As the weather begins to heat up each November, a common challenge thrown to us at Fanquip comes from businesses that need to operate with open doorways even though the exact opposite is their ideal setup.
This is where an air curtain comes into its own. Think of it as an invisible door that does pretty much everything a closed door does, only it is always open!
Often we don’t realise that a general warehouse or industrial building, which has pallet movers, forklifts and motor vehicles constantly moving between indoors and outdoors, can very efficiently maintain a comfortable indoor environment by operating air curtains at every entrance.
Effectively, the air curtain creates a friendly wall that provides temperature control and eliminates unnecessary or wasteful power consumption.
In the food production and handling sector, the air curtain really comes into its own. In fact, it is so effective that even a cold storage facility can maintain optimum temperature operating with open doors, allowing personnel and handling equipment to frequently move through the openings.
Apart from maintaining operating temperature, it keeps out flies and provides unrivalled visibility and access.
Key to ensuring an air curtain works properly and to industry standards is to invest in one that meets all the listed mandatory requirements.
There are a lot of air curtains on the market, so our advice is to look for one that can prove a velocity of 8m/s at 900mm above floor level across an entire opening with a minimum stream thickness of 50mm.
Sticking to air curtains that meet industry requirements ensures not only that you will avoid crippling fines, what you will also get is equipment that will last for a very long time and be easy to maintain.
