The door is still working perfectly!
Butzbach GmbH Industrietore is known for high-quality industrial and hangar doors. At its locations in Kellmünz and Unterroth on the A7 south of Ulm, all doors are manufactured in-house and prepared for installation. This year, the company is celebrating a milestone. Exactly 40 years ago, in 1984, the first Butzbach aircraft hangar door was installed at Nuremberg Airport. This first project was a demanding challenge for the family-owned business, which at the time was focused on plastic windows, facades, and industrial doors. The request from Nuremberg Airport came from the technical director at the time, Mr. Hirsch, who had read about the translucency of fiberglass panels and wanted to use them for his project.
Since 1976, the Butzbach company has been known for its lightweight, translucent panels made of glass-fiber-reinforced polyester resin. The two company directors first discovered and came to appreciate this material through their hobby of gliding. Arnold Butzbach soon realized: “There must be other things you can make from this material besides just airplanes!”
Butzbach was able to meet all of the airport’s requirements and produce a hangar door of the highest quality. Many parts, such as the drive, control system, rollers, and guide rails, had to be redesigned specifically for the hangar door. Then as now, nearly all components were manufactured in-house. Time was a major factor. After about 4 weeks of planning, the hangar door had to be manufactured within 4 weeks, and after another 4 weeks for installation, the project was completed in 12 weeks. The customer was particularly impressed that the door can also be easily moved by hand in the event of a power outage.
The door installed in Nuremberg has not been replaced to this day. After a few safety-related updates, it still serves its purpose just as well today as it did 40 years ago.
The project in Nuremberg marked Butzbach’s entry into the specialized market for sliding gate systems. It represented a significant milestone in the company’s history. Customers include airports, aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing, maintenance companies, the military, and private aircraft owners. Following the Nuremberg project, hangar doors of all sizes—up to 200 meters wide and 30 meters high—have been delivered throughout Europe, as well as to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. With nearly 1,000 hangar doors delivered, Butzbach is now the market leader in Europe!