What are the typical challenges faced by today’s airports, and how have EFAFLEX responded to match these niche needs?

Airports – there are more than 40,000 of them around the world, each transporting cargo, or passengers. The USA dominates the most popular top ten positions, with Jackson Atlanta International greeting over 75 million passengers in one year. Airline travel is on the increase, with the largest passenger traffic growth expected in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Lower budget flights have become increasingly available as airlines vie to fill seats, resulting in passenger numbers soaring in recent years as more and more people take to the skies to speed up travel. With this added traffic comes increased pressure to safeguard against the risk of security threats, and the wider potential impact such as noise pollution and air quality.

Today’s airport challenges

• As traveler numbers increase, this has a knock on effect such as concerns for security and safety. The risk of terrorism threats and the recent pandemic means that airports need, more than ever before to ensure their facilities feel safe for their staff and paying customers.
• Combine this with consumers becoming increasingly impatient, with additional security checks and the risk of failing technology causing levels of stress to rise.
• Factor in labour shortages such as within baggage handling, with fewer people needing to do more.
• More passengers equals more baggage which in April 2022 alone resulted in 220,000 being lost, damaged or delayed. Think of the compensation and insurance claims!
• Increased numbers of customers mean an increase in meal preparation and additional pressure for the catering facilities.
• The list goes on.

Across the airport campus, these new and additional challenges can be grouped into two main types of solution being required; those that enable ‘speed’ of movement (people, goods, or logistics), and improving the  overall ‘safety’ throughout and around the facility.

How has EFAFLEX responded to these new challenges to these new challenges

Always looking to evolve, and improve their product offering to their growing customer base, and it’s little wonder that EFAFLEX have reacted to these changes; responding to introduce new door solutions, each with their niche features and functions, and all designed to improve speed and safety.

Take the journey from the initial car park, where the PS Series of doors are designed to open swiftly to prevent the risk of unwanted access. Move onto the check-in desks where their roll-up fabric, and spiral doors come in a variety of sizes to help speed up and manoeuvre baggage swiftly and safely to their next destination.

What’s new?

New to the range is the EFA-SRT® MHT Compact; a high-speed roll- up door which has an extended service life of around 10 years and designed to speed up busy baggage handling facilities.

Meanwhile the ATEX high-speed door is ideal for areas where potentially explosive substances are used, and classified into EX zones based on the probability of the occurrence of this atmosphere. The ATEX door within the EFAFLEX EX Series is designed and built to guarantee the highest levels of safety for people, products, and facilities.

Another new addition to the portfolio is the Secure door; available in either Resistance Class 3 or 4 (RC 3 or 4) – the first anti-burglary high-speed door which opens of speeds up to 1 metre per second.

Let’s not forget to feed our customers from the help of the catering facility and here again you could see the EFAFLEX TK100; an ingenious product which is the first truly single door solution for areas of temperature variants of between plus and minus 30°C to save energy usage.

Alexander Fuchs, EFAFLEX’s airport specialist helps to sum up, ‘Look at any airport facility and you can visualize how an EFAFLEX high-speed door can improve the speed and safety. From car parks to catering areas, from freight handling to fire departments, we have a door solution to match the niche needs. Our doors are designed to withstand the highest wind load, operate with maximum reliability and capable of performing thousands of cycles every week.’

Who have benefitted from EFAFLEX doors

EFAFLEX high-speed doors can be seen in airports around the world.

At Budapest where several have been installed to speed up and secure logistics within baggage handling, at Vienna where fire fighters must be able to reach every location around the airport within 3 minutes. Iceland to Ireland. Australia to Argentina. Canada to Croatia – they all benefit from the speed, security and safety which the EFAFLEX brand delivers.

To the industry overview

The automotive industry places the highest demands on machines and personnel. With its special doors for the automotive sector, EFAFLEX offers manufacturers and suppliers, among other things, maximum security, high availability, speed, robustness, durability, and high opening and closing cycles. Regardless of whether the door is used indoors or outdoors, in the production areas, in the climate chamber or on the production line. It is not for nothing that EFAFLEX counts well-known German and international groups among its customers. The door specialists find an efficient solution even for the most unusual conditions.

A mechanical arm that lifts a body panel and clamps it into a machine. A welding machine driving along a rail spraying sparks. A production line in which several robots simultaneously stamp devices into car roofs. Another in which paint is automatically sprayed onto bare plastic elements. A production hall in which two side parts are lowered onto a vehicle floor from above. A climate zone in which extreme temperatures, wind, and precipitation act on the automobile for test purposes. A test chamber in which emissions tests and light tests are carried out. “The automotive industry is very much characterised by automation, speed and parallel processes,” says Florian Anzeneder, Vice President Sales & Marketing at EFAFLEX, world market leader in the production of high-speed doors. Each area has its own specific requirements: for example, high thermal insulation to keep
temperatures constant; soundproofing to minimise noise levels around the workplace; Blackout to check lighting effects; flexible hangings so as not to damage objects; or transparency to allow insight into the work area at any time.

Protective device separates man and machine
An essential important factor that all door solutions for sensitive areas in the automotive sector have in common is security. Whether welding chamber, climate cell, production hall or robot line – wherever automated machine work takes place, the risk of accidents and malfunctions must be reduced to a minimum. “Our doors act as a separating protective device between machine and person,” says Florian Anzeneder. “We can equip them with appropriate characteristics.”

Opening only when stationary
Using the example of a press in the production process, he makes the importance of a controllable door solution clear: “Before the skilled worker can approach the machine to put material in, the door has to open – at that point, the machine is switched off. If he leaves the safety zone, the door closes again. Then the press starts and performs its operation. The door only opens again and grants access to the machine when it has finished its activity.” In short: the door recognises when the machine is running and only opens when it is at a standstill. Only in this way is the staff reliably protected.

Doors communicate with machines
A prerequisite for such a safe and coordinated process is the possibility of being able to integrate the door into the higher-level control system of the respective machine or system in order to ensure an appropriate signal exchange. According to Florian Anzeneder, EFAFLEX offers specific solutions for the needs of the automotive industry. “This includes special communication interfaces such as AIDA or Profinet Safe. Depending on the requirements, our doors can also stand freely in the room – of course they are just as safe as structurally integrated doors.”

High availability as a customer requirement
The availability of the doors is just as important to EFAFLEX customers as security, says Anzeneder: “Smooth processes at the workplace are only possible if the door works reliably over the long term.” EFAFLEX’s customers include well-known automobile manufacturers from Germany and internationally space and numerous supplier companies. “With our products, we offer the industry alternative solutions. Because we understand their needs and have more than four decades of experience in the field of high-speed doors, we can tailor the doors to any environment and meet the requirements for security, energy
efficiency and process optimisation.”

Comprehensive service package thanks to global positioning
Another important feature is the comprehensive service at EFAFLEX available in 65 countries worldwide, says Anzeneder. “We offer our customers the complete package, exclusively with specially trained and certified staff. Unlike other manufacturers in our industry, we do not work with external service providers. In this way, our customers receive everything from a single source.”

To the industry overview

There is hardly an industry that is not affected: disruptions within logistical processes can cause delays in the process or even failures of an entire production. Such incidents, in turn, harbor both a cost and an image risk for the respective company. With the EFAFLEX special doors for the logistics sector, customers contribute to making all processes in their company efficient, smooth and low-maintenance.

In the logistics area in particular, internal and external doors must be designed in such a way that they do not hinder the processes in the relevant areas. On the contrary: with the right door, numerous processes can even be optimised – an elementary competitive criterion in today’s world. The EFAFLEX special doors for the logistics sector meet these requirements precisely and offer the optimal solution for every situation, from the automatic high loading bays to deep-freeze facilities.

Every area of ​​application has its requirements
The EFA-SRT® MTL high-speed roller door, for example, is particularly suitable for intensive logistics applications with and without a conveyor system. It is characterised by up to 250,000 operating cycles per year and offers a high degree of flexibility with regard to equipment and safety configurations, both for operations with and without personnel. Its space-saving design blends in perfectly. The high-speed spiral door EFA-SRT® MS is particularly popular in the automotive industry in the vicinity of robots and conveyor systems.

From all-round use to the frozen food area
A real all-rounder, on the other hand, is the EFA-SRT® Premium high-speed roller shutter, which impresses above all with its resistance to high wind loads and its robust construction. When it comes to logistics processes in the deep-freeze area, customers from the food trade, for example, rely on the high-speed spiral door EFA-SST® TK 100. The one-door solution seals the door practically hermetically, and thanks to a sophisticated heating design, prevents the build up of condensation or ice. It works perfectly in a generous temperature range – between minus and plus 30 degrees Celsius.

All-round reliable construction
All EFAFLEX logistics doors convince with their robust, resistant and long-lasting construction, patented elements for high reliability and with a long service life with low maintenance intensity. High opening and closing speeds of up to 3.6 meters per second, excellent windproofness and the fulfillment of all material and functional safety requirements guarantee smooth operation.

Click for more logistic door solutions: www.efaflex.de.

The world food market generated over 8 trillion US dollars in 2020, but what impact did the global pandemic have in the short term, and what trends are likely to remain as we enter into a recovery state? Here we look at the factors influencing consumers and producers alike.

What impact did COVID have on the food industry?
At the beginning of the pandemic, many shoppers entered into panic buying, stockpiling certain goods which led to product shortages. Much of the food industry operates a ‘just in time’ model, which isn’t sufficiently agile to cater for peaks and abnormal purchasing. Agricultural food producers and their wider supply chain will have incurred significant losses during COVID while shoppers switched from food services, restaurants and take-aways forced to close, to buying produce to home cook instead. This added to the intentsity on supermarkets who reacted, rationed certain foods and switched capacity to key products.

The events of 2020 caused a fundamental reset in human behaviour. As we entered into lockdowns, so too did the trend to home cooking with a stocked pantry providing a sense of security. The panemic made consumers more aware of their well being; physical, mental and emotional, with food playing an important role as other priveldges and freedoms were compromised.

What are the trends that may be likely to remain?
Here are some of the trends that you may identify with during the pandemic.
– Increase in home cooking with ‘meal-kit’ companies such as HelloFresh™ experiencing a boom as consumers switched to the ‘hometainment’ – the experience of creative dining at home.
– A demand for manufacturers and producers to increasingly use natural ingredients, and a decreased use of artificial colours and flavors.
– An increase in vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based foods to provide meat and dairy free options for consumers. 2020 was the year where people relooked at their diet with over 13 million people in the UK cutting back on their meat consumption.
– The desire for convenient, protein-rich, and healthy food. The pandemic may have seen many of us working from home, but this didn’t necessarily increase our spare time and capacity to cook healthily.
– Online shopping – consumers looked for increased convenience during the pandemic with a third of people likely to continue to online shop.
– A focus on hygiene. The pandemic taught us about the importance of cleanliness, and hygiene.

How does EFAFLEX help the food industry?

As manufacturers of high-speed doors, the food and beverage industry is a significant sector, with customers using our products throughout the supply chain from source to fork.

Versatility, functionality, and durability are some of the key reasons why supermarkets and food producers have come to rely on our doors.

We have a range of products that have been specifically designed with the food industry in mind. Products that are fast to operate (opening up to 4 metres per second) to reduce exposure to the elements, minimise the risk of cross contamination, and maintain air quality. Doors that offer exceptional insulation from chill to deep freeze in zones that operate in temperatures of ±30°C.

The range includes doors that open using a spiral mechanism for speed (S Series), curtain fabric roll-up doors (EFA-SRT EC®) that offer the highest hygiene and easy to clean, and our deep freeze thermal door (TK) with its exceptional insulation properties.

Look around any food production facility, whether at the unloading bays, production areas, packing, storage, or dispatch areas, and EFAFLEX have a high-speed door to match these bespoke needs.

Demand driven shifts may have reshaped the global grocery market, but EFAFLEX has the ability and flexibility to adapt to these changes and support the food industry in their quest to provide food to consumers and supermarkets alike.  

Who are EFAFLEX and what do they manufacture?
EFAFLEX are global leaders in the design and manufacture of high-speed industrial doors. With a head office in Germany, they have a network of sales and distribution centres that enables them to supply products in over 53 countries including India. Each of their products have been design engineered to improve user safety, speed up logistical processes, whilst minimizing energy costs by as much as 50%.

What should I do if I am interested?
Simply click the website link here, to visit the Food Industry sector on our website where you can view our industry specific products.
Visit our website.

India is expected to have a popuation of 1.4 billion by 2025, surpassing China. This will create an upsurge in demand for housing, public transport, and infrastructure with the government planning to build 100 airports and 20 million affordable homes. If you are an architect working in India, and want to work smarter, faster and more accurately then BIM (Building Information Modelling) is a must for you!

What is Building Information Modelling?
BIM is a 3D digital modelling tool which aids architects, engineers, and construction professionals, by helping them to visualize, plan and predict a building projects profitability and total cost of ownership. It provides all project stakeholders with full transparency and product information including sizes, materials along with possible product positioning.

Whilst the concept of BIM has been in development since the 1970’s it only became an agreed term in the 2000’s with certain countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany being early adopters. Architects, planners, and construction companies embraced the many advantages that using BIM offered. With the expected increase of construction within India, there is now a need for designers and architects to adopt BIM to improve the efficiency and expedite the execution of projects inline with the more developed countries.

What are the benefits of BIM to me as an architect?
This is a frequently asked question. Architects can use various ways of working, whether that is with traditional methods of pencil and paper, or more modern computer-generated 3D modelling and artificial intelligence. Regardless of the way you prefer to design and create your visual impressions, BIM has advantages for you all.

What BIM offers: 
– Provides one shared portal for all stakeholders to view the progress in real-time
– Make planning easier and more accurate
– Improves visibility and informs better decision making
– Integrates multi-disciplinary data

Who are EFAFLEX and what do they manufacture?

EFAFLEX are global leaders in the design and manufacture of high-speed industrial doors. With a head office in Germany, they have a network of sales and distribution centres that enables them to supply products in over 53 countries including India.

Each of their products have been design engineered to improve user safety, speed up logistical processes, whilst minimizing energy costs by as much as 50%.

Why should their products be of interest to me as an architect?
Similar to architects, EFAFLEX provide a bespoke solution; creating a tailored door that matches the needs of the client. Within their range of products, they have high-speed door that opens using either a spiral, roll up or folding design. Their opening speeds are unsurpassed and their insulation properties are exceptional. Aesthetics and design features are of key importance too, such as colour matching to a building’s façade. They harmonize form, function, and design. With the construction of so many differing buildings taking place in India, EFAFLEX can offer an all-encompassing solution. They have designed industrial doors to suit virtually every industry sector including food and beverage, cleanroom, automotive, and manufacturing, with their products being used throughout facilities and at interior and exterior positions. They even have an ATEX high-speed door that is explosion proof!

What do EFAFLEX have to offer regarding BIM?
EFAFLEX have teamed up BIMobject® which is a global marketplace for the construction industry. On their portal you will find a spectrum of object categories ranging from electronics, fabrics, and flooring. Detailed downloadable technical files are included from over 2,000 brands such as Electrolux, AEG, and Duravit. There are over 25,000,000 downloads each year with users including architects around the world who all use the data files to help speed up, plan, and make costing calculations more accurate.

BIMobject feature the key EFAFLEX doors on their portal with files that are Revit, AutoCAD and ArchiCAD compatible.

What should I do if I am interested?
Simply click the website link here to visit the BIMobject portal on the EFAFLEX website where you can find out more and start downloading your files. 

Visit our website 

These are highly critical, even life-threatening situations: Oxygen and explosive matter mix in the air and with just a single spark, the combination explodes. Fires and pressure waves caused by explosions repeatedly cause major damage in factories. Special safety regulations therefore apply in hazardous areas: among other things, equipment, machines and all installations must be designed so that they prevent sparking from the outset. EFAFLEX manufactures roll-up and spiral doors for indoor and outdoor use especially for this purpose that meet these strict requirements – a reliable solution for every commercial area.

Gas, steam, mist, dust: when combined with atmospheric oxygen, these and other flammable substances can ignite. There are correspondingly vulnerable areas in many industries, including pharmaceuticals, mining, petrochemicals and metal processing. To guarantee comprehensive safety in these explosive atmospheres (French: Atmosphères Explosives, for short: ATEX), standardised directives apply throughout Europe. The specialists at EFAFLEX manufacture both roll-up doors and spiral doors for individual use in accordance with these regulations. In their search for the best product, they spent more than a year researching and developing, and also involved TÜV Süd in the processes. After all, doors should not only provide comprehensive protection against explosions, but also do so at all times in accordance with the regulations.

Safe solutions for explosive atmospheres
Both explosive gases and explosive dust-air mixtures can be responsible for the formation of explosive atmospheres. These two sub-areas are each dealt with separately in the associated EU standards. EFAFLEX has therefore developed its own suitable solution for each of them. Three components are needed to cause an explosion. The first: oxygen. This is always present in the air in sufficient quantities. Second: an explosive medium. The third component is an ignition source – one single spark from it is enough. You usually have no influence on the oxygen content and medium but you can make sure that there is no ignition source. In simple terms, this is the essential feature of these special doors.

All components interact efficiently
The design of the EFAFLEX explosion-proof door systems includes mechanical and electrical precautions so no spark can occur anywhere to cause an ignition. All elements work together and have the appropriate ATEX certificate depending on their purpose and quality. These include the activators and safety. Everything that EFAFLEX installs or attaches directly to the door is therefore safe. All electrical/electronic components used in the door are connected in the control cabinet, which is mounted outside the hazardous area. Each individual door is manufactured in compliance with directives according to customer specifications in the company’s own factories. The customer informs the EFAFLEX specialists of the prevailing hazardous situation inside or outside their company premises above ground. They build the door system based on these parameters. Good for the customer: it is available in various dimensions including customised sizes – whether it’s for a production plant, warehouse building or paint shop.

Customised features for all purposes
The door systems for these demanding applications are therefore fundamentally different, as they are always adapted extremely precisely to their areas of use. For example, the roll-up door for ATEX applications, EFA-SRT® EX, has a frequency converter and a microprocessor control as standard. In addition, there are dynamic door-blade tensioners, counteracting equipment using springs as well as a hand lever on the door case for easy manual opening, for example in the event of a power failure. It is designed for indoor use and equipped with a likewise certified black, non-transparent ATEX special curtain as well as all-round modern technology. Provision is also made for emergencies: if the power fails, for example, the doors can be opened quickly using a hand lever. The ATEX high-speed spiral door (EFA-SST® EX) can be installed both inside and outside. One of its characteristics is its fixed door leaf, which is extremely fast to open and close. It seals completely tight and also withstands high wind forces at any time.

Proven EFAFLEX quality and customised production
What both door solutions have in common is their inherently high opening and closing speed as well as their durability. They are extremely robust and reliable and can complete millions of openings. In addition, they are designed in such a way that they do not injure anyone when moving up and down and do not cause any damage, for example, to vehicles underneath them or any obstacles that have accidentally got in their way. It doesn’t get any safer than this!

Read more

Would you like to find out more about the explosion-proof door solutions from EFAFLEX? 

Click here here for more information.

The car park doors from EFAFLEX attractively set the scene for multi-storey and underground car parks. Today car parks are no longer purely functional, but ideally attractive places that are safe and secure for their customers to use. EFAFLEX is making a major contribution to this development with its highly customisable high performance doors specifically manufactured for the parking sector. This success story began in 1995 in the Netherlands where the first EFAFLEX car park doors were installed in a multistorey car park in the city of Arnhem. More car parks and other cities around the country have followed. Today, the world market leader for high speed doors, manufactures the bespoke parking systems for customers from numerous nations – far beyond Europe’s borders too.

EFAFLEX parking systems doors are now in use in eight of the ten largest cities in the Netherlands, and in more than 20 municipalities in total. Car park operators’ favour EFAFLEX as the manufacturer of these special high-performance doors based on shared ideals: they should be robust and durable, high-performance, safe, visually attractive and fit in with the overall architectural appearance.

Unrivalled: high number of opening and closing cycles

Almere is such an example: in the seventh largest city in the Netherlands, the focus was on the desire for a robust door system that can complete many opening cycles per year. “Muntgarage Almere” offers space for 300 vehicles – and is now in operation around the clock thanks to the high performance of the EFAFLEX doors.’ The reliability is vital’ emphasises Alexander Fuchs. He is the Business Owner Parking at EFAFLEX headquarters. “Entrances to car parks of this size may be opened up to 600,000 times a year.” To classify this: with common garage doors around five cycles per day are expected – the EFAFLEX high-performance doors are designed to open up to 250,000 times between each service interval. “No other doors come even close to this service life and load capacity,” says Fuchs.

Design must be sustainable

Even beyond performance and durability, car park operators’ requirements are demanding. This is also due to the strict regulations for car parks in European cities and municipalities: construction elements and materials must be designed to keep care and maintenance costs low in the long term. Something that the world market leader for high-speed doors has always ensured thanks to its extremely high-quality standards.

Cleanliness and safety are top criteria

The lower operating and maintenance costs can be offset by higher revenues thanks to more satisfied customers and the resulting increased use of the parking facilities. “Customers often report back to us that their facilities have become much more attractive with our doors. They increase both safety and cleanliness in the car parks,” says Fuchs. These are two essential aspects: the fast automatic opening and closing system prevents unauthorised entry by vehicles or people gaining access to the car park during the few seconds when the door opens for the passing vehicle. These features are particularly essential for hotels, banks, authorities, and other public facilities, which is why the parking system gates with their automatic access control are often an elementary component of security concepts. Leaves, dust, and litter, for example, also have little chance of being blown in through the door. Fuchs states: “Our customers report up to 30 percent lower cleaning costs as a result.”

Service team is quickly on the spot

Because even a brief interruption in the door operation can have a significant impact on the car park’s turnover, operators also appreciate the close-knit service network and the short reaction times at EFAFLEX. Our highly trained fitters are on hand to provide solutions for all installation situations, even at weekends. The experts are certified in a wide range of specialist applications and have a high degree of expert knowledge.

Utmost expertise with maximum flexibility

Of course, this know-how already pays off during production: the engineers adapt each door individually to the customer’s requests. Combined designs are in demand along with different dimensions, materials, and colours to suit the place of application. For example, in addition to a door for the vehicles, an exact matching pedestrian door can be produced to the same design. This expertise and flexibility have already helped one customer win an award: The Zuidplein 10 car park in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, secured with the manufacturer’s parking system doors, received the European Parking Standard Award from the European Parking Association: this “parking industry Oscar” is awarded to parking facilities in Europe that meet the very highest standards of safety, sustainability, and excellence.

Customers all over the world rely on EFAFLEX car park doors

However, EFAFLEX’s catchment area is by no means limited to the Netherlands. The Chinese provincial capital of Harbin, for example, whose shopping centre was equipped with the high-performance parking system doors, is also counting on EFAFLEX’s reliable quality and all their other advantages. In addition to Germany and the Netherlands, the strongest demand is currently coming from the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. But the parking system doors, which are always tailor-made, are also supplied to Australia, China, South America, Hungary, and Kazakhstan.

Read more

Would you like to know more about the specific EFAFLEX high-speed doors for multi-storey and underground car parks? Click here for more information.

Link to the product page

If oxygen and explosive matter mix in the air, a single spark is enough to ignite the combination. Therefore in endangered areas, special safety regulations apply, including with regard to the condition of devices, machines and all built-in components. Specifically for this purpose, EFAFLEX manufactures roller and spiral doors for indoor and outdoor use that meet the strict requirements – a reliable solution for every commercial area.

Gas, steam, mist, dust: in combination with air, these and other flammable substances can ignite. There are correspondingly endangered areas in many industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, mining, petrochemicals and metal processing. In order to guarantee comprehensive safety in these explosive atmospheres (French: Atmosphères Explosives, or ATEX for short), Europe-wide guidelines apply. According to these regulations, the EFAFLEX specialists manufacture both roller doors (EFA-SRT® EX) and spiral doors (EFA-SST® EX ) for individual use.

Safe solutions for explosive areas
“There are two ways of being confronted with explosive atmospheres: explosive gases and an explosive dust-air mixture,” says Klaus Manlig, Head of the EFAFLEX Sales Academy. “These two areas are dealt with separately in the EU standards. We have developed a suitable solution for each of them. ”In order to cause an explosion, three components are required, as the expert explains. First: oxygen. This is always present in sufficient quantities in the air. Second: an explosive medium. The third component is an ignition source – a single spark is enough.

Efficient interaction of all components
The construction of the explosion-proof EFAFLEX door systems includes mechanical as well as electrical precautions, so that a spark cannot occur at any point to trigger an ignition. All the elements work together, as Manlig describes. “In addition to the mechanical, both the electrical and electronic components in our doors are equipped with the appropriate ATEX certificate. These include the pulse generator and other safety systems. Everything that is built in or attached directly to the door is safe.” In the control cabinet, which is installed outside of the potentially explosive area, all of the components installed and attached to the door are connected.

Custom features for all purposes
The door systems for these demanding applications are fundamentally different because they are precisely adapted to their areas of application, explains Manlig. The roller shutters, for example, are equipped with a certified black, non-transparent ATEX special curtain and all-round modern technology. Emergency provisions are also provided: if the power fails, for example, they can be opened quickly using a hand lever.

Proven EFAFLEX quality and individual production
What the two door solutions have in common is their inherently high opening and closing speed and their durability, as Manlig says: “Our doors are very robust and reliable. You can realise millions of openings. In addition, they are designed in such a way that they do not injure anyone when driving up and down and do not cause any damage to vehicles underneath, for example. ”The development of these systems took about a year together with TÜV SÜD. Each individual door is manufactured in-house in accordance with the guidelines as well as customer-specific. Manlig: “The customer tells us which dangerous situation prevails, indoors or outdoors. We build the door system according to these parameters, which is available in various dimensions including bespoke sizes.”

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Would you like to find out more about the explosion-proof door solutions from EFAFLEX? Click here for more information.

Key facts:
Year founded: 1974
Sector: construction industry
World market share, number of continents: 6 (Source: 2018)
Subsidiaries in: Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia,
China, Great Britain, Switzerland (Source: 2018)
Employees: 1,200 (Source: 2018)

To the industry overview

Parking garages, parking lots, park-and-ride, city parking, central transport hubs: As varied as parking systems are today, the requirements for their security are complex. Protection against burglary and vandalism, separation of public and private space and maximum efficient use of space resources – all these components are becoming increasingly relevant. As a reliable solution for entrances and exits, EFAFLEX offers parking system doors that can be used safely and quickly and in various spaces. EFAFLEX has just won the strict tender, review, and approval process for the “FUN²” project in the Chinese provincial capital of Harbin. In China’s northernmost province, the specialists have now installed twelve parking system doors for the new Harbin FUN2 shopping mall.

Parking: High security challenges
In view of the high volume of individual traffic in urban areas, quite a few cities rely on parking garages, parking lots, park-and-ride areas, city parking options or central transport hubs. This creates sensible accommodation options for the vehicles – but it also brings with it other important tasks: In recent years, protagonists in this business area have faced increasingly complex security requirements, for example in the form of complex protective measures against burglary and vandalism, in the form of necessary separation of public and private space as well as the efficient use of available space.

For example, escape routes must be designed and installed, while at the same time preventing unwanted access. This is the only way to prevent unauthorized entry and damage to third-party property. However, these security aspects are often neglected in planning or considered too late. Subsequent security gaps with regard to property and personal values are essential criteria for the acceptance of the parking areas and thus for the entire project.

In this context, the entrances and exits pose a particular security risk: often unsupervised, they give unauthorized persons the opportunity to gain access to the park infrastructure unnoticed. The dimensions of such entrances and exits represent a further challenge: Mostly necessary, larger than average openings are usually difficult to implement architecturally, especially in tight spaces.

Solutions for complex requirements in the parking sector
Because EFAFLEX has been operating in this area for a long time, the company’s specialists are aware of these tricky requirements. For this reason, they build high-speed doors that offer security, speed and application options adapted to the different parking conditions. The operator of the Harbin FUN² Shopping Mall in China is now also relying on this expertise. EFAFLEX was able to convince it of its expertise in its strict tendering, checking and approval process and recently installed a total of twelve parking system doors on site.

The special parking system solutions particularly address the extensive requirements in terms of security: Among other things, some EFAFLEX models with integrated, effective burglary protection have also been integrated into the escape route concept for fire and catastrophes in the shopping mall.

In this special installation situation, the high-speed spiral doors (EFA-SST®) guarantee both safety and comfort when passing through the entrances and exits of the underground car park. The high-quality internals open at a speed of up to two meters per second and close at up to one meter per second – immediately after the vehicle has passed. The building doors prevent unwanted access and unauthorized vehicles are prevented from entering the building.

EFAFLEX also solved the special difficulty of an above-average opening width for entrances and exits with the installed door variant. The maintenance costs also remain sustainably low: up to 250,000 load changes are possible per service interval. Thanks to the locking mechanisms, pollution in the parking garages is also reduced to a minimum. The operator benefits from this in the  form of lower personnel costs since the parking spaces need to be cleaned less frequently. 

New entry for our EFAPROTECT Series and Serie S
It offers secure protection against break-ins and has been specially developed for confined spaces. With the new high-speed spiral door, we are launching our sixth door, which according to DIN V ENV 1627 is certified for Resistance Class 2 (RC2).

Time and again we have found that customers need a door in specific areas where space is restricted making any possible installation a logistical challenge. This required a solution designed by our in-house team of industry experts and led to the development of the new Efficient door.

Space-saving and durable
This high-speed spiral door works without weight compensation via a chain drive which saves valuable space. The  highly insulating door blade also enables use in confined spaces, and thanks to the compact slim line frame dimensions, the door becomes a space miracle. For companies, this not only opens up the amount of possible uses but also the type of drive used too. The chain drive is resilient and requires little maintenance but is extremely durable. The EFA-SST® Efficient can be used as either an internal or external door, ideally in areas with medium traffic such as hall closings, storage areas or parking garages.

High-speed spiral door for confined spaces
 “It is precisely these areas that should not be neglected, even if one tends to focus on the doors that are at the centre of daily work processes,” says Klaus Manlig, Training Manager Sales. “With the EFA-SST® Efficient, we have developed a door that is ideally suited for these installation situations. It saves space, requires little maintenance and at the same time is very safe.”

The EFA-SST® Efficient is designed for approximately 150,000 load changes per year and operates at a speed of  0.5 m / s. Door widths from 600 to 4,000mm and heights from 1,100 to 5,130mm are available. With the WK2 certification, the EFA-SST® Efficient offers effective protection against unwanted intruders. After each closing operation, the door is automatically burglar-resistant without any additional locking measures.

Bespoke requests? No problem.
As with every door manufactured by EFAFLEX, this model is adapted to bespoke customer requirements including almost all lath variants that are available with the S Series.
EFAFLEX is represented on all continents and in more than 50 countries. We would be happy to advise you on site!