If you manage a busy warehouse, distribution centre or industrial facility, you’ve probably seen a forklift waiting at the doorway. Looks like a typical day right?
It might only be a few seconds each time. But when the same doorway is being used all day, every day, those seconds can quickly add up.
Take a typical 3-metre-high industrial doorway.
A conventional industrial roller shutter operating at around 0.15 metres per second would take approximately:
20 seconds to open
20 seconds to close
40 seconds of curtain travel per complete cycle
By comparison, a high-speed door operating at 2 metres per second would cover the same 3-metre opening in:
1.5 seconds to open
1.5 seconds to close
3 seconds of curtain travel per complete cycle
That is a difference of approximately 37 seconds every time the doorway completes an open-and-close cycle.
Conventional industrial roller shutter speeds vary according to door size, weight, motor and controls, but around 0.15 m/sec is a published standard operating speed for some industrial shutters. High-speed industrial doors capable of opening at up to 2.0 m/sec are widely available, including models within the Remax Movidor range.
For a 3m-high doorway:
Conventional shutter at 0.15m/sec
Approx. 40 seconds total opening + closing travel
High-speed door at 2.0m/sec
Approx. 3 seconds total opening + closing travel
Potential difference: 37 seconds per cycle
That doesn’t sound enormous until you multiply it by the number of movements through the doorway.
Consider two different warehouse environments.
Imagine a smaller warehouse where a main access door opens around five times per hour across an eight-hour operating day.
That gives us approximately 40 complete opening and closing cycles per day.
At a theoretical 40 seconds of curtain travel per cycle, a conventional shutter would spend approximately: 26 minutes 40 seconds per day opening and closing.
At three seconds per cycle, the high-speed door would spend approximately: 2 minutes per day opening and closing.
Even in a comparatively low-traffic environment, the accumulated difference starts to become noticeable.
Now consider a busy logistics, manufacturing or distribution facility with forklifts, deliveries, outgoing goods and staff regularly moving through the same access point.
At 250 cycles per day, the numbers change considerably.
A conventional shutter requiring approximately 40 seconds of travel per cycle would accumulate: 2 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds of opening and closing travel each day.
A high-speed door travelling at 2m/sec would accumulate approximately: 12 minutes 30 seconds.
This doesn't mean a warehouse automatically gains two and a half additional productive hours. Vehicles still need time to approach and move through the opening, and automatic doors may remain open while traffic passes.
But it demonstrates something important: Small delays become much bigger when they are repeated hundreds of times.
| 3m-high doorway | Conventional shutter at 0.15m/sec | High-speed door at 2m/sec |
|---|---|---|
| Time to open | 20 sec | 1.5 sec |
| Time to close | 20 sec | 1.5 sec |
| Complete travel cycle | 40 sec | 3 sec |
| Difference per cycle | 37 sec | |
| 40 cycles/day | 26 min 40 sec | 2 min |
| 250 cycles/day | 2 hr 46 min 40 sec | 12 min 30 sec |
At 250 cycles per day, that's more than 2.5 hours difference in door travel time alone.
Figures are illustrative and based on a 3m-high opening, a conventional door travel speed of 0.15m/sec and a high-speed door travel speed of 2.0m/sec. Actual operating speeds, closing speeds, cycle times and hold-open periods vary by door model, opening size, controls and application.
Industrial doors are often treated as part of the building rather than part of the operation.
But in a high-traffic facility, a frequently used doorway is effectively another stage in the movement of people and product.
If forklifts regularly queue at an opening, operators constantly wait for a door cycle, or staff are manually opening and closing access points, the door may be slowing down the process around it.
A rapid door can help remove some of that friction. Automatic activation using radar, sensors, induction loops or other controls can allow the door to begin opening as traffic approaches, rather than requiring the operator to arrive at the doorway, stop and wait.
The objective is simple: Keep traffic moving safely with as little interruption as possible.
Opening speed can also affect how long your facility is exposed to the environment outside, or to conditions in an adjoining area.
Every time a doorway opens, there is an opportunity for temperature, air, dust and pests to move through it.
For food manufacturing, cold storage, warehousing and temperature-sensitive operations, that can be particularly important.
A rapid door that opens when required and closes quickly after traffic has passed can help reduce unnecessary exposure time.
That can support:
The aim isn't simply to have the fastest door.
It's to have a doorway that responds to the way your facility actually operates.
Speed is only useful if the door can cope with its environment.
In a busy warehouse, accidental impacts happen.
A forklift clips the curtain. A pallet catches the edge. Traffic approaches from an unexpected angle.
If every minor impact results in a damaged door and a service call, the downtime created by the door can quickly outweigh the seconds saved by opening it faster.
This is why door design matters as much as opening speed.
The Remax Movidor Rapid Roller Door uses a self-relocating curtain system designed to reset following accidental impacts, helping reduce disruption and unnecessary service call-outs in high-traffic environments.
You don't necessarily need a stopwatch to identify a problem.
Spend ten minutes watching one of your busiest access points during a normal shift.
Look for:
And ask the people using the doorway every day. Operators will usually know which access points slow them down.
If the answer is “we're always waiting for that door”, it may be worth looking at whether the existing system still suits the way the facility operates today.
Improving warehouse efficiency often means looking at large processes: layouts, automation, equipment, picking systems and staffing.
But sometimes a bottleneck is sitting in the wall.
If a doorway operates 40 times per day, improving its speed may remove repeated small interruptions.
If it operates 250 times per day, those interruptions multiply rapidly.
And some high-cycle industrial doors are designed for far more than that. High-speed industrial door manufacturers publish products rated for up to 150,000 operating cycles per year, showing just how frequently doorways can be expected to operate in demanding industrial environments.
So the question isn't simply:
How fast is your door?
It's:
If traffic flow, temperature control and operational efficiency matter to your facility, your doors should be part of the conversation.
Remax Doors manufactures the Movidor range of rapid roller doors in Australia for high-traffic industrial environments, with opening speeds of up to 2.0m/sec depending on the model.
Arrange an onsite assessment and find out whether your current doorway is keeping up with your operation. Click here.