Support

A switch from stainless steel to a high-carbon spring steel has beefed up a critical part for Total Door Systems: the hanger rod.

The hanger rod needs to be strong enough to support the weight of the door – as much as 200 pounds – and flexible enough to endure the more than one million bends it will experience over a lifetime of openings.

It was a tall order, said Total Door Product Improvement, Design and Testing Engineer Gary Ray. But one that his team saw as an opportunity to leap frog improvements in the part’s performance.

During the rod’s rigorous testing period, Gary more than doubled the weight and stress applied to the part, opening, spinning and dropping the full weight of the door on the rod repeatedly. It never failed.

The new hanger rod has been in production since April. Gary and his team are already looking at how they can improve upon it in the near future.

“The hanger rod is one of the most critical moving components in the door; it has to work,” he said. “We’re always looking to improve all of our components – and we’re still testing revised designs of the hanger rod to continue improvements into the future,” he said.

Faster turnaround on quotations and a more efficient stream of data and production management is coming to Total Door’s distributor and sales rep portal with the introduction of an online “Configurator” tool, expected to go live towards the end of the first quarter of 2018.

The tool, a customized iteration of Configure One’s CPQ software, will allow any Total Door distributor with an Internet connection to design and quote a door by simply answering as few as a half-dozen questions. The Configurator will provide an accurate quote, as well as a product drawing. The tool allows for further customization, if desired, and automates the quote to production process, cutting red tape and increasing process efficiency and accuracy.

Total Door is offering a series of pre-configured options to help distributors and sales reps showcase the various options to a variety of potential customers.

“All you have to do is to go into the system, select the opening – pair, double egress, single, etc. – the fire rating, the size and the finish and you can get a quote right then,” said Jeanne Kitchen, Total Door Controller and Configurator project director. “You’ll be able to get a quote, which can be saved if they want to use it as a talking point.”

Sales representatives also will have a window into the quoting activity that’s happening in their territory to provide the best support possible, Jeanne said.

The Configurator is currently undergoing rigorous internal testing. Once launched, Total Door will offer a series of webinar training events to teach those new to the tool how to use it. The Configurator and the training will be tied to distributors existing login at TotalDoor.com.

“We’ll offer all of the additional assistance they need to get them comfortable with the tool upon launch,” Jeanne said. “This is a powerful tool and we want everyone to be able to experience its full range of benefits.”