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Designing and manufacturing metal-clad timber doors for the ANSTO nuclear medical science complex in Sydney called for the skills of the entire NC Doors’ team. Our CAD designer Harris Butler visited the site of what is the world’s newest nuclear medicine facility to profile the door frames, capturing their exact dimensions. Collaborating with our CNC technician Jackson Sauer, the pair then developed the production programs required to size, shape and rout each of the door panels, which our fabricating team built by hand. NC Doors computer-assisted manufacturing process removes the hinge rebate panels and lockset cut-outs, so the hardware can be fitted in our factory. This allows the doors to arrive ready to be installed in hours, instead of days when this pre-installation work has to be done onsite by a carpenter. Our technology handled complex door designs Several of the doors incorporated fire-rated Pyropanel cores, others had acoustic-rated centres, while the security doors featured high-strength block cores, in 40-50mm thicknesses. A pair of galvanised steel-sheeted solid core doors (pictured left with Sean) featured vision panels with aluminium surrounds. “Where other door companies might struggle, NC Doors’ computer-assisted design and manufacturing technology can easily handle complex doors like these,” NC Doors’ General Manager and Director, Barry Drewitt said. “We were working with non-standard sizes and a variety of materials, while the hardware was anything but commonplace. In the process of writing new programs for our CNC routing machine, we incorporated some very unusual door componentry into the designs.” Precisely fitting doors and seals were critical Our two most experienced installers, company Director Ian Drewitt and Sean Cummins finished the doors in our factory, adding the Colourbond metal cladding to the faces and edges of those pictured below, along with much of the hardware. One of the challenges in designing the facility was accommodating various atmospheric pressures throughout the complex, which made it critical that the doors and seals fitted precisely. Pharmaceutical facilities are kept under positive pressure to keep dust contaminants out, while the nuclear industry facilities have negative atmospheric pressure to ensure that nothing escapes. NC Doors again partnered with door installation specialists Robson Doors, who called on our technology for the project, which is being built at Lucas Heights by Icon Co, the Australian construction company which formed a combined construction services business with Cockram Construction in 2018. “While these doors certainly were a challenge, custom-made non-standard doors are what we specialise in,” Barry Drewitt said.