More than 500 steel doors for Amagerværket

DAN-doors A/S supplies more than 500 highly specialised doors in acid-proof stainless steel for the major expansion of Amagerværket in Copenhagen

Behind BIG's high-profile incinerator with a roof-mounted ski slope, Amager Bakke, lies Hofor's even larger plant, Amagerværket. The CHP plant, which supplies district heating to 500,000 citizens in the metropolitan area, is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, including the addition of a biomass-fired power block called Bio4. Gottlieb Paludan Architects are the architects for the major project. Door manufacturer DAN-Doors is supplying over 500 highly specialised doors for the project.

- We got the job through the architectural firm Gottlieb and Paludan. We had representatives from both them and Hofor over for a whole day at our headquarters in Stilling near Skanderborg, where we also have an extensive showroom. Here we explained our competences and discussed requirements and solutions for the project, and in the end we got the job, says Per A. Pedersen, Group Sales & Marketing Manager at DAN-Doors.

Since 1983, the company has produced and sold highly specialised door  solutions primarily to the food industry in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but today sells to many other industries that need custom-made stainless steel doors. Furthermore, DAN-Doors has exported to more than 100 countries worldwide and can rightly call itself an internationally oriented company.

Over 500 doors 

- We have already been working on the project for a year, and it will probably be at least a year before the construction is completed. We are supplying over 500 doors for the new CHP plant and the sorting plant, among others. These are very special solutions, and no two doors are the same. We are talking about single-leaf steel doors for their production and also very large double-leaf doors into the turbine room and high-voltage room. The doors are up to three metres wide and three to four metres high. There are also very high security requirements at the plant, so many of the doors must have motor locks for card readers, says Per A. Pedersen.

- We use one of the highest grades of stainless steel, AISI 316. This is the same grade used offshore, because the plant is so close to the water and because the climate inside the building requires it. We use this grade of steel not only for the doors themselves, but also for all the accessories: hinges, door handles and lock boxes. There are also high fire requirements for most of the doors, which must comply with the latest European standards. In a few places where there is a risk of explosion, there are also requirements for pressure certification of the doors, which, for example, must be able to withstand a pressure of 2,000 kilos, and then there are of course strict requirements for noise reduction for the sake of the staff, explains chief consultant Peter Dybdal from DAN-Doors.

Centre of gravity in Denmark

- The architects have many requests for special details and solutions, based on their experience from other CHP plants and the architectural considerations. We then incorporate these wishes, together with our own engineers and designers, into our proposed solutions. Some solutions are based on our standard doors, but many of the doors are so special that they can no longer be considered standard shelf goods, says Per A. Pedersen.

- The actual production for this project takes place together with our partner in Estonia, who has a huge and completely modern production apparatus, which you can't find at any manufacturer in Denmark. We have been working with them for seven years, sharing know-how, and they are now incredibly skilled at making steel doors of "DAN-doors quality". Once we have received descriptions and requirements for each door from the client and architect, we draw up the drawings and find the right practical solutions at DAN-doors. The hub of our business is in Denmark, where we have all our know-how about the products and, not least, the expertise to manage big deals like this. We are also currently working on projects such as the giant hotel The Hub in Oslo with more than 800 rooms and Campus Ås, which is a veterinary college in Norway with an extremely large number of different solutions. The majority of our deliveries and products are manufactured at our factory in Denmark, but working with production partners in Estonia, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK gives us much greater scope and flexibility when it comes to delivering complete and optimal solutions to our customers, explains Per A. Pedersen.