Front entrance shutter near miss

We attended site on an emergency visit after the roller shutter had collapsed to find that the door was in the closed position but would not turn, we managed to get a few pictures to ascertain the problem as the head of the roller shutter was boxed in. We submitted a quotation to replace the motor and barrel as well as fit safety brakes to ensure compliance with current legislation. After removing the plaster board it was found that the barrel had broken in to two pieces and had damaged lath in the top section within the boxing in. The barrel has been replaced with a new motor and safety bearing with the old materials returned to our factory for inspection.

After inspection it was found that the spring assembly within the barrel had snapped causing a sharp point which when being continually operated cut itself out from the inside until the complete mechanism failed. One of the main factors of the door still operating with a broken spring was the motor was massively over rated which ended up lifting the complete door putting a massive strain on the lifting chain that if this broke could have been catastrophic in effect turning the shutter over the main entrance door into a guillotine with a dead weight of over 600kg falling from 3.5 metres high, obviously this would have huge impact on the business and reputation. 

All shutters should be regularly inspected along with inspection panels installed to enable inspection of the top roller assembly, all shutters over doorways should have a safety brake fitted in case of a singular point failure.

Her you can see the barrel assembly cut open by broken spring

Further close you can see the extent and severity of the damage

The bolt head that had been worn down and close to failure

All of these pictures represent a serious and potential disaster that has been averted by shear luck as if this had happened during normal trading we dread to think of the consequences.