Built to Last

Amit Bhadu, Marketing Manager, Sapa BS India, shares a case study of the company's Technal brand of doors and windows; which was used in the memorial built in honour of the late President and India's 'Missile Man', Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, located in Rameshwaram.

Sapa Building Systems India was approached to design and offer system for doors and glazing, while keeping the soul of the architecture and its functional aspects intact. Big leaf doors were to be integrated in the architecture, consisting of bottom panel as solid panel and top panel with integrated grid design. The bottom panel was fabricated after sand blasting two sheets, which were then coated in the desired shade. These were later integrated with light infill, to help lower the weight of the doors. Top panel design was achieved using a solid surface with CNC routing, then sandwiched between two layers of ultra-clear glasses, to make the design more prominent.


Integrating all design elements resulted in per leaf weight of approx. 200 kg. The only practical solution for a building expected to experience high footfall is to move this weight on pivots. Hence, Technal's Titane series door, which is qualified with a million test cycles, was specified. Options like anti-figure trap, flat threshold, independent opening frames, concealed door closer were also selected; keeping in mind children, students and people with low mobility as visitors.

We needed a partner who completely understands all the materials integrated into the end-product, as an aesthetic and functional element of such high-performance system. Our affiliated fabrication engineer M/s Razzle was selected, based on their capability to machine and integrate all elements at their shop floor, and as per our timelines and recommendations.