Recently, one of our dealers, Your Garage Doors, based in Nottinghamshire, asked us to manufacture the garden gate with an arched top. This was quite new for us, but we took the challenge as we usually do. After installation, he was so kind as to send some pictures.
Issues
Arched gate top. Looks nice. At first glance, the job seems to be a piece of cake. But bending an aluminium rectangular tube, especially at small radius, is quite problematic. During bending, one side is stretched, and the other is under pressure. The tube loses its primary shape, and all efforts to get a perfect curve and an intact tube profile are in vain.
Furthermore, the arch must fit with the rest of the gate.
Solution
So, we came up with the idea of using laser-cut parts to assemble the exact necessary shape. Using a 3 mm thick aluminium sheet, we cut altogether 4 layers of arch – two for the front and back sides. The inner layers are different from the outer ones. Using special brackets, we connected to a single arched section, which was suitable for connecting to the rest of the gate.
The garden gate is 0.9 m wide and 2.2 m tall.
We used Rolling-Center hinges CR-18P. Hinges were modified to comply with the aluminium gate frame. The lock is a Locinox Fortylock (SBD certified). The customer wanted a garden gate without handles, so we fitted a lock with an escutcheon only.
We powder-coated an aluminium garden gate for a long, hassle-free service life.
