For a decade now, door manufacturers and commissioners have been using complex mechanisms to automate the doors while opening or closing. To ease the function of the door and maintain its life and hinges, door struts are becoming quite popular these days because they have high compatibility. The struts and springs reduce the sudden movement of the doors and act as a safety device for the jerk.
You may have come across different products such as dampers, gas springs, and mechanical struts. But many buildings including residential and commercial use door gas struts as they are easy to install. The difference between them is the force applied and the motion control. Dampers use less force but high motion control. On the other hand, Gas springs use high force but low motion control. The application of these mechanisms is widespread, but they are most common in households.
So, replacing existing door gas struts is an easy process. But if you are looking forward to installing such devices, you must understand them in a better way. You must understand how the struts are selected and their major contributors to failure so that you can maintain them in the right way.
Calculating The Parameters of Door Gas Struts
There are many factors surrounding the selection of door struts. The parameters are the gas strut’s force, length, and positioning of the struts.
1. Force:
Most of the door gas struts mark Newton’s capacity. Newton is the unit of force that is symbolled as N, but the amount of it is determined by the weight of the hatch or door. Bobby hatches in ships, engine room access, and cockpits use high-force struts. For household applications, you can use lower force gas struts. So, for the sake of simplicity, you can use the following:
6 kg – 60N
10 kg – 100 N
2. Length:
When it comes to length, the thumb rule is to use the strut as 55% of the hatch length. So, for instance, if your door length along the floor axis is 1000mm, the strut length must be 550mm.
3. Position:
The fitting position of the struts must be near the hinge. However, if you use higher force struts, the fitting position stretches more towards the middle of the hatch or door.
If you fail to calculate these things precisely, you may contribute to its working failure. So, let us now look at the other contributing factors for gas struts failure.
Benefits Of Using A Door Gas Strut:
If you choose the right door gas strut with the help of the above-mentioned measures, it will benefit you a lot. Let’s see the main benefits of door gas struts.
- The main principle of struct working is that it stores energy in the form of gas pressure inside the chamber. The gas energy force is gradually increased when you are sliding the door outside or inside, or simply when you are opening it. After you leave the door, the pressure is then slowly released which creates the damping effect. Here the operating pressure can be as high as 2200 psi. So, it takes time to close the door and it closes slowly not giving any jerking effect to it.
- One of the most important benefits is that a door gas strut has a mechanism that allows locking the door in whatever position you want. So, you can remain open the door at a certain angle whenever you want.
Conclusion:
Door gas struts are great for keeping a hatch or a door open or close. But you must be able to design effectively and maintain regular inspection to avoid strut failures. So, choose the right one that gives you the utmost benefit.
