Optimal tension springs for garage doors

When Condoor, a major producer of insulated overhead doors for industrial and residential buildings needed tension springs for its products, it turned to Alcomex, part of the Lesjöfors Group.

Springs are a vital part of the perceived quality of a sectional overhead garage door. If door springs are not well balanced, the door does not run smoothly. Spring technology is a complex part of the sectional overhead garage door and a combination of factors determine the quality, life span and functioning of a spring.

Producing more than 50,000 doors per year, Condoor made Alcomex its sole supplier of springs after a process of investigating, bench-marking and testing of Alcomex’s solutions. Kees-Jan Honig, CEO of Condoor, said: “We are 100% relying on their operational excellence performance. Also our customers, the door dealers that install the door at the homeowner or industrial facility, were happy with the new quality, life span and balance as well.”

Condoor is impressed by Alcomex’s innovative approach. Alcomex introduced a Quattro tension spring solution which brought many benefits to the table for Condoor. Earlier, tension springs were perceived as the lesser solution in the garage door business.

Kees-Jan Honig explains: “Torsion springs could be calculated exactly to the right door weight and lifting system and with tension springs people always claimed that you had to compromise on this. The Quattro system proved to be perfect for our residential doors. Thanks to the spring-in-spring solution, the system was able to comply with the tough European safety norms.

“Also, the construction of the spring sets proved to be very compact, using little build-in space, which made it possible for us to offer pre-tensioned hardware sets to our customers, saving them time and money on site. The next step was the availability of that system for higher door weights, meaning bigger garage doors. Nobody wants to go back to the more complex and expensive old solution now.”

Condoor’s experience is that it is better to develop a relationship with a supplier to a level that both parties benefit from, rather than switching frequently. A speaking example of flexibility is the direct supply that Alcomex organised from its factory in India to Condoor’s plants in the Netherlands.

“Both parties have to make money and on both sides there are people working to do their utmost,” said Kees-Jan Honig. “But people make mistakes sometimes and for us it is important that problems are solved without any hesitation and that our supplying partner can follow our growth. In Alcomex, we have a partner with good logistic performance, high-quality product with ongoing development and a team of people that seem to realise what we need every day.”