for a better solution.

“We were putting 50k a year into standard roll up doors alone.”

After coming across PerforMax Global and learning about high-performance rubber doors for the logistics & distribution industry, he realized the benefits could vastly improve his facility. The results of switching from steel roll-up doors to rubber roll-up doors have immediate and long-term benefits for everyone in the facility.

Heinz Hall sees enormous foot traffic around their building. Making the look of their theatre incredibly important.

The Big Issue to Fix

It doesn’t take a lot of impact on a commercial garage door to make it non-operational. It’s incredibly easy to throw the slats out of alignment or even bend the guides. With greater impact, there’s not only more damage to the door but also to the vehicle.

“That’s our biggest problem and that’s what kills most of our doors is drivers running through them.”

Installing an impactable door solves the issues of damaged doors, but also cascades into multiple other issues fixed. Low maintenance, no downtime, and increased safety all come from installing a high-performance door. After touring our mobile showroom of high-performance doors, James had pushed to get these doors in his facility as quickly as he could.

Benefit #1: Maintenance Costs

PerforMax Global’s commercial rubber doors saved FedEx $50,000 a year. That number doesn’t come from just fixing a rolling steel door when it would go down, it also comes from the ongoing maintenance needed on them. Springs on their old steel doors needed continual maintenance after 100,000 cycles. That number sounds pretty high, but for a fleet of 125 FedEx vehicles coming in and out at least twice a day with additional outside vehicles, springs reach that number quickly.

100,000 cycle springs don’t last as long as you think. We probably open those doors about 400-500 times a day.

PerforMax rubber roll-up doors have no springs that need maintenance. The standard cycle rating for our doors is one million before any maintenance is required on our drive. On top of saving from no spring maintenance, the entire door has only 5 moving parts with very minimal and simple maintenance.

Performax Rubber Door Maintenance Requirements

• Grease the bearings: Depending on how often the door is cycled, 6 months to 1 year is the standard. For this FedEx facility, we would say every 6 months.
• Tighten Windlocks: Impact can loosen windlocks slightly. We recommend every few months to tighten them.
• Battery replacement: Most of our doors come with a safety edge transmitter that needs a battery replacement after a few years.

Benefit #2: Return on Interest

Rubber doors come with a higher upfront price tag than rolling steel doors due to the engineering work and design that add on a lot of benefits. James saw the benefit he was looking for the most; an impactable door that won’t break after a collision. Rubber roll up doors eliminate the need for emergency repairs, or worst-case scenario, entire door replacement when hit. James understood that it didn’t make sense to continually replace a broken door with the same type every time. In this case, it was $50,000 a year to keep fixing and replacing doors with the same unreliable product. With the extra cost for high-performance doors, James knows these doors will pay for themselves.

Benefit #3: No Downtime

“We put your doors on the main drive through doors and they’ve run through the doors already. The new rubber doors just reset themselves in the track and you just go about your business,” James told us.

With an astounding number of vehicles going in and out of this FedEx facility daily the chance for a collision is high. The downtime would greatly cost FedEx time in productivity; another cost to factor in on top of their $50,000 a year in maintenance. While this facility does have multiple doors to use, any facility with 1-2 doors can be greatly impacted by a non-functional door. This applies to both operations being decreased and needing emergency repairs to get back to running, which is expensive for just a quick fix. Rubber roll-up doors hardly have downtime after a collision because they reset themselves.

Benefit #4: Install and Forget

PerforMax Global rubber roll-up doors are made to improve workflow. The breakaway system that allows the door to break from the guides without damage takes seconds to reset. With just the push of a button, your high-performance door is back to being fully operational. A collision with an overhead door is no longer an emergency. Facility Manager, James, and the workers of FedEx can continue about their day like nothing happened.

“We put them up 2 years ago and haven’t had any issues since.”

Benefit #5: Safety

Rolling steel doors run the risk of free-falling. A falling steel door can come from poor spring maintenance or after the door is struck with high impact. When a door with springs is overdue on maintenance this risk with impact is even higher. Not only damage to the door and your equipment, but for the driver that runs into the door as well. With a PerforMax MaxSpeed or MaxPro, safety is included in all aspects. To add onto the breakaway system, these doors come with built-in inertia brakes and soft bottom edges for added safety. The inertia brake prevents the door from ever free-falling, even when the power is cut. The safety edge reduces damage done to equipment that hits the doors.

Benefit #6: Short and Long-Term Solutions

It’s easy to compare high-performance rubber doors to solar panels. Unlike solar panels, however, installing a rubber door had immediate benefits for James. “Short term too. If we drive through a door and it can’t be opened or raised it impacts our operations.” With a Limited Lifetime Warranty on the rubber curtains, these doors are made to last and relieve emergency operations in high-damage operations.

FedEx Direct Buy Program:
After working so often with FedEx in more than one area, PerforMax has created a program specifically for them. These are some of the benefits FedEx has obtained.

• Tailored pricing
• Providing a qualified dealer in each area for every opportunity.
• Provide project management onsite or remotely as required. PerforMax will handle the coordination to take the burden off the CA.
• Custom standard client specifications.
• Our National Account Team will conduct multi-site detailed surveys within the continental USA upon request.
• Extended warranty customized to each and every need of the doors.

Final Thoughts

James tells us that these truly are great doors to have installed at their facility. Not just at Michigan, but even the headquarters of FedEx. “We have doors down in Memphis and they love them too. I’d love to put them everywhere, but emergency and priority projects have to come first.”

“The fewer phone calls the better and there’s no phone call about those doors.”

An old rolling steel door was causing multiple issues around Heinz Hall, home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The steel door was not well-suited for operational use at a theatre. There were three major issues disrupting the workers and artists. Noise levels, slow opening speeds, and safety concerns from the door literally beginning to fall to pieces. A rubber door was their solution to every problem they had encountered with their previous door. Not only a rubber door, but a PerforMax High-Performance MaxSpeed roll up door. Carl Mancuso, Vice President and General Manager at Heinz Hall was pleased with what PerforMax could offer them.

Heinz Hall sees enormous foot traffic around their building. Making the look of their theatre incredibly important.

The Issues to Fix

The door had become extraordinarily loud, disturbing people on the street of Penn Avenue and the musicians inside, even when on stage. This door is their exterior loading dock door with plenty of space and walls between it and the stage.

The door did not move quickly and near the end of its life forced employees to raise the door by a manual hand chain. For smaller doors this may not take as long, but for a door as large as this one, it took a tremendous amount of time. Both the inside crew and outside crew were stuck until the door was fully open, cutting into everyone’s time.

Safety was a large concern once pieces began to fall off the door itself. No band, orchestra, or comedian would enjoy a hail of metal on top of them or their equipment, so it was time for a change.

The Process

Instead of using a traditional type of door they had been used to, the people of Heinz Hall decided an upgrade was necessary. The noisy steel doors would not cut it this time around. They needed to replace the exterior doors and not have to worry about their past problems coming back in the future. Our Regional Manager, Tom Hamilton worked with Carl every step of the way to make sure Heinz Hall had the best solution for their needs.

Seeing the Mobile Showroom

PerforMax Global has a strong belief that seeing is believing. For that reason, our representative brought our mobile showroom to Heinz Hall, so that Carl could see all of the exterior door options available. These showrooms are brought to your doorstep at your leisure.

“We auditioned two or three doors, but Tom rolled in with his slick trailer. Other companies would just ship us pieces of fabric and talk about it. With the trailer we were able to see your door operate.” – Carl

Benefit #1: Noise Solution

The mobile showroom allowed Carl to see how a roll up door was the solution to the noise issue immediately. A rubber door rolls up quick and easy with next to no noise. With a MaxSpeed, both Carl and everyone in the theatre could rest easy knowing their exterior door wouldn’t disturb the flow of the day. The old door “screeched and clanked and made a hell of a racket.” The loudest part of a rubber door is the motor, which by itself is not loud. With a rolling steel door, steel plates roll onto each other during operation. The rusted slats and operation devices added to the screeching heard by everyone throughout the theatre. A MaxSpeed door rolls up with silence, and with only 5 moving parts there is not much to add on to its noise level.

Benefit #2: Opening and Closing Speeds

Heinz Hall may not use their door like a heavy industry or transit facility would, but speed was still an important factor. It makes loading and unloading quicker and easier. On top of that there’s the hidden surprise that the opening and closing speed of your door greatly affects energy savings.

Benefit #3: Energy Savings

A traditional steel rolling door has an opening speed average of 10” per second. The longer it takes for a door to close means the more energy is lost. With a high-performance rubber door from PerforMax, those speeds can quadruple. The operational status of a loading dock or warehouse door is vital to effective work flow. It’s vital that your door isn’t driving heating and cooling costs up.

While noise was a big issue for the musicians, they also found the old exterior door was drafty. With steel doors, it is possible for the individual slats to get gaps between them. The issues pile up with energy loss and a draft bothering the performers.

In the mobile showroom, Carl was able to see how fast our MaxSpeed door could go. The MaxSpeed goes up to 48” per second. Once the door was installed, the team at Heinz Hall didn’t need the door to go that fast. They set it to a speed they were comfortable with and according to Carl, the door is still twice as fast as their old door.

Benefit #4: Safety

Shards of metal raining from the ceiling may sound extreme and something that should never happen. While this couldn’t happen with a rubber roll up door, it can and did happen with the rolling steel door at Heinz Hall. While steel doors are not inherently unsafe, they lack the abundance of safety features that come with a PerforMax rubber door. For one, no one has to worry about metal pieces falling down onto them.

Rubber doors are among the safest doors available, especially from PerforMax Global. With the added safety of a door that won’t fall apart on them, the people of Heinz Hall receive other safety benefits.

Benefit #5: Minimal Maintenance

Rolling steel doors use springs in their operation. Springs have an average life of 10,000 cycles; a cycle being when the door opens and closes. Springs lead to costly maintenance and risk of a free-falling door. Take a look here to learn more about the lifetime of springs. A door with springs needs maintenance and replacement springs after their cycle rating is hit. Without maintenance and replacement, springs can break, leading to a door free falling. This is something Carl will not have to worry about with a rubber door.

The innovative technology of PerforMax MaxSpeed uses no springs in its operation. There are also no pulleys, hinges, or rollers used, leading to far less maintenance.  The door will need minimal maintenance.

An overhead door free falling into a loading dock is a catastrophe. This happens with doors with moving parts that can break down if not properly maintained. This video shows the amount of force that comes with a door free falling.

PerforMax uses an inertia brake in its motor. This prevents a door from free falling regardless of power loss, impact, or low maintenance. The safest door for any facility is a door from PerforMax Global.

Benefit #6: Value

“Your door was not the least expensive door, but we all agreed given the variable nature of the speed the weather closure, and the noise level being ultra-quiet, we made the decision to go with the door.”

“We did run into a couple of issues; we did not realize we needed a 400-amp outlet, but Tom was great in working with us to achieve that. Tom even worked with us and the installers so we had it installed just how we wanted it so it would fit the space.”

New installed Rubber rollup door for Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Conclusion

“Up to this point everything about the install has been great. It’s been virtually perfect. We haven’t had any major issues with it since it was put in.”

The door has made such an impact on the workers and performers that they’ve requested the same door be placed in their interior loading door. “Our musicians have asked if we can do the same door in a smaller version of it on our inner loading dock door. They complain of the draft issues and noise level of our current door there now.”

The MaxSpeed commercial door has fit perfectly for Heinz Hall. Not only did it solve the problems of their old steel door, but it’s simple and easy for everyone to use. It’s ultra-quiet operation no longer disrupts the stage, the old opening speeds are now doubled, and there could not be a safer door in place of the steel door.

“Everyone is very comfortable with the way it works. It’s ultra-fast and quiet.”

For more than 50 years, Lindsay Precast has been North America’s premier concrete manufacturer specializing in precast concrete products. Since the mid 1990s, we’ve sharpened our strategic focus to provide the experience and know-how to deliver even greater value to our customers including state and municipal government entities, banks, utility companies, renewable energy companies and our military.

APPLICATION: Manufacturer
REPLACED: Sectional Insulated Overhead Doors
PROBLEM: Having over 25 Sectional Doors on location, every door has been impacted and the repair cost were starting to escalate
SOLUTION: MaxPro™ by PerforMax Global

We are the family-owned, U.S.-based precast concrete manufacturer with the most robust line of precast products in the business today.

When Performax Global first showed us the Mobile Showroom, I was sold on the impactable features and how the door resets. I was surprised after the installation to see the speed of the door compared to the rest of the sectional doors. – Mike Hoffman, VICE-PRESIDENT | LINDSAY PRECAST

With operations strategically located in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, South and North Carolina, Lindsay Precast is the precast concrete manufacturer you can trust whether you’re in the north, south, east or west.

Dynegy operates power generating facilities in eight states in the Midwest, the Northeast and the West Coast. The company’s portfolio consists of nearly 26,000 megawatts of generating facilities that are capable of generating enough electricity to power about 21 million homes nationwide. The company serves residential, municipal, commercial and industrial customers through its Homefield Energy and Dynegy Energy Services businesses in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

APPLICATION:  High use doors at a power generating plant
REPLACED:  Rolling Steel Doors
PROBLEM:  Safety Concern with doors free-falling
SOLUTION:  MaxSpeed

After a near-miss incident involving a steel rolling door free-falling, the plant decided to replace the existing rolling steel doors with the PerforMax MaxSpeed rubber door.  With its built-in safety brake, the chance of door free-fall is completely eliminated.  In addition, there is no downtime due to accidental impacts with the breakaway design of the doors.

What started as a humble, little aerial crop dusting operation called Huff Daland Dusters in 1924 has now grown into one of the world’s largest global airlines, helping more than 160 million travelers get to the places they want to go to each year. Delta strives to conduct its operations in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and gives back to the communities it serves.

Application: Busy vehicle traffic at the world’s busiest airport!
Replaced: Vinyl high speed door
Problem: The existing vinyl high speed door was not withstanding the exterior conditions, letting in the element.  It also had high maintenance and repair costs associated with impacts.
Solution: PerforMax MaxSpeed

“ABM Facility Services and Delta Air Lines are extremely pleased with our PerforMax High Performance Door.  Our new 15’ x 15’ MaxSpeed Rubber Roll Up Door has far exceeded our expectations.  A superior product that we trust will provide reliable performance for many years to come.  PerforMax has provided ABM and Delta Air Lines with an affordable product that will most likely change our facility standard for roll up doors.”