Bi-fold door system by Centor meets tough standards
Miami Dade County is a region, legendary for its coastal hurricanes. It has the single toughest standard of testing anywhere in the world, so the path towards approval for Centor’s bi-fold door system was a very challenging one.
It is an ambitious bi-fold door system set-up, featuring panels 3048mm high by 1067mm wide. The full test regime requires repeating the test procedure (described below) with three complete door assemblies to make sure that the result is repeatable and to reassure the consumer that any bi-fold door system with a compliance rating will be utterly reliable.
Each test includes normal wind (structural), water and air infiltration tests to exacting standards. On top of this, however, Miami Dade County and Florida State test regulations include a very exciting ‘large missile impact’ test.
A length of wood over 2.1 metres long and weighing over 4 kg is fired end on into the glass and framing at critical points at a speed in excess of 54km/h, simulating the flying debris likely to be encountered in an extreme storm event. This breaks the glass in the special impact resistant laminated glazing panels. However, a special interlayer is used that ensures that, even after the glass is broken, the membrane which is bonded into the panel remains intact so as not to allow an opening in the building envelope that might put the building structure at risk to an even more destructive combination of wind forces.
Not quite done yet, the battered unit is then subjected to a very serious structural wind load test regime. A total of 9000 pressure cycles (4500 negative and 4500 positive), including some up to the full design load rating. This part of the test takes roughly eight hours to complete and is a very thorough examination of bi-fold door system integrity.
7-Nov-2006