A 14-member team of door manufacturers from India, Indonesia and Philippines visited the Sauerland factory in Gotha, Germany recently on the sidelines of Ligna. This was the fifth educational trip organised by Sauerland for its customers from ASEAN region.
Besides witnessing a number of tests being conducted on doors, the visitors also got to see manufacturing processes at two door factories. One such test was fire test of ‘100% engineered material door’ that exceeded 60 minutes.
“We got to see the most economical way of making fire-rated doors that are lighter in weight with no additives or inorganic fillers. Besides, none of the door manufacturers were using any flat pressed boards or filler board as in-fill for the doors,” remarked Nitin Vaze of Pune-based Sleek Boards, which markets Sauerland infill materials in India. “Board has a tendency of swelling, which can prove disastrous for the life, durability and finish of the door.”
Vaze explained that Sauerland had started supplying in-fill or tubular filler boards to the ASEAN door industry in 2007. “However the specifications in the ASEAN region still permit timber in-fill, whereas most of the world is manufacturing modern and eco-friendly doors.”
Extruded tubular in-fill gives a number of advantages to conventional board-filled doors. Among them is fire resistance, as in the case of this material the particle direction is predominantly vertical to surface which accords it a low rate of burning. Another is almost zero-thickness swelling, which ensures long life for the door. The hollow tubular construction of the in-fill material significantly reduces the overall weight of the door, contributing to the light weight strategy of modern construction. ')}