A door is specified once and operated thousands of times. That gap is where the argument for powered actuation actually lives — not in the leaf size on the drawing, but in the number of movements the bay makes in a year.
The published reasoning says it plainly: a door at the large end of the range cannot be handled manually in a daily operating cycle. Reading powered main door daily duty as an arithmetic problem rather than a size threshold is what makes that sentence useful when you are writing a specification.
Count the movements, not the millimetres
Every vehicle through the booth is at least two door movements — one in, one out. Add a movement for anything that leaves mid-cycle and another for the walk-through that gets forgotten in planning. A bay running a handful of vehicles a day is opening and closing that leaf several times an hour, every hour, in ambient conditions that do not help.
That number is what turns a manual door from workable into a bottleneck. It also decides where the door sits on the maintenance schedule, because a moving item under duty is inspected on cycles rather than on the calendar.
What the duty cycle pulls with it
| Item | What duty changes |
|---|---|
| Actuation | Powered becomes a specification line rather than an option |
| Published door range | 3000×2600 mm up to 14,200×5,000 mm |
| Inspection basis | Cycles completed rather than months elapsed |
| Electrical load | Counted within the family range of 11 – 50 kW |
| Cycle time | Opening and closing time enters throughput, not just spraying |
Opening time is part of the cycle
A truck bay measures throughput in vehicles per day, and every minute the door spends moving is a minute the chamber is neither spraying nor curing. On a large leaf that time is not trivial, and it repeats on every movement counted above. It belongs in the throughput calculation next to spraying and curing time rather than being treated as overhead.
Frequently asked questions
At what size does powered actuation become mandatory?
The published wording ties it to large builds, where the main door reaches 14,200×5,000 mm and cannot be handled manually in a repeated daily cycle. Between the two ends of the range the decision is made on duty rather than on a fixed millimetre threshold.
Does a low-throughput workshop still need it?
Not automatically. A large leaf opened a few times a week is a different proposition from the same leaf opened several times an hour. Send the vehicles per day you expect, because that figure is the input.
What is the smallest published door?
The range starts at 3000×2600 mm, which serves the automotive envelope. The INTECH internal chamber is 6900×4000×2650 mm for reference.
Is the electrical supply different for a powered door?
The supply is 380 V three-phase at 50 or 60 Hz across all documented models, with total power from 11 to 50 kW depending on size and configuration. The door load is counted inside that figure at configuration.
Related reading
What to do next
Send the vehicles per day you expect through the bay alongside the largest section that has to pass the opening, and we will come back with a door size and actuation matched to the duty rather than to the drawing. Talk to a specialist. The published range sits on the trucks and RV sector page.