Emergency vehicles have long utilized aluminum roll-up doors as a method for accessing their side compartments. The roll-up, shuttering nature of the doors offers emergency personnel unique benefits that are especially important during a crisis, like providing increased space, security, and access, particularly when compared to a hinged door. Most companies prefer aluminum, as the metal is incredibly lightweight yet strong. That’s why it’s such a popular choice for emergency services all over the U.S.
Aluminum Shuttered Roll-Up Doors
When choosing an aluminum roll up door, it’s essential to find one from a reliable company that offers premium, safe products. Look for a company that provides high-quality, resilient, and strong aluminum sliding doors with all the features necessary to deliver fast, safe compartment access. Shutter-style doors are perfect for fire trucks and ambulances and are the accepted standard of compartment doors employed by emergency organizations worldwide. That particular style offers some unique benefits that just aren’t possible with the typical hinged-style panel compartment door, which can be very dangerous to use.
Benefits of Choosing Aluminum Roll-Up Compartment Doors
Aluminum roll-up doors work by rolling into a coil at the top of the door opening. Most of them are made from double-sided extruded aluminum and can roll up effortlessly with the help of a spring-loaded roller take-up, which is small to allow for maximum compartment space. This is a perfectly suited style for emergency vehicles. As time has gone on, roll-up doors have received many innovative upgrades and features to make them the ideal choice for any emergency vehicle that requires many interior and exterior compartments, like a fire truck or ambulance.
Greater Safety and Security
Part of the job description of emergency service personnel is working at loud, emotionally charged, and utterly chaotic emergency scenes. With all the smoke, noise, and general confusion, senses essentially become limited to vision. This is where a shuttered, roll-up style compartment door provides greater safety for the emergency personnel.
A panel-style door that must swing open on hinges to allow access obstructs their vision, which can be very dangerous. A roll-up door neatly eliminates that issue, making it so team members can make eye contact with each other at all times, allowing for non-verbal communication too. It even has the potential to hurt somebody if they were to get in the way of the door as it was swinging open. That doesn’t happen with a door that slides upwards.
Lightweight Yet Incredibly Durable and Resilient
Aluminum is one of the most lightweight yet durable metals available, which is why it’s such a common choice for applications like doors or panels on complicated emergency vehicles. A fire truck or ambulance requires so many different features and emergency equipment that are extremely heavy. With the addition of the equipment and gear rescue personnel must wear, which can weigh upwards of 75 lbs., trucks can tip the scales at over 11 tons. That enormous number is why firehouses try to save weight in any way possible which is why aluminum roll-up doors are such a smart investment. Using full-sized aluminum shutter doors can help reduce weight considerably, even up to 30% in some cases.
Provides Easy, Convenient Access
When crews are working at an emergency scene, it’s an understatement to say that every single second counts. That urgency is why the shutter-style roll-up door is so critical for emergency personnel it allows for quick, easy access. Most move upwards on a spring-loaded roller, combined with a steel handle pull that allows for simple and easy access.
Look for a door with a wide handle that will allow for easy access even when wearing heavy protective gloves. Roll-up doors also must have a counterbalance to ensure the door only needs the bare minimum of effort to slide open all the way. However, most companies place this counterbalance in the same space where the door coils up, ensuring it doesn’t take up very much space.
Extremely Efficient
The same technique that a roll-up door uses to roll upwards and disappear makes them the most convenient, space-saving option. In particular, the interior of an ambulance can significantly benefits from the space-saving qualities of a roll-up shuttered door since they need every inch of space possible. Hinged doors are very limiting and even have the propensity to hurt somebody if they get in the way of the opening door.
Roll-up style doors don’t just save space on the interior of the vehicle, though. They also save space on the exterior. When emergency vehicles have to park at an accident scene, they often only have limited space. Using swing-style doors could literally make it impossible for the crews to open the compartments and access the inside. Roll-up doors eliminate this problem, so as long as there’s room for a human, there’s room to access the life-saving equipment inside the compartment.
Long-lasting and durable
Aluminum is one of the lightest yet durable metals available, making it the perfect material for panels and doors on emergency vehicles. Its resilience and resistance to rust make it ideal for use on the vehicle’s exterior and interior. Most of the companies that provide these roll-up doors test them rigorously to ensure they’re durable. Gortite, which is the industry-standard brand for aluminum roll-up compartment doors, regularly submits its designs to rigorous field tests, ensuring its products are built to last and meet strict safety requirements. Some companies even offer power-operated doors, which offer even greater efficiency and quick access.
Another consideration of selecting roll-up doors for their durability is the abuse that most equipment in emergency services goes through daily. If crews used swing doors, there’s a possibility of the doors literally being ripped off the truck when they have to move quickly out to a scene, and the door was left open. They also can’t be ripped loose by other vehicles leaving the accident scene.
Choose Aluminum Roll-Up Compartment Doors for Emergency Vehicles
Emergency services worldwide deal with unique issues and problems every day when they are at an accident scene. They need to be able to rely on vehicles that have safe equipment they can access very quickly. The best way to achieve this is by using aluminum shuttered roll-up compartment doors. This door style fits all the requirements that a compartment door on an emergency vehicle needs to have, making them the most popular choice for services all over the country. They’re safe, durable, convenient, and incredibly efficient, which are all essential qualities to have at an accident scene where every second counts.
