How to Talk “Door Talk”

© 2003 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Winter 2003
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 64

TECHNICAL TIPS

How to Talk “Door Talk”

Whenever you hire new employees, you slowly need to teach them our language. Our industry uses many terms that most people don't know. Whether your new-hires are installers or bookkeepers, they will soon hear you speaking another language, and someone will need to interpret.

That's why DASMA's Commercial & Residential Garage Door Division Technical Committee prepared Technical Data Sheet (TDS) #160 on Sectional Garage Door Terminology. But this useful document has more uses than just to teach newbies how to talk the talk.

The committee had other good reasons to develop standard industry terminology:

• To facilitate communication between people within the industry, since some manufacturers use different terms for the same item.
• To reduce potential confusion by recognizing and cross-referencing multiple terms that may have the same definition.
• To educate interested people who are outside our industry.

The result of the committee's work is an extensive list of terms and definitions related to the sectional garage door industry. In all, more than 500 terms are in this 25-page document, such as Breakstem Rivet, Drawbar Operator, Gusset, Horizontal Radius, Key Way, Neoprene, Outside Hook Up, Scarf Joint, Stationary Sleeve, Transom Bar, and much more.

This Technical Data Sheet should not be considered as the ultimate authority and a comprehensive list, but it's a helpful guideline for all to use. You may still find that your company uses certain terms in different ways. But if our industry is going to develop our own dictionary, this TDS is a good start.

TDS #160 is free and available online right now. Just point your browser to www.dasma.com and look for “Tech Data Sheets” under the “Publications” tab. In all, more than 60 Technical Data Sheets are available.