Home
Hydraulic vs. Bifold
STRAP CONVERSION
KITS
STRAP CONVERSION
STORIES
Building Details
CONTACT US
Schweiss has completely raised the bar in terms of hangar doors for general aviation and commercial jet hangars. We apply common sense and an innovative approach to provide you the right hangar door solution for your building. Schweiss realizes it’s important to understand what impact the hangar door will have on your building. Schweiss offers all hangar manufacturers choices when designing their buildings.
Schweiss has the capability to manufacture a hydraulic door and framework that’s designed to help support the building structure. It is a freestanding hydraulic door that has its own superstucture framework attached and can be added to your new or existing building structure. It's all self contained so a retrofit is easy. This hangar door is so strong, but yet simple, that it requires nothing more than a common framed opening.
A Schweiss superstructure doorframe mounts on the ‘New Stand-Alone “Self Supported” doorframe; eliminating the need for the building manufacture to utilize a building truss or building header to support the hydraulic door on the hangar structure itself. This means you can reduce building costs significantly and gain headroom, saving everyone dollars.
Schweiss Patented Hinges - Our proprietary robust hinge design connects the moving doorframe to the overhead structural subframe, providing a considerably stronger and greater surface area for distributing the load of the moving door evenly. The hinges and subframe provide the structural strength that carries the weight of a large moving doorframe! Robust Hinges have easy-to-grease zerk lubrication and
removable hinge pins for extended service life.
Hydraulic doors have three major components, the cylinders, the doorframe and the subframe header. The three major components are all connected together to form a solid triangle when the door is in any position. By connecting all the major components together it comprises a huge structural advantage and makes the door operation and installation strong and stable.
Building costs are significantly reduced with our Tri-pod leg design self-supported hydraulic doorframe. Schweiss is the leader in manufacturing hangar doors for general aviation and commercial jet hangars. Our self-supported hydraulic door is designed with a purpose and a clear objective. The self-supported design will benefit everybody from architects, engineers to building manufacturers, and more importanly will save money for the end-users of the doors.
Schweiss door framework consists of a continuous header that's factory fitted to the tri-pod cylinder legs. The doorframe is attached to the complete framework at the factory making installation easy. The framework adds extra building support. Schweiss self-contained framework simplifies installation.
Self-Latching: Holds the door in place in the closed position ... never creeps open. The hydraulic pump has a built-in positive-hold valve that maintains and keeps the door locked in the closed position! Hydraulic cylinders automatically pull the doors in tight against your building and will keep the door in a locked position that provides a tight seal.
Doors operate evenly in either direction secured by the heavy-duty hinges.
Schweiss hinges distribute the door loads evenly across the self-supporting subframe greatly reducing stress on the building structure.
They are asking, “Can you manufacture a
door that doesn’t hang off of the building header?”
A customer once shared with us ... "A door is a door ... Right? WRONG! Like many people, I thought all hydraulic doors were pretty much the same, but boy did I learn my lesson. A hydraulic door is only as good as its components. Hinges, cylinders and workmanship, that's what sold me on the new Schweiss hydraulic doors. After helping a neighbor install and operate his Schweiss hydraulic door, I was sold right there, and from then on I knew Schweiss Doors were the right choice for me! The hydraulic door secret was no longer a secret. I proudly told my neighbors how happy I was with my Schweiss hydraulic door."
A special feature of a custom-built Schweiss hydraulic door is that it comes pre-assembled, pre-welded and delivered pre-hung within its frame for easy installation. Schweiss welded doorframes have no bolts to jiggle loose and doors come welded up square from the factory and ready to install! A fully welded doorframe is stronger when all components are pre-welded in place! Welded doorframes are easier to install and install faster — no adjustments are necessary once the door is in place. This is a real timesaver for the erector that installs the door. The Schweiss Hydraulic Doors can be installed on any building, and best of all they still maintain the headroom requirements ... this is where you can save thousands of dollars by lowering the height of your building and still maintain needed headroom.
Hydraulic doors are large in size; the doorframe flexes during operation. The hydraulic cylinders on each side of the doorway are supported by the Tri-Pod leg design to support the cylinders evenly.
Schweiss Hydraulic Doors are designed with heavy‑duty hinges that help carry the entire weight of the door when opening and closing! The advantage of heavy‑duty hinges on a moving doorframe is that they distribute the weight of the doorframe evenly across the subframe header to give the door stability in all positions! It's all about surface area. Schweiss hinges help spread the forces over a broader portion of the doorframe and header lowering the stresses that are transfered to the hydraulic cylinders and components of the door!
Schweiss has gained a lot of experience over the years.
It's always been interesting to see the different schemes
manufacturers come up with to open hangar doors.
The mechanical ingenuity on display is fascinating!
We have taken our existing proven hydraulic door
and now have made it even better!
Schweiss is known for perfecting and
developing better designed and
engineered doors, and we have
outdone ourselves again!
The Hydraulic Solution . . . Simple Concept and Seamless Design . . . Mike Schweiss, President of Schweiss Doors, says hydraulics are a powerful, clean, simple, and trouble-free method of operating the doors, and they operate smoothly and quietly. He says the company uses cylinders with larger rod diameters than required for added strength and safety — with rod diameters from 1½ inch to 4 inch, depending on door height, size, and weight. He also notes that the cylinders are beefed-up and strengthened at critical points to avoid putting stress on the cylinders or cylinder pins.
Hydraulic Safety . . . Because of their size and weight, large hydraulic doors require safety features to prevent damage or injury from uncontrolled closing due to a power outage or failure of a hydraulic line. Schweiss incorporates counterbalance valves on all doors, causing the door to lock instantly in any position when not being operated, even if a hydraulic line should leak or burst. Pumps are driven by continuous-duty motors protected by fuse and overload devices. Low-voltage 24v DC control stations with low-voltage coil connectors provide greater user safety.
Hydraulic Backup Solution . . . This hydraulic power unit (HPU) includes a rechargeable battery to allow operating the door in the event of a facility power failure. The HPU can also be mounted above ground on a wall or in a remote location. Additional features include several alternative methods to operate
the door safely in case of power failure. Each unit comes with a standard
tractor hydraulic connection, which is particularly useful for agricultural or
industrial applications. A built-in manual override allows an operator to
lower the door during a power outage, and a DC battery backup also is
equipped with a hex head that allows an impact wrench or drill to operate
the door in either direction if necessary.
The Hydraulic System . . . Power Up and Power Down . . .
Schweiss explains that all of the hydraulic oil in the system that
passes through the directional valve gets filtered. There is a small
amount of oil in the cylinder and the hard lines that never gets
back into the tank to mix with the oil that gets filtered. The pump
includes a filter-clogging indicator that shows when to change
the filter element, this also reduces any chance of an oil mess.
The system’s 3,000 psi pressure gauge is standard and shows
the pump pressure used to open the door.
Smart Hydraulic Design . . . Schweiss Doors, Hector, MN,
offers both types of doors and has developed design features
specifically addressed to improve hydraulic door operation over
other designs. At the heart of the companys’ system is a hydraulic gear pump
driven by an electric motor ranging in size from 2 hp to 20 hp. The complete HPU is a
compact package that can be mounted anywhere in a building, whether on the floor or a wall
close to the door or further away.
UL-listed electrical components are housed in control boxes, including contactors, transformers, relays, motor timers, rectifiers, and control fuses. The gear pump is 95% efficient and operates quietly at 1,800 rpm. The HPU also incorporates a 3,000-psi pressure gauge, fluid temperature gauges, and a service filter.
Hydraulic Cylinders Handle Heavy Doors . . . Hydraulic cylinders provide the strength and reliability to open and close large, heavy doors on airplane hangars as well as agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. They offer smooth, quiet operation, and the one-piece doors create a large, shaded canopy when open.
Hydraulic systems are often the first choice for opening and closing gigantic one-piece doors used on airplane hangars, agricultural buildings, and structures requiring large openings, sometimes exceeding 100 ft. in width and weighing well over 10,000 lbs. These doors need powerful mechanisms to operate smoothly and dependably. Hydraulic power is ideal and adaptable to any size door by increasing cylinder size in proportion to door size and weight.
One-piece doors are preferable in these applications because they swing up and away from the building, and their operation is simple. They do not protrude inside the structure like roll-up doors, which can reduce headroom. Bifold doors, on the other hand, pivot outward as they are raised. This feature presents a different set of advantages and disadvantages. Because bifold doors lift from the bottom, lifting force can be distributed across the width of the door. An electromechanical drive is generally used for these doors, but because
one-piece doors must be pivoted from both sides, hydraulics is generally used.
A big advantage of the one-piece doors is that they provide a large, shaded canopy outside the building when open. With hydraulic power, the doors can be clad with almost any material, including heavy glass and steel siding. Entire storefronts have been incorporated
into door designs.
Let you open/stop/close your hydraulic door from
any vehicle. It automatically unlatches the door so
it can be opened or closed with the handheld
remote.Two handheld remote controls and
antennas are included with each door.
Customers really enjoy this feature! All doors
equipped with remote operators should have a
warning system to alert persons in the immediate
area that the door is about to open or close.