Custom doors - blast, missile, or ballistic
For government, military, and industrial applications
UFC 3-340-02 certified calculations

Complete custom door solutions
We design, engineer, and fabricate custom doors and hatches. Our engineering department has decades of experience and we have proven hardware designs that are scalable to any size. We've built blast doors that are 24 x 24 inches on up to 25 x 20 feet.

For blast resistant doors, we need to know the size and the blast load rating in peak pressure and duration or the impulse.

We use the calculations in UFC 3-340-02, Structures to Resist the Effects of Accidental Explosions. The description for this document reads: This UFC 3-340-02 presents methods of design for protective construction used in facilities for development, testing, production, storage, maintenance, modification, inspection, demilitarization, and disposal of explosive materials. In so doing, it establishes design procedures and construction techniques whereby propagation of explosion (from one structure or part of a structure to another) or mass detonation can be prevented and personnel and valuable equipment can be protected.

The Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) system is prescribed by MIL-STD 3007 and provides planning, design, construction, sustainment, restoration, and modernization criteria, and
applies to the Military Departments, the Defense Agencies, and the DoD Field Activities in
accordance with USD(AT&L) Memorandum dated 29 May 2002. UFC will be used for all
DoD projects and work for other customers where appropriate.

Here are some of the custom doors we have designed and built:

Project: ARC Automotive
Specifications: 36" x 84", 20 PSF, single leaf swinging airbag test cell doors
Quantity: 5 doors
Solution: 0.375" plate steel doors with a 2 x 2 structural tubing frame holding the plate flat to ensure a proper seal. Angle section frames, high duty cycle bronze sleeve bearing hinges with grease zerks for ongoing lubrication. Rotating cam latches draw the door leaf into the frame, compressing the seal. In service since 2017.

 

Project: Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Generating Station
Specifications: 64.75" x 87" single leaf swinging radiation doors
Quantity: 2 doors
Solution: 4" concrete fill, .3125 thick skins. Heavy duty hinges, 9" x 4" frame angles, deadbolt locks, and outside cam latch operators. After filling with concrete, the door leaves weigh 3,100 pounds. In service since 2016.

 

Project: Ft. Wayne Metals
Specifications: 48" x 144" double leaf swinging blast door, open top frame
Quantity: 1 door
Solution: 4" concrete fill, .25 thick skins, 6" x 4" frame angles, rifle bolt style pin latches that extend down into embedded sockets. The open top frame allows a crucible to be moved through the doorway on an overhead crane. In service since 2012.

 

Project: General Electric, Dresser Valve Division
Specifications: 60" x 80" double leaf swinging blast doors
Quantity: 8 doors
Solution: 2.375" concrete fill, .188 thick skins, 5" x 3" frame angles, custom solenoid latch assembly that interfaces with a safety lockout system. In service since 2013.

Project: Taiwan Navy
Specifications: 78" x 87" single leaf sliding blast door for a rocket motor test cell
Quantity: 1 door
Solution: 3.125" thick steel plate, custom gear motor/chain drive system, mechanical blast locks on both the leading and trailing edges, leading edge safety switch, integration with electronic safety lockout system, and a drive release feature to open the door in the event of a power outage. In service since 2014.

Project: BC Hydro, Mount Pleasant Substation
Specifications: 43.75" x 107.75" single leaf swinging blast doors, 142 PSI peak pressure
Quantity: 3 doors
Solution: 8" concrete fill, .3125 thick skins, 12" x 8" frame angles, heavy duty hinges, fire rated door seal, internal steel reinforcement, outside latch operators. After filling with concrete, the door leaves weigh 6,780 pounds. In service since 2014.

Project: Dominion Energy Company, Kewaunee Power Station
Specifications: 72" x 80" double leaf swinging blast door, 28 PSI peak pressure, 23.9 ms duration, 334.6 psi-ms impulse, no poured concrete threshold in the existing rough opening so a fabricated steel threshold had to be engineered.
Quantity: 1 door
Solution: 1.25" thick 50ksi yield steel door leaves. Bottom threshold: 3/4” thick 50ksi yield steel 3” x 5” fabricated angle with 3/8” gussets on 6.5” centers with full penetration welds. Four rotating cam latches per leaf, each latch is rated for 14,816 pounds. UFC 3-340-02 calculations for the blast and rebound loads as well as anchor calculations were supplied with this door. In service since 2017.

These are doors that we designed and built some doors for customers who require discretion:

Five high security single leaf doors for an offshore gold mine repository

 

A large double leaf sliding ballistic door for a garage at a private shelter

 

A double leaf ballistic door for the gun room at a private safari ranch

A 13 x 11 foot double leaf plate steel door for a munitions storage bunker in Europe

 

Custom missile doors with load calculations

American Safe Room designed, engineered, and fabricated 21 missile resistant doors for the FLEX emergency equipment buildings at seven nuclear power plants. These equipment buildings are hardened structures that are mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They contain generators, pumps, and other equipment that will be needed after a severe weather or terrorist event. Each power plant had an individual site survey that identified probably flying objects and each set of doors were designed to resist a spectra of missiles that the survey identified. American Safe Room's engineers submitted a drawing package that included professional engineer stamped missile resistance calculations using Betchel Power Corporation's BC-TOP-9A as basis for design. These calculations were approved by the engineer of record prior to our fabricating these doors:

July 2014 - Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Station - four concrete filled missile doors
November 2014 - Callaway Energy Center - two concrete filled missile doors
December 2014 - St. Lucie Nuclear Plant - two concrete filled missile doors
March, 2015 - Perry Nuclear Generating Station - two concrete filled missile doors
June 2015 - Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station - two concrete filled missile doors
September 2015 - Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant - two plate steel missile doors
April 2016 - Callaway Energy Center - two plate steel missile doors
April 2016 - Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station - five plate steel missile doors

The protection these doors provide go way beyond standard storm doors. Here is a sample of the missile spectra we were provided to design doors to:

Missile	Weight in pounds	Horizontal velocity in feet per second
Wood plank, 4” x 12” x 12” long	115	272
Steel pipe, 6” diameter, schedule 40, 15’ long	286	170
Steel rod, 1” diameter, 3’ long	9	167
Utility pole, 13.5" diameter, 35’ long	1,123	180
Steel pipe, 6” diameter, schedule 40, 15’ long	749	154
Automobile, 16.4’ x 6.6’ x 4.3’	3,991	194

 

Note the 35 foot long telephone pole that weighs over 1,100 pounds is moving at 180 feet per second (122 MPH) and the nearly 4,000 pound automobile is moving at 194 feet per second (132 MPH). These missiles have far more energy than the standard FEMA storm door test of a 15 pound 2 x 4 board moving at 146 feet per second (100 MPH).

If you have an application that needs protection from external or internal detonations or missile strikes, please contact our Sales Manager at 541-459-1806 or sales@AmericanSafeRoom.com