Client: British Car Auctions
Type of works: Whirlwind bi-parting speed door, specified for all auction centres nationwide.

With over 20 sites nationwide, British Car Auctions are the UK's largest car auction company. They approached Envirodoor when they had rather a specialist requirement for their auction houses. They needed a door large enough for cars and vans to move through, which could also open and close quickly, in order to reduce heat loss in the auction house. One of these doors would be needed for each of their 22 auction centres.

The ideal solution for these requirements was a fast-acting door of some kind; this would allow the easy flow of traffic through the door, but then have the ability to close quickly after the car had passed through, thus reducing heat loss.

Fortunately for the British Car Auctions, Envirodoor is the only company to offer a bi-parting speed door. This door, named the Whirlwind, has benefits over and above those of a conventional vertical opening speed door. To start with the door opens much faster than a conventional speed roller. The Whirlwind opens 2m/s compared to the average speed rollers 1m/s. When you add to this the fact that the Whirlwind bi-parts and, therefore, in theory each leaf only has half the distance to open, it becomes obvious the Whirlwind really offers maximum speed. As a result of this quicker operating time, the Whirlwind can in fact significantly lower heating costs as well. The doors are built to last too; one recently serviced Whirlwind door had performed over 3.5 million operations, and was still going strong.