Loading Dock Seals and Shelters

Fairborn offers a complete line of dock seals and dock shelters to suit the most common overhead door sizes. Fairborn manufactures a complete range of foam and air inflatable dock seals as well as rigid, flexible and airtight dock shelters. All products are designed to improve safety, protect merchandise, reduce cost and improve security at the loading dock.

What Are Dock Seals and Shelters?

Think about how your facility's loading dock works. It's an expansive opening that can span up to 10’ x 12’ or larger that accommodates quick, effective loading of materials between trucks and your warehouse. These loading docks are also an open invitation for inclement weather, debris, bugs and moisture to enter your facility.

With these considerations in mind, it's crucial to control the environment of your loading docks to protect your inventory, prevent contamination, ensure employee safety and security, and pass necessary inspections. The best way to protect your investment and improve the safety and performance of your loading dock is with dock seals or dock shelters.

• Dock Seals: A dock seal is a fixture that uses a vinyl-covered compressed foam pad at the edge of the loading dock. When a truck backs into the dock bumpers, this forms a tight seal around three sides of the trailer to protect your warehouse from debris and harmful elements as the truck is loaded and unloaded. Dock seals are best on smaller door openings and for managing trucks with limited size variations.
• Dock Shelters: Dock shelters are structures that form an enclosure around the perimeter of the trailer, creating a seal between the truck and the dock using industrial fabric curtains.

Best Uses for Dock Seals and Shelters

While dock seals and dock shelters perform similar functions on a loading dock, they each offer several benefits and drawbacks that determine their best overall usage. Dock shelters and seals are not installed together on the same docks. Choosing whether your facility would benefit from a dock seal or shelter largely depends on your daily operating needs and budget.

Dock seals are cost-effective solutions and are best used in environments where maintaining a consistent environment is key. Common industries that might benefit from a dock seal include pharmaceuticals and foods and beverages. With their design, frequent truck loading and off-loading can cause excessive dock seal wear and tear.

Dock shelters are usually installed on loading docks with different types of truck sizes and heights. Due to their versatile design, dock shelters take up less space than seals and can better accommodate material handling equipment like forklifts to quickly and safely manage inventory. While dock shelters don't form as tight a seal as dock seals, shelters do typically provide more protection, safety and comfort on loading docks.

Common Industry Uses for Dock Seals and Shelters

With their effective and durable design, dock seals and dock shelters provide a reliable protective barrier and can be used for a variety of industrial uses, including:

• Cold and ambient storage facilities
• Food and beverage processing plants
• Pharmaceutical industries
• Warehousing and processing locations
• Industrial locations

Advantages of Using Dock Seals and Shelters for Your Business

When investing in new dock equipment for your facility, why should you invest in a dock seal or dock shelter? Dock seals and dock shelters offer a variety of benefits that can improve the performance of your warehouse and help keep operating costs down. The several benefits of installing a dock shelter or dock seal include:

• Protecting your warehouse from damaging and potentially harmful elements like inclement weather, including rain, wind, ice and snow, insects and pests, dust and debris.
• Increasing worksite safety by sealing out and eliminating hazardous conditions that can cause worker accidents, injuries and illnesses.
• Keeping overhead costs low by restricting airflow between interior and exterior areas. By sealing your warehouse, your HVAC system won't have to work as often to keep your site maintained. Over time, this shaves down your annual heating and cooling expenses.
• Reducing theft by closing the gap between the truck trailer and warehouse, eliminating easy access for thieves.
• Extending the lifespan of your dock equipment by eliminating dust, debris and other damaging elements that can reduce the longevity and quality of your materials and machinery. This will eventually reduce repair costs and premature replacement expenses.

Difference Between Dock Seals and Dock Shelters

Dock seals and dock shelters are both intended to offer better control over your environment, but each is designed for different applications. The main difference between the two fixtures are:

• Price: Dock seals are typically less expensive than dock shelters, but the price of each product is largely determined by the quality of the materials and the size.

• Sealing Effectiveness: The type of dock seal or shelter will determine its overall sealing effectiveness, but dock seals typically establish a superior sealing effect because they form a tight seal around three sides of the truck trailer, while dock shelters create an adequate seal around the entire perimeter of the opening.

• Applications: Dock shelters are best for fitting larger dock door openers and can accommodate a variety of trailer heights and types. Dock seals are ideal for smaller openings, tight loading and unloading spaces, and fleets with similar truck heights.

• Durability: Due to being in constant contact with trucks, dock seals are more prone to regular wear and tear, while dock shelters can better withstand the stress of daily operations.

For Quality Dock Seals and Dock Shelters in Spokane, Contact Continental Door

For nearly 20 years, Continental Door has provided business owners throughout the greater Spokane area with dependable, helpful and responsive commercial garage door products and services. We offer a large selection of dock seals and dock shelters from highly rated and dependable companies. Our main focus is providing exceptional customer support and quality solutions, complete with 24-hour emergency repairs and free installation quotes.

The experts at Continental Door are ready to help you find the right loading dock seals, shelters and equipment for your business. To learn more about our products, complete our online contact form or call us today at 509.921.2260.