THE door industry journal summer 2025 71 Automated Gates & Barriers Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk MDS’s High-Performance Shutter Installation: An Ellard Case Study At Ellard, we’re always excited to see how our products perform in real-world applications. Recently, MDS completed an impressive installation featuring our VDA180 motors, designed to meet the demands of a high-traffic racking environment. Given the complexity of the project—where speed, safety, and fire evacuation were top priorities— we were eager to learn more about how our solutions played a role in its success. We spoke with Laura Rose at MDS to get her insights on the project, the decisionmaking process, and MDS’s overall experience. Here’s what she had to say. Meeting the Project Requirements Can you please give an overview of the project requirements and the solution you offered to your customer? Laura explained: The shutters are to be used in a busy racking environment. We were looking to cover three main bases. 1. Speed 2. Safe Operations 3. Fire Evacuation Speed was essential due to high traffic flow in the area, safe operations were key due to high operations and personnel, and for fire evacuation, we needed the doors to open via a fire alarm signal so there would be a clear fire exit path. From the outset, it was clear that this wasn’t a standard shutter installation. The combination of speed, operational safety, and fire evacuation meant that the solution needed to be highly responsive and reliable under all conditions. Our VDA180 motors, known for their robust design and control functionality, were an ideal fit for these requirements. Choosing the Right Motors What made you choose our VDA180 motors for this solution? Laura shared: I was keen to use Ellard’s motors and controls for two key reasons. 1. We use Ellard’s equipment on our fire shutter range and although we usually use them to close a shutter in the event of a fire but in this instance, we were signalling the doors to open. We trust in the products as we have little to no issues with Ellard’s fire controls and have used them for a number of years. 2. We supplied eight of these type of shutters, same customer, same environment back in 2013 to which have been used daily in high traffic environments, and they have worked well since they have been installed, the service/maintenance schedule we advised has been adhered too and I can confirm the shutters have worked consistently for the last 10+ years. Hearing that our fire shutter solutions have been delivering reliable performance for over a decade is exactly the kind of feedback we strive for. The fact that MDS had already seen our products withstand the test of time in a demanding environment reassured us that the VDA180 motors were the right choice for this new project. The ability to trust in a product’s longevity and resilience is crucial when working on large-scale installations like this. > Continues on the next page >
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzg2Nzk=