The Velocity hinge – challenge accepted
VBH marketing manager, Gary Gleeson, provides an insight into the development of one of the hardware company’s rising star products – the Velocity door hinge.
According to Keystone Market Research’s Spring Consumer Report, PVC-U entrance doors continue to be the most popular choice amongst UK homeowners in most regions. It is vital, therefore, that we continue to develop exciting new products for this area.
We have recently introduced a number of exciting new door lock products, including the Greenteq iQ lock range that works with Kubu to link doors to smart home networks. But a door is only as good as its hinges and one of our most successful new products of late is the Greenteq Velocity door hinge range.
Falling into the Sigma hinge family, Velocity is a T-Hinge that sits alongside the existing lift-off flag hinge, hybrid, composite door, and butt hinges for PVC-U, composite and aluminium door production.
When we decided to expand our hinge range, it was a given that any new hinge must meet the requirements of the latest UK security standards, but we asked our customers “What else do you want from a door hinge?”
The answers pointed to the following: fabricators want a hinge that is quick and easy to fit, easy to handle in the factory with minimal packaging and can carry heavy doors with ease. Installers want lots of easy adjustment and no call outs. Of course, everybody wants a hinge that looks great and comes with a long manufacturer guarantee.
They say you can’t please all the people all the time, but that’s just the kind of challenge that the Greenteq designers love.
Starting with security, Velocity’s main components are manufactured from high quality zinc and stainless steel. The design ensures that fixings locate into frame and sash reinforcement. Velocity has achieved PAS24:2022 passes on a number of PVC-U door systems and is listed by Secured by Design as a Police Preferred Specification.
It is also approved for fitting on Q-secure installations.
Velocity is very quick to fit. Once the frame bearing has been positioned using a simple jig and fixed into place, the sash component simply slots in and acts as its own jig. Just insert the hinge pin, and fix into place.
To speed up the fitting process further, Velocity is delivered in easy-to-handle boxes of 24 hinges, so finding all the components is easy, with little risk of losing anything. Packaging waste is kept to a minimum.
Installers enjoy fitting doors that feature Velocity as it offers them plenty of adjustment on site. 8mm lateral, 5mm vertical and 1.5mm compression adjustments all help to speed up the installation process.
Velocity is designed to last. Its robust materials and clever design mean that it can carry doors weighing up to 100KG. Velocity has been tested against all relevant performance standards, including BS EN 1670:2007 and BS EN 1935:2002 and carries a 10-year performance guarantee.
Lastly, despite its in-built strength and adjustment capabilities, Velocity is extremely easy on the eye. The recent addition of our agate grey finish means there are now 14 attractive stock colours to suit any door, all with a 20-year surface guarantee.
As well as the new agate grey, Velocity is available from stock in a further eight powder coated colours, and those who like a bit more shine can choose from our PVD gold, satin, smokey, and polished chromes and Greenteq’s unique enduro steel plated finishes.
This extensive colour palette is no small feature when coloured doors are so prevalent in consumers’ buying choices. Keystone’s research tells us that nationally only 18% of potential door buyers express a preference for white entrance doors.
This leaves a huge market for coloured PVC-U units. Fabricators love the features, speed of fitting and security performance of Velocity, and now with 14 colour options available off the shelf, more fabricators of all sizes are making the switch to our flagship door hinge. It’s easy to see why.