When government funding for NASA was cut, that didn't mean America's space program was put on the shelf. America's "can-do" attitude continued to prevail.
Schweiss Doors has the same can-do spirit and its demonstrated ability to deliver large custom doors for the space program in the past led to it being chosen to supply two massive doors for a rocket hangar building at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
That same type of confidence is ever-present at Schweiss Doors where Mike Schweiss, the company's founder and president has said, "If you think it, we can build it." The new doors for Cape Canaveral would suggest Schweiss means what he says.
Rocket hangar doors required at the Cape were not your run-of-the-mill doors; there was a lot of specialized engineering that went into them due to their size, weight and other things Schweiss had to conform to.
The larger of the two new Cape Canaveral doors is a Bifold Liftstrap model that's more than six stories tall, measuring 90' wide x 61' high. The second door is just 40' wide but is an astounding 69' tall. Each of the doors is equipped with automatic latches and rated to withstand winds up to 150 mph. During installation they will be clad in 26-gauge steel sheeting and insulated with four inches of fiberglass blanket. Bottom-drive, 480-volt, 3-phase motors and patented Schweiss liftstraps will do the lifting of the massive doors, which weigh in excess of 46,700 lbs.