Client: Major Garage Door OEM
Date: 2009/2010
 

Challenge: In the garage door industry lowering the cost of freight is a never ending battle. Whether shipping a finished door or operator crosstown or production raw materials halfway around the world, steel is being shipped. The commodity is heavy and rates increase by the pound. Fluctuating fuel costs adds a variable that can turn a profit into a loss overnight. At the end of the day, all of us pay the price in the products we buy and sell. An OEM approached Guardian to supply rollers for a low cost retail door. Meeting an aggressive landed cost target was the number one priority.

Solution: A shipment of steel rollers will weight-out a trailer before it cubes-out. If material weight could be removed, shipping air could be avoided. However, the standard size of the roller and shaft diameter were required to be held constant. By using a tubular shaft, half of the material weight could be removed while maintaining 75% of the shaft’s bending strength. This was more than sufficient for the light-weight residential door. With half the weight, shipping costs were also cut in half.