In the portal system of industrial and commercial buildings, revolving doors and rolling doors occupy an important position with their respective advantages. However, the design and application of the core guardian, the sealing strip, are very important. Choosing the right sealing strip is not only related to energy saving and equipment life, but also directly affects environmental comfort and operating efficiency.

Movement trajectory and sealing mechanism: completely different core technologies

The core of revolving doors (including smooth arc automatic doors) lies in the arc rotation movement of the door leaf around a fixed axis. The revolving door sealing strip must perfectly fit this dynamic trajectory and always maintain stable contact with the door frame or the ground during the entire process of opening and closing the door leaf. Common revolving door sealing strips are designed as flexible and continuous structures, such as the “sweeping” sealing strip at the bottom of the door leaf, which can lightly slide across the ground with the door leaf to form an uninterrupted revolving door sealing line; the side often uses a revolving door sealing strip with an elastic lip to tightly press the door frame when the door leaf is closed to ensure airtightness. This design is like a “dynamic armor” tailored for revolving doors.

Rolling doors are completely different. The door body is made up of multiple hinged curtain panels, which are stacked up or unfolded along the vertical guide rails when opened and closed. Therefore, the sealing challenge lies in dealing with the stepped gaps formed by the stacked curtain panels and the joints between the door body and the guide rails on both sides. The rolling door sealing strips of rolling shutter doors usually adopt segmented or special contour designs: high-elastic rolling door sealing strips with grooves or bristles are embedded in the guide rails on both sides, and they continue to fit tightly to the edges of the curtain panels when they slide up and down; heavy bottom sealing strips are installed at the bottom of the door body, which strongly squeeze the ground when they fall to the ground to block airflow and dust. Additional sealing strips are required at the top of the door to prevent the top gap from becoming a leakage point after the door body is rolled up. This design is more like dealing with the sealing problem of “vertical puzzle”.

Structure, material and performance: differentiated solutions

• Structure and form: The sealing strips of revolving doors are mostly integral flexible long strips that adapt to continuous arc movement; the sealing strips of rolling shutter doors are often segmented or have special cross-sections (such as “U” or “E” grooves in the guide rails) to deal with the irregularity of the edges of the curtain panels and vertical sliding friction.
• Core material requirements: Both need to be weather-resistant, wear-resistant, and aging-resistant. However, because rolling shutter door seals need to withstand more frequent sliding friction and possible collisions with hard objects (such as forklifts), they have higher requirements for wear resistance and tear resistance, and often use tougher modified PVC, EPDM or wear-resistant composite rubber. Revolving door seals focus more on high resilience and flexibility to ensure smooth fit during arc movement.
• Core performance focus: Revolving doors are commonly found in high-end shopping malls, hospitals and other places. The primary task of revolving door seals is to achieve excellent airtightness, watertightness and sound insulation performance, and ensure constant temperature and humidity and a quiet environment indoors. Rolling shutter doors are widely used in warehouses, factories, etc. While ensuring basic airtightness, their seals need to highlight the ability to resist wind pressure, dust and sand intrusion, and frequent mechanical wear.
• Installation positioning: The revolving door seal is mainly fixed to the bottom edge of the door leaf and the closed contact surface between the door leaf and the fixed frame. Rolling door seals need to be installed on the inside of the vertical guide rails on both sides of the door opening, under the bottom beam of the door body, and under the reel box at the top of the door opening, forming a complete three-dimensional sealing system.

Key to selection: adapt to local conditions and match accurately

Choosing seals is not a simple “choose one or the other”, but must strictly match the door structure and specific application scenarios. If a revolving door is equipped with a rolling door seal, its arc movement will not be able to achieve effective sealing, and may even accelerate wear; conversely, if a revolving door seal is installed on a rolling door, the step gap and guide rail seal cannot be handled, resulting in sealing failure. It is also important to consider specific environmental requirements: rolling doors in high wind pressure areas need to strengthen wind pressure-resistant seals; revolving doors in clean rooms or cold storages need to use ultra-low temperature flexible or food-grade certified materials.

The essential difference between revolving door seal and rolling door seal comes from the difference in their core movement methods and sealing challenges. Understanding the significant differences between the two in dynamic sealing mechanisms, structural forms, material properties and installation requirements is the key to ensuring efficient, energy-saving and long-life operation of the door system. In the protection of industrial and commercial spaces, only a precisely matched sealing solution can create a truly solid and efficient “environmental defense line”.