A new roll-up door design from Pexco has led to the introduction of the Whiting Shield Series I door from Whiting Door Manufacturing Corp.
Pexco is a plastics extruder manufacturer and worked with Whiting on the design. The Shield Series is 20% lighter than a standard roll-up door and offers additional strength and color-fade resistance.
“This product innovation required a focused team effort and ongoing dialogue between our engineering team and Whiting Door,” said Jim Widhalm, vice president of sales and marketing for Pexco. “The result is an achievable extrusion product that is 20% lighter than traditional doors and meets the requirements for an industry-leading roll up door that is sturdy and able to carry custom colors or graphics.”
Instead of traditional sheet metal over a plywood exterior, the door panels are made from Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS). Pexco engineers developed a coextruded product that uses ABS with an outer layer of automotive-grade polymer. The polymer can be color customized at the point of manufacture, replacing the need to paint the door and eliminating color fade.
Each of the door’s panels are contoured along the edge and provide a tongue-and-groove channel that accepts a joint seal during assembly. The panel’s interior houses unique integral tensile steel inserts that replace the traditional plywood core and serve as a webbing to provide stiffness, stability and a solid backing for standard hinge fasteners.
The panel inserts are fastened with pop rivets on the interior of the door, creating a clean exterior.
The 3/4–in. Shield can be retrofit onto any trailer with a standard Whiting Premium dry freight door.
