Groome Industrial Service Group has more than four decades of experience repairing and maintaining hangar doors, having started a separate hangar door division in 1979. The business office services from inspection and repair to refurbishment and replacement.

So, when its crews were being called out more and more to repair a client's old cable lift bifold doors on hangars at the Trenton-Mercer Airport in New Jersey, the team from Groome Industrial knew the doors were nearing the end of their service life.

The client was Signature Aviation, an aviation hospitality company with private terminals at airports across the globe. Its base at Trenton-Mercer includes two large hangars, where it became apparent the doors were unsafe. Together, Signature Aviation and Groome Industrial agreed the time had come to install something new.

Both companies also had good experiences with Schweiss Doors. Signature Aviation has several Schweiss manufactured doors on hangars across the United States and Groome Industrial has installed many Schweiss Doors. When the decision was made to replace the Trenton-Mercer hangar doors, both parties agreed Schweiss was the company to call.

"We had a good kind of feeling about it from that standpoint," said Ryan Esposito, vice president of engineering of Groome Industrial Service Group of Denville, N.J. "It made that decision definitely a lot easier."

Three bifold doors were ordered from Schweiss, the largest measuring 99 ft., 3 in. wide by 20 ft., 6 in. high. The other two doors were twins, measuring 87 ft. wide by 25 ft., 7 in. tall. All three doors operate with the Schweiss Doors liftstrap system, which uses nylon fabric straps instead of outdated metal cables.

"We really like the Schweiss Doors strap design," Esposito said. "We've had good experience, functionally and maintenance-wise."

Groome specializes in hangar door retrofit and replacement applications. The goal of this project was to maximize the potential of the existing structure, allowing end users to focus their attention and budget on what they were after, a quality hangar door.

Due to the size of the doors in this application, Groome Industrial worked with an engineer to make sure the existing hangars could accommodate new hangar doors. Esposito said some extra bracing was needed, but it was minimal considering the Schweiss doors were much more substantial than the doors they replaced.

Esposito said delivery of the new Schweiss doors went smoothly. These were the largest doors ever installed by Groome Industrial.

"Close to 100 feet wide, it made the project a great accomplishment due to the preplanning with logistics, engineering and skilled labor execution," he said.

Communication between Groome Industrial and Schweiss Doors played a major role in making the signature Aviation door project a success. Esposito said staff from Schweiss were always available to help when questions arose and were there every step of the way.

"We threw some curveballs at them and you know they didn't skip a beat," Esposito said. "Schweiss Doors was very helpful. I thought communication was really good. It was good to be able to continue to share information with them as we went."

According to Esposito, Signature Aviation is happy with its new Schweiss bifold doors, deemed a major improvement.

"It was an upgrade of the system they already had; it was a good step forward," Esposito said. "Once they Schweiss doors were installed, Signature was extremely happy."

For more information, visit bifold.com.