£100k R&D money for doors company

AN industrial doors company has been awarded a grant of more than £100,000 to develop a new type of door for cold stores and freezers.

Clark Door Ltd, based in Carlisle, will use the Northwest Regional Development Agency funding to design and make a horizontal air curtain.

It will work in collaboration with the Computational Science & Engineering Department of the Science and Technology Facilities Council at Daresbury Laboratory.

Clark Door says that continual opening of doors to cold stores allows cold air to spill out and warm, moist air to enter, resulting in icing within the cold store and a significant rise in energy consumption.

It claims that recirculatory horizontal air curtains blowing across doorways would reduce the amount of energy used to maintain a cold store’s temperature.

Andrew Ashley, managing director of Clark Door, said: “The exciting innovation is the way in which the product saves energy costs for our customers. It couldn’t come at a better time for our employees and our customers.

“I am confident that the engineering design team here at Clark Door, working in partnership with Daresbury, will produce a truly world class product.”