Performance Measured.
Endura’s Fenestration Test Lab
After decades in the door components business, Endura knows just how critical door systems are for the security and comfort of every home. Door systems must function properly to protect the interiors of a home. Stopping water and air infiltration is the job of multiple door components working together: Sills, frames, door bottoms, corner pads, weather-strips, mulls, astragals, locking systems and more. Stopping air means it’s possible to maintain comfort and save energy. Stopping water is even more important because water infiltration can cause a host of problems that can result in a variety of costly repairs. Beyond components that work well together, those same components also need to provide reliable performance for the life of the door.
In our Fenestration Test Lab, engineers perform a variety of tests to ensure that our components do their jobs independently, and as a full system. We also test full systems on behalf of customers across the United States to ensure that their assembly methods and components meet the rigorous standards demanded not just for various local building codes, but for the homeowners who rely on their doors every day.
Door components must work in the real world. In a home, first with messy construction, then through move-in and life. Family, kids, pets, the blazing sun, the frigid winter, storms and rainy days. And that's not just an open and shut case. But, for doors it is. First, it’s open and shut. Literally, the door is opened and shut 50,000 times to make sure that weather stripping and other parts that compress or engage as part of door operation perform reliably throughout the life of the door unit. For door locks, add an additional 50,000 repetitions for a total of 100,000 cycles of operation.
Shooting Boards at Doors. The video above feature one of the more dramatic tests we perform for our customers. The Cannon Blast was developed for customers who must affirm that their door systems can withstand blasts of debris during hurricanes and storms. Our Test Cannon fires a 4"x4" at the door.
Can your door take the pressure? Immediately after the Cannon Blast the door unit is pressure tested to prove that it can still withstand the pressure changes that occur in a storm. The door breathes in and out as it is subjected to changing atmospheric pressures.
Wind-driven rain. During water testing, we use our on-site testing wall to simulate a storm with rainfall at a rate of 8 inches per hour and gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Now is when using the right door components, designed to work together, really counts.
Under pressure. How strong is a door sill? How about an astragal? We can tell you just what it takes to make a sill or astragal buckle.
Tested and proven appliance-proof, withstanding up to 400 lbs. in unique rollover testing. Testing means move-in with no trauma.
What's it like to hang out in an oven? Ask this door hardware. It's being subjected to many long hot days to insure that when the heat is turned up, it still works.
Who's knocking? Just how much security does your lock provide? Impact testing will deliver that information.
Salty and humid. Will your hardware hold up in that harsh environment? How long? The corrosion chamber compresses time to find out.
Want to know how your door stacks up? Want to know how you can make sure your doors have passed the test? Call Endura Products at (800) 334-2006 and we’ll be glad to help.