Temperature control and sanitation are important in food processing. No matter whether you’re dealing with meat, dairy, produce, or another kind of perishable product, adhering to temperature and cleanliness guidelines will make sure your food stays safe and in compliance with health codes. If you’re looking for smart ways to improve temperature control at your facility, vinyl strip doors can help.
Vinyl strip doors are clear, flexible strips that you can walk or drive equipment through but that create a temperature-controlled seal when they’re hanging flat. In this article, we’ll break down vinyl strip door applications in food processing, how they help with sanitation, and which standard or custom vinyl strip door options might be right for you.
What Are Vinyl Strip Doors?
Vinyl strip doors are simple, affordable sanitation and temperature control solutions for food processing. These doors are made up of overlapping clear vinyl strips hung vertically in a doorway. They’re flexible, which allows people and machinery to move through them, but they still create a solid barrier when hanging flat that separates different areas within your facility.
There are typically several options to choose from when installing strip doors. You can go with standard vinyl strip door kits, or you can opt for custom vinyl strip doors that are made to fit your space. Either way, these doors offer great benefits in food processing.
Vinyl Strip Doors for Temperature Control Solutions
When you’re processing food in a cold storage area, prep room, or other packaging space, you need to keep temperatures stable. This is both for food safety and for energy efficiency. Every time you open a solid door, you lose cooled or heated air, and if that’s happening many times a day, the effects can add up.
Vinyl strip doors create a barrier that helps retain cold or warm air in the proper areas while still allowing movement through the space. A few common temperature-controlled areas that can benefit from vinyl strip doors are walk-in coolers and freezers, packaging rooms, loading docks, and production rooms that need to stay within certain temperature ranges.
At Singer Safety, we offer vinyl strip door kits in standard sizes that are manufactured using high-quality clear vinyl with a convex/concave design to create secure, interlocked seals. Our ribbed strips resist scratching, provide excellent insulation, and reduce static between strips. We also offer custom options.
Vinyl Strip Doors for Sanitation Solutions
Contamination in food processing can cause problems if it’s not kept in check. Bacteria, mold, and even small bits of dirt or metal getting into food can make people sick, lead to costly recalls, and damage a company’s reputation. That’s why keeping things clean is so important in food processing, and vinyl strip doors can help. Vinyl strip doors reduce airborne contaminants by limiting the flow of air between rooms. They also help keep out dust, pests, and fumes, all of which can help protect product quality.
Applications of Vinyl Strip Doors in Food Processing Facilities
Wondering how vinyl strip doors can work in your facility? Here, we’ve put together some of the most popular vinyl strip door applications in food processing.
Walk-In Coolers and Freezers
Keeping cold zones cold is one of the best uses for vinyl strip doors. If you’re storing meat, dairy, frozen meals, or other cold items, these doors help stabilize temperatures, even if the main door is left open for loading or restocking.
Loading Docks
Loading docks are a common problem area in food facilities. When there are people constantly coming and going, it can create temperature swings, which can compromise food safety. A vinyl strip curtain can help separate the inside of your plant from the outside.
Food Preparation Rooms
Installing vinyl strip doors between prep rooms can help control contamination. These doors keep bacteria and particles from floating from one zone to another, and they also help enforce traffic flow, such as keeping raw and cooked product areas separate.
Employee Entryways
Strip doors work well for employee entrances. They act as an airlock, limiting dust, pollen, and heat from entering your clean zones without making it difficult for your team to move around.
Packing Areas
Packing areas often need a specific temperature to avoid melting, spoiling, or condensation. Strip doors help stabilize these areas so your products stay safe.
Standard vs. Custom Vinyl Strip Doors
When looking at vinyl strip doors for your facility, you’ll have two main options: standard strip doors or custom ones. Here, we take a look at which one might be right for you.
Standard Vinyl Strip Door Kits
Standard vinyl strip door kits work well if you have typical doorways or if you’re on a budget. They’re also great for smaller facilities or areas with lower traffic, as you’ll be able to find a kit that fits your space more easily.
At Singer Safety, we offer standard vinyl strip door kits in regular door sizes, ranging from 0.080 mils to 0.160 mils in thickness.
Custom Vinyl Strip Doors
If you’ve got unusual openings, large machinery paths, or extreme temperatures, you’ll likely want custom options. With custom vinyl strip doors, you can change the strip width, overlap percentage, and material thickness. You can also request special features like anti-static, low-temp, or USDA-grade vinyl.
At Singer Safety, we offer standard-size door strips ranging from 0.080 mils to 0.160 mils in thickness, but we can also work with your company to create a custom vinyl strip door solution.
Learn More About Vinyl Strip Door Applications in Food Processing
Vinyl strip door applications in food processing have many benefits. These simple but effective tools can help improve your temperature control solutions and your sanitation solutions, and they’ll make your operation more efficient across the board.
At Singer Safety, our mission is to improve workplace efficiency with our range of high-quality vinyl strip door kits. Each of our products is designed with durability in mind, and we offer both standard and custom sizes.
