“Its not faith in physical security solutions, Its faith in the people that design security solutions that matters” – Anon
Most customers don’t know the difference between these products types and end up making the wrong purchase to secure their homes and business. At Xpanda we have a variety of roller shutters garage doors and sectional garage doors, the main difference between this two is the opening and closing method and how the curtain is stored away from view. Technically Roller shutter curtain rolls themselves around the main shaft and Sectional Garage door opening mechanism slides the door along a guide rail path.
Both these doors require a lot of headroom to accommodate the sliding or rolling curtain when closed. Both roller shutter and sectional garage doors open vertically, are safe, secure and can be fitted behind any shape or size opening.
Most clients also want to know, what is the difference between Roller Shutter and Roller Door? The difference between these two is minor. While a roller shutter is made up of +- 75 mm interlocking steel or aluminium slats, roller doors are lightweight and made up of a single piece of thin galvanized coated steel curtain. Roller doors normally come in standard sizes and limited when it comes to customisation, whereas roller shutters are little more flexible in this regard.
Design differences
Roller shutter doors have a variety of slat options, opening method and colour finishes, whereas roller garage doors normally come in standard colours as they are normally targeted towards the DIY (Do It Yourself) market. Sectional garage doors allow a lot more flexibility as you have options to choose the panels and their sizes including the materials.
Figure 1: A: Sectional doors operation B: Roller Shutter Door Operation illustration
Xpanda Colours options
Xpanda Roller shutters come in 22 Standard UV Resistant colours to choose options. Should you want a non-standard colour i.e not on the list, we can match this up. It will, however, take 15 to 20 days to match. Sectional doors panels come in 4mm toughened glass, Bronze, Grey, Bronze Stopsol, Grey Stopsol, Frostyvue, Oceanvue and Clear.
Materials options
Both Roller shutters and sectional garage doors are normally made from steel or aluminium. Added to this Xpanda uses various corrosion prevention treatments to prevent damage and ensure the structural integrity of its products against the weather, saltwater, acids, or other hostile environments so your products last longer. Products are protected from the elements by our Electro Plating and Epoxy coating process, and we will hot-dip galvanize on request. Hot-dip galvanizing is done according to SABS 1461 specifications.
Sizes options
Roller shutter width can range from 1 meter to around 8 meters wide*, while in some jurisdictions or regions sectional garage doors can have similar design parameters if standard engineering specifications are utilised.
Operational mechanism
Roller shutters doors operating mechanism options; Push/pull manual operations, Crank handle, Chain driven and Electrically operated. Sectional doors are normally manual or electrical operated with tension spring mounted on the shafted for weight and force balancing. Depending on the track layout the balancing spring can either be top or at the end of the track.
Security level
Roller shutters and sectional garage are very secure compared to single sheet lightweight roller doors. At Xpanda our roller shutters come three different locking mechanism, Beehive Rol-Lock, Barrel Lock & aluminium box lock.
Emergency Opening
For electrically operated roller shutters and sectional garage doors as standard come with a manual override mechanism and also battery back up in case of power failures.
Insulation and Sealing
A roller shutter garage doors produced using aluminium foam-filled double-skinned slats, which are usually about 10 – 16 mm * thick obviously offers a reasonable degree of insulation. A huge number manufacturers in south African and the world make sectional garage door panels in either 40 or 46 mm * thick foam-filled panel sections also have rubber seals between usually only 4 panels on a standard door and rubber seals to the top, side and bottom. On a well designed, square garage opening you can achieve very high levels of insulation with these techniques and methods.
Even though the difference between roller shutter garage doors and sectional garage doors is not that significant, always consult with our expert security professionals to help you with the choice.
*Note: Consult your sales consultant for accurate figures.
