Sliding Door Rails: Top Plastic Profile, One Spike-shaped Piece On The Top For The Interior Door

Today, sliding structures are increasingly used for zoning dwellings. The growing popularity of such systems is due to their high functionality and a variety of installation options. For sliding doors, the guides of the roller mechanisms are an integral part, since they determine the principle of movement of the door leaves.

Pros and cons of compartment systems

The compartment system is a device that makes it possible to open doors in a single plane. According to the designers, in comparison with the classic design of doorways with hinged doors, the use of sliding structures has a number of positive aspects:

For the opening radius of conventional doors, a certain amount of unoccupied space is necessarily required. Due to the mechanisms that ensure the movement of door leaves in one plane, sliding doors contribute to a more economical use of square meters of the home.
Sliding structures are more successful for the safe and ergonomic separation of the interior space. Unlike the classic, compartment models are not capable of causing injury or damage to the wall covering if accidentally plowed up from a draft.
Doors that move freely along a guide in the form of a long spike or rail are successfully used to organize storage systems in wardrobes and built-in mini-wardrobes. The use of such doors contributes to significant savings and rational use of space.

Sliding planes are indispensable for temporary zoning of a single large space into several small rooms.
Panoramic sliding doors carry not only a functional but also an aesthetic load, allowing you to instantly transform a living room or bedroom into an open terrace.

As a disadvantage of compartment systems, it is possible to designate a rather high cost. In addition, their installation requires the correct preparatory work of experienced specialists, since to ensure the beauty of the door and the durability of the guide mechanisms, ideally flat horizontal surfaces of the floor and ceiling will be required. It should also be noted that some inexpensive models of compartment doors are inferior to swing-open doors in terms of sound insulation.

What are they?

Depending on the method of installation, manufacturers offer rail options such as overhead and built-in. The overlay system assumes that the sliding doors always remain in sight. The built-in option involves sliding door leaves in a niche with hiding mechanisms.

Many experts recommend the use of a built-in structure, as it reliably divides the space and absorbs noise well.

The number of canvases and the weight of the working leaves determines which guide will be responsible for the strength of the entire system. Guide mechanisms are available for sale in the following types:

For a device that separates rooms from a single door leaf.
For a double-leaf structure, which provides for the shift of the canvases in one or in different directions.
For a cascade structure composed of several canvases that provide multi-stage opening left-right or on opposite sides of the doorway. This design is very convenient for delimiting spaces with different functional loads: kitchen-living room, bedroom-study, dining-living room, etc. The system of several doors is also convenient because it makes it possible to open the doors in whole or in part. For example, you can move one or two panels, hiding the main space of the room from view, or push all the doors at once.
For an accordion folding partition, when the canvas is made up of several narrow sections.

A sliding door can have an opening mechanism in which a single profile guide for one door or a telescopic structure for several doors is attached exclusively at the top to the wall or ceiling. In these relatively inexpensive systems, the suspended doors run on rails using fixed roller carriages. The sliding of the planes in the end position is gently prevented by the locking pads. In the overhead mounting method, a decorative strip is often used to mask the guide.

A more practical option is possible when the door leaves move along two monorail or telescopic guides mounted in the ceiling and in the floor.

Such installation guarantees the maximum smoothness of the movement of the blades due to the even distribution of the load. Easy-to-operate doors move along guides using roller carriages fixed in the upper and lower parts of the door.

Both opening options have both advantages and disadvantages. Of course, a sliding interior partition with one guide rail from above is attached quickly and simply, but it vibrates more during operation, has less reliability and does not provide the proper level of light and sound insulation. Two rails make the system much stronger and more stable, but the installation of such a door kit will require more effort, since it requires an accurate fit of all parts. In the absence of installation accuracy, there is a high probability of quick jamming and product breakdown. In addition, the installation of a double rail system will be more costly.

How to choose?

The rails, in conjunction with the rollers, play a key role in the durability of sliding structures. Therefore, their correct selection ensures compliance with such functional requirements for doors as:

movement without distortions and jamming;
unhindered soft sliding of the canvases;
tight closing of the doors;
work without spontaneous movement of canvases;
prevention of noisy door contacts;
absence of factors leading to deformation of units and parts.

The rollers must ensure a quiet and smooth sliding of the blades. Their surfaces can be rubber, Teflon, plastic or metal. The most durable rollers are considered to be made of metal with a rubber coating that is resistant to wear.

Modern high-quality rollers with a load of up to 100 kg have sealed bearings on the axle, which are protected from moisture, dust and do not require lubrication. The quality of the roller, in addition to the mortise bearing, will also be evidenced by the presence of a shock-absorbing spring, which will give the door the necessary softness to the door.

When choosing a sliding mechanism, you need to take into account the weight of the structure. The greater the weight and width of the doors, the more pairs of rollers must be provided on it. For doors weighing 40 to 75 kg, the top rail can be used as a suspension with a two-carriage movement. For more weight of the canvases, it is wiser to use a mechanism with four upper carriages.

The dimensions and design of the top casters will depend on the rail type. Asymmetric rollers are placed on the open profile, symmetrical - on a closed profile.

The door set, weighing about 120 kg, must be mounted on a pair of rails with floor and ceiling fixing. Moreover, for each canvas there will be two carriages with four wheels on each. The lower carriages, together with the guide, will take on part of the load, the rollers will allow you to adjust the position of the sash, compensating for small unevenness in the floor. Pairs of rubber-rim rollers can be fitted at the bottom. This will not only eliminate noise from the contact of the shutters, ensure smooth sliding along the profile, but also give the system greater safety.

It is necessary to decide from what material the guides should be purchased - from plastic, steel or aluminum. After all, the quality and price of the material is included in the cost of the entire system. Plastic products have a low price, but, most often do not differ in sufficient strength. Therefore, their use is not recommended when the doors are made of glass sheets.

Serious manufacturers of accessories for sliding systems offer aluminum rails with a number of advantages. With a low weight, the guides have strength, resistance to deformation and corrosion, as well as an affordable price. However, according to some experts, massive doors made of natural wood, decorated with glass, they will not withstand and after a while they will deform. One of the most reliable materials for guides, despite the relatively high cost, is today considered steel.

Manufacturers

Today, a large number of manufacturers are engaged in the production of components for sliding doors. Polish and German brands are very popular. Polish companies Indeco and Komandor supply to the Russian market interior door systems and components made of steel, characterized by excellent smoothness and quiet operation, traditionally high quality, confirmed by numerous tests.

Thousands of apartments and offices nowadays are equipped with door partitions sliding on aluminum profiles from German manufacturers Braun and Raumplus … The companies specialize in the production of high quality profiles in various colors.