Smart Design for a Garage Door Track That Offers a Better Seal
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There's an automotive design feature that came out in the '90s, called "window indexing" or "automatic window drop." It was applied to German cars with frameless doors; I remember seeing it in a BMW. The idea is that once you close the door, the window automatically scooches up a few millimeters, tightening its seal within a channel in the roof. When you open the door, the window automatically drops out of the channel.Intriguingly, a similar idea, with a much less hi-tech execution, has been applied to garage doors by a company called ThermoTraks. Garage doors are typically the leakiest part of the house, leaving gaps around the edges that air can flow through. ThermoTraks has designed a system to counter this. It consists of a sealing kit that goes around the full perimeter of your garage door, and a special door track, which is the BMW-like part. At first glance, the tracks look like they've been damaged in shipment: In fact, the company has purposefuly kinked the rails at the points where the wheels rest in the track in the door-closed position. This forces the door outwards, mushing its edges into the flexible seals for a draft-free experience. It's a smart, low-tech way to prevent heat from escaping your house through the garage.
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