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View Our Doors & Dock Glossary
DOCKS.N.DOORS | Miami, Fort Lauderdale & Hialeah, FL
Glossary
Commercial Door
A control device that includes the 3 commands Open, Close, and Stop.
A compressible or deformable seal provided on the leading edge of the door.
Operators that transfer power from the motor to the drive shaft by use of drive belts and pulleys.
A reinforcing member at the lower edge of the door curtain assembly. It shall be provided with an astragal or sensing edge.
A structural support located predominantly on the bottom section that holds track rollers and may also provide for attachment of lifting cables. Bracket locations other than at bottom section corners are possible.
Astragal or other weatherstrip attached to the bottom of a door to seal against the floor
Plates bolted to the wall or to extensions of the guide wall angles that serve to support the barrel and form end closures for the hood.
Term used to refer generically to the use of brush filament material either in use as a weather-seal or when used as smoke seals for smoke and fire doors.
Weather-stripping for use on all configurations of doors to close the gaps at jambs and header. Brush material can be UL listed for "fire door" use.
Grooved drum, fitted on torsion spring shaft, onto which lifting cable is wound when door is pened
Specific amount of cable required to properly operate door
Top horizontal surface in the interior of a garage
A mechanical device used to raise and lower the door by use of hand chain.
Jackshaft type operator to which chain hoist is attached
The amount of side room, head room and back room required to properly install a sectional door
A door which is intended for vehicular use at entrances of commercial buildings such as loading docks, service stations, parking garages and manufacturing plants
A motor rated to operate continuously without overheating.
Generic term for a push-button device to allow activation of the gate or door, i.e. a 3 button station for Open/Stop/Close.
A system which counteracts the weight of a garage door to allow a reduced force to open and close the door
Interlocked slats assembled together.
Industrial fabric door panel or slats assembled together to close off the door opening.
Formed or extruded members that comprise the curtain on a rolling door.
An action on the door from the fully closed position, to the fully open position, and returned to the fully closed position.
Horizontal design load applied to a garage door based on such factors as wind speed, building height and door horizontal location
A vertically acting door, typically sectional, used primarily to close a door opening adjacent to a loading dock.
The upper part of a door frame, consisting of the head jamb, head casing, stop and trim molding
The upright framing on each side of the door opening
The clear open width and height
The clear open width and height.
A single segment of a sectional door
Door dimensions characterized by the width first and the height second
Combined assembly of a rolling service door and a rolling grille sharing guides and common bracket plates. Allows full security when required and ventilation with door opened and grille closed.
A grade of window glass lighter than plate glass and usually 1/8" thick
Acronym for Double Strength Grade B Glass
Common expression for the shape that guides form when they are mounted to steel jamb supports or frames.
A sensor, attached to an edge surface of a door, a gate or an object in the vicinity of the door or gate, that upon detecting an obstruction, signals the operator to stop or reverse.
An electrically-powered device to control the opening and closing of a door
A relay or switch designed to allow Emergency Vehicles access through a gate.
Provides power or tension by stretching or pulling, and is usually mounted along the horizontal section of track extending from front of door opening to the back hang
Door mounting condition where guides mount directly to the wall, and side clearance is allowed for tension wheel and drive mechanism.
Door mounting where guides mount directly to wall, and side and header clearances are allowed.
The door component of a fire door assembly.
Any combination of a fire door, a frame, hardware, and other accessories that together provide a specific degree of fire protection to the opening.
Full Vision Section (A totally glazed section with various types of glass or clear plastic. Section formed of aluminum extrusions which will marry with steel or aluminum sections above and below)
Two pieces of metal held together by low-melting-point solder.
A standard measure for sheet steel thickness or wire diameter.
Zinc coating to protect steel against corrosion
A vertically acting door, typically sectional or tilt-up, used primarily for vehicular access into a building.
The side on which the door operator is placed, as viewed from the barrel side of the door. It is either a RH or LH operation.
Vertical clear space required above the door opening, and below the lowest ceiling obstruction, required for proper installation and operation of the door and its hardware.
Counterbalance springs with increased cycle life capability for high usage doors
Distance from header to underside of horizontal track, when high lift track is required
A cable drum contoured to balance a high lift door
Track and hardware that causes the door to rise vertically some distance above the top of the door opening before it levels out into a horizontal position
A power-operated rolling, folding or sliding non-residential door, generally characterized by either 100 or more cycles per day or 20 or more inches per second opening speed, and typically made-to-order and/or designed for higher durability, and/or designed to break away due to equipment impact.
A type of high performance door with a minimum opening rate of 32 inches per second, a minimum closing rate of 24 inches per second, and a means to automatically reclose the door.
Hardware item that joins door sections together, and allows sections to pivot independent of each other
Similar to a jackshaft-type operator but with an auxiliary emergency chain hoist in case of a power failure
A housing that mounts horizontally, serving as an enclosure for the counterbalance assembly and door header.
Track used in the horizontal segment of a track assembly
Tapered spacing of the vertical track away from the jamb, permitting weathertight closing of door against jamb and easy release for opening door by eliminating friction
Spring loaded, sliding deadbolt lock or spring latch operable only from interior of the door
Door sections containing insulating material
Multi-pane glass assembly containing air space between panes for insulation
Acronym for "inside looking out"
Operator which is mounted on wall or ceiling, with drive provided to turn a torsion shaft
The vertical member that frames the side of an opening in the wall.
Laboratory-determined value of thermal conductance of a material
A heavy wood screw with a square or hex head and a coarse thread
A horizontal member spanning and carrying the load above an opening.
The openings in the loading dock area to the outside of a building. Loading dock doors are an important topic in planning and constructing a building. The rapidity of loading dock door opening is a consideration where some control of ambient temperature and humidity are required and often doors of this type are equipped to open automatically as a moving object approaches the door.
A sensitive electronic detector that functions by creating an inductive/capacitive field surrounding a loop of wire. When a vehicle enters the area of the loop, the sensor detects the resultant change in inductance and an output is generated.
An opening with slats or screening for ventilation
Acronym for left side looking out
The act of keeping a door system in good working condition
Device that allows manual operation of the door without electric power to open.
Distance from floor to the bottom of header
The door opening size is determined at the outside face of wall where shelter/seal will be mounted. The two opening sizes to consider are "door opening" and "seal opening" size. A) Door Opening Size - Distance between door jamb B) Seal Opening Size - Inside dimension of dock seal side pads The selection of the appropriate opening size should be determined by the type and size of vehicles to be serviced and the type of material handling operation in place at a particular facility.
Distance between jambs of the door opening
An electric or air-powered mechanism that opens and closes a door
A powered mechanism that opens and closes a door.
Decorative ornaments of metal, wood or hardboard used for outside decoration of garage door sections
A swinging pedestrian door built into a sectional door. Not recognized as an exit door by model codes
Weatherstrip installed at the perimeter of a garage door
Generally refers to licensed or certificates granted to construct or modify facilities by municipalities. May also refer to permissions to move products by ground or via air granted by local, state and national transportation departments. Permissions may be necessary due to the type of product or its physical size.
An entrapment protection device utilizing a light beam.
A sensor that consists of a light-emitting device and a light-receiving device. If the beam of light is blocked by an obstruction, the sensor signals the operator to stop and/or reverse.
A type of foam insulation commonly foamed in place by manufacturers of garage door sections
Maintenance of a gate system on a scheduled basis to inspect and service a gate operator to help prevent failures.
Horizontal member of a section
A wireless device that receives signals, most commonly from a transmitter, typically used to activate a door or gate.
An "L" shaped angle with the wall leg toward the door opening used to connect the vertical track to the jamb. Used in low headroom and sideroom restricted garages as well as lap joint.
A wheel that allows the gate or door to move along a track.
A vertically operating, coiling door typically used in commercial or industrial applications.
A fire rated vertically operating coiling door assembly with an automatic-releasing device typically used in commercial or industrial applications, providing protection in fire rated wall openings.
Acronym for "right side looking out"
Thermal resistance value; inverse of U-Value
Door made of two or more horizontal sections hinged together so as to provide a door capable of closing the entire opening and which is by means of tracks and track rollers.
A device added to the underside of the bottom bar of a power operated rolling door, which stops or reverses the door curtain upon contact with an obstruction when closing under power.
Drawings provided by the manufacturer or door supplier to the architect-engineer showing the plans, sections, elevations, and details of the work required, submitted to assure proper interpretation of the intent of the architectural drawings
A horizontal measurement from each side of the door opening, outward to the nearest obstruction
Required unobstructed space on either side of the opening.
Required unobstructed space on either side of the opening.
Locking device on bottom bar or edge of door, which slides into guide and is equipped for padlocking. Mounted either inside, outside or on both sides of the door.
The amount of turns needed to counterbalance the weight of the garage door
Door framing made from either channel or angle iron
Support stiffener to reduce deflection of the door sections in the horizontal position. Also, to increase windload capability of a door
Specified difference in static air pressure (positive or negative), equal to a specified percentage greater than or equal to 100% of the design load
The separation between the outer and inner surfaces of a door section
Act of twisting or turning of a torsion spring by the exertion of forces tending to turn one end about a longitudinal axis while the other end is held stationary
A spring that works by turning one end about a longitudinal axis while the other end is held or turned in the opposite direction developing torque
A spring that works by turning one end about a longitudinal axis while the other end is held or turned in the opposite direction, developing torque.
Channel shaped metal bars or rails in which upward acting doors operate via track rollers
Added protection for back of vertical track recommended in cases where powered material handling fork trucks and similar equipment may be operating in the area.
Thermal transmission coefficient which is a measurement of heat, in BTU's, transmitted through one square foot of material (the door) in one hour at a temperature difference of 1 degree from one side to the other
The application of a roadway loop and a vehicle detector applied to open, hold open, stop or reverse a gate in the opening or closing cycle when a vehicle is present.
Refers to a hardware design that causes doors to open vertically where no horizontal tracks are required
Material used at the perimeter of a garage door, or between joints of a garage door, intended to improve a door's performance against air infiltration and thermal transmission
A component attached at predetermined intervals to slat ends to prevent curtain from leaving the guides under wind load, and which is used in conjunction with wind bars inside the guides.
Direction or orientation of the wood, as seen in a piece of lumber
Upright wood piece forming the side of an opening
Common expression for the shape that guides form when they are mounted to masonry jambs.
Dock Equipment
This type uses a pneumatic bag system of some type to raise and lower the leveler deck. Obviously, this leveler requires some type of electrical power source - either at the dock or adjacent to it. Most typically, this power source would be standard 110v power. Generally, these levelers are moderately more expensive than mechanical levelers but can involve reduced service and maintenance requirements when compared to mechanical units.
These are used to prevent the transport vehicle from contacting and damaging the building, dock leveler or vehicle restraint. They are usually made of rubber. Bumper sizes and projections vary, based on vehicles serviced and other factors such as driveway slope.E13
The manufacturer's capacity tag rating may not reflect the gross roll-over load for a specific dock leveler. Capacity is the rating of the load that the manufacturer of the dock leveler deems to be appropriate for the design, based on considerations of the characteristics of the user's application. The required capacity of a dock leveler for a specific application is usually determined by taking the GVW and applying a complexity factor to it. The complexity factor is typically determined by a set of characteristics that are present at the particular application. These characteristics may include, but are not limited to: the heaviest fork lift and load (GVW) being driven across the dock leveler; the number of fork lift cycles driving across the dock leveler; the speed of fork lift moving across the dock leveler; the life expectation of the dock leveler; the loading slope above or below dock level; the use of three vs four wheel lift trucks; whether there are attachments on the front end of the lift truck; the lip length as well as other considerations. The authorized sales representative of the manufacturer can help determine the capacity of the dock leveler that is required for a specific application.
Triangular blocks of rubber, wood, or metal placed in front of, between or behind truck wheels to prevent accidental trailer movement.
The deck assembly is the major part of the structure that is driven over. Most decks have some type of anti-skid surface such as a tread plate surface to provide traction at the various working angles. The deck assembly pivots at the back end of the dock leveler - the end of the dock leveler that is furthest from the transport vehicle. The dock leveler has a hinged lip attached to the other end.
(i.e. Water would run toward the building) This condition frequently incorporates a trench drain near the foundation wall.
This is the area of a building where loading and/or unloading of transport vehicles takes place.
A device for bridging the gap between the warehouse and/or loading dock platform and a vehicle's load bed.
The outside wall of the dock door area.
Dimension from dock floor down to the top of the drive approach or to top of rail in the case of rail sidings.
A device affixed to a dock structure to form a bridge between the dock structure and a transport vehicle, thus allowing movement of industrial vehicles between the transport vehicle and the dock structure.
A lift whose travel is generally 5 feet (1524 mm) or less and which is primarily used to load/unload material from trucks and transfer it to dock or ground elevation.
The pit is the recessed opening in the building's floor that accommodates the pit dock leveler. Most pits are lined along the edges with structural steel angles that are embedded in the concrete.
A moveable metal ramp that allows access to a rail car or trailer.
A rubber or canvas covering that extends out from a dock face to seal the gap between the dock and the trailer's entrance.
A cover that protects the space between the door of a rail car or truck and a warehouse from inclement weather.
The surface in front of the dock where the transport vehicle is parked. The driveway surface may be generally horizontal or may be sloped toward or away from the dock. The driveway surface is typically made of concrete, asphalt or gravel.
This is a simple device that is usually mechanically operated but may be pneumatically or hydraulically operated. It is often found mounted on the exterior wall of a building with an integral bumper set but may also be pit mounted. The EOD has a limited vertical operating range and is geared toward applications where the transport vehicle bed is at, or very near, the floor level of the building (dock level). These units are generally inexpensive when compared to a pit or vertical dock leveler but may be considered an upgrade from portable dock boards as they are fixed to the dock face and have some form of lift assistance (mechanical, air or hydraulic). A recommended normal working range of an EOD is typically +/- 3 inches.
The GVW is the combined weight of the material handling equipment (lift truck, pallet jack, etc) and the load. In other words, it is the total maximum weight moving across the dock leveler.
The hydraulic option gives you more versatility than either mechanical or air dock levelers and typically would have lower service and maintenance costs.
(i.e. Water would run away from the building) NOTE: An inclined or declined drive approach may require the dock seal or shelter be tapered from top to bottom. The amount of taper will be dependent on degree of the incline or decline.
Building area or structure where goods are moved to and from a transport vehicle. The dock is usually elevated above a driveway where the transport vehicle is parked.
Equipment used to make the loading dock area of a facility more accessible and to provide safe movement of goods in that dock area. Loading dock equipment includes elevating docks, dock levelers, dock boards, dock lights, bumpers, seals, shelters, vehicle restraints and traffic doors.
This is the most common of the pit leveler category and typically the least expensive. This leveler style uses a mechanical spring system to raise the leveler and is typically "upward biased." This means that the spring is tending to force the leveler deck to rise up all of the time and a restraining device is preventing that motion. No electrical power supply at the dock is required for such a mechanical leveler. These levelers tend to be the most expensive to service and to maintain over their life
A vehicle restraint that engages the rear impact guard (RIG) of a transport vehicle, thus preventing movement of the vehicle away from the dock structure.
A structure attached to the rear of a transport vehicle to prevent an automobile from running under a transport vehicle during a rear end collision (a.k.a. ICC bar or underride guard). As of January 1998, U.S. federal motor vehicle safety standards FMVSS 223 & FMVSS 224 regulate the performance and use of rear impact guards for trailers rated over 10,000 pounds Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW).
A raising/lowering device that is supported or stabilized by one or more pantograph leg section.
This is a version of an EOD leveler and is typically mounted to the floor surface and the leading edge of the dock face of the building. It generally requires minimal or no concrete work. The working range of these units is intended to provide primarily above-dock working range
The movement of a transport vehicle away from the loading dock caused by the transfer of momentum as an industrial vehicle decelerates when entering the vehicle and accelerates when exiting the vehicle. Uncontrolled trailer creep may allow the lip of a dock leveler to become unsupported and create a dangerous gap between the transport vehicle and the dock.
A device affixed to a dock structure or a driveway to engage a transport vehicle.
A rubber or canvas covered pad or drape that extends out from the dock face to seal the gap between the dock and the trailer's entrance.
A block, usually wedge shaped, which is placed on the driveway in front of a wheel of a transport vehicle to inhibit movement of the vehicle away from a loading dock.
A vehicle restraint that engages one or more wheels of a transport vehicle, restraining uncontrolled movement of the vehicle away from the dock structure.
The recommend range of vertical travel above and below dock level for which loading and unloading can take place.
the horizontal and vertical range of positions of an RIG that can be engaged by the vehicle restraint.
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