Core strength

ODL has been discussing the strength of its door slabs.

Ian Glenister, technical sales manager of ODL Europe, said: “Composite doors need to stay looking good for years to come, they need to be secure and they need to be robust enough to stand up to daily use.”

The Capstone composite door slab has stiles and rails that are manufactured from a water-resistant pure PVC polymer and are reinforced using LVL (laminated veneered lumber) timbers with a minimum density of 570kg/m3. The SMC skins and sub frame door assembly are fully bonded using a urethane adhesive resin, and the thermally efficient CFC-free polyurethane foam filling means that when the door is part of a doorset assembly it can achieve a U-value as low as 0.8W/m2k, the company said.

The finish on each door starts with the 2mm-thick GRP skin. Painted and woodgrain finishes use a hard-wearing proprietary polyurethane paint system, similar to ones used in the yacht industry, and add low maintenance and hard-wearing benefits. All doors finished using this paint system come with a 10-year warranty against fade, loss of gloss and adhesion and five-year warranty on woodgrain finishes.

When used in combination with the SecureDesign board reinforcing and ODL glazing cassette systems, the Capstone slab achieves PAS24:2016, which is a requirement for meeting Document Q of Building Regulations and gaining Secured by Design certification.

“The Capstone door slab has a reassuring pedigree and, for additional peace of mind, they are all manufactured as part of the BM Trada Q-Mark scheme for quality, which gives us full traceability for all factory processes,” Ian said.