Posted October 26th, 2018 at 4:24 pm by Dan Musick
In the garage door industry gapping refers to engineered spaces between coils on a torsion spring. Gapped springs function differently than ungapped springs, and using one in place of the other can cause unneeded expense and time to rectify.
Clopay EZ-SET torsion springs have specially designed gaps that are exclusive to Clopay Door EZ-SET systems. Consequently, you cannot use standard torsion springs with these systems. Using an ungapped spring in place of a gapped spring will usually break the winder.
Many self-storage roll-up door springs are gapped. DDM carries gapped self-storage springs, but they are usually special order.
Above are two examples of coil gapping. Note how the dollar bill can pass readily between the coils on the gapped torsion springs. On standard torsion springs, however, a dollar bill will not slide between the coils because the coils are very tight.
Make sure you compress the gapped spring length completely while measuring the springs. It is difficult to measure gapped torsion springs due to the tendency of the coils to push apart from each other. The compression required for length accuracy requires vigilance and care, especially when you must get fine tape measurements of 10 and 20 coils, and overall spring length.
DDM can assist you with verifying the measurements of a gapped spring if you’re unsure, but often it is better to determine the spring you need by finding the door model or by weighing the door.
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