ALUMINUM - You bet your life on it™

Modern materials like Aluminum have revolutionized our lives and have enabled forward thinking companies to make products superior in strength, durability and design.  We are proud of our technologically advanced products that are secure, beautiful, and protect your investment.

Why do you manufacture your products out of Aluminum instead of steel?

Aluminum was chosen for a number of reasons, but the most important reason was because steel rusts and begins to rust from the moment the product is installed. When we first acquired the company, we quickly realized from the number of rust complaints that the old fashioned steel security door was a big problem. Even the hot dry areas like Phoenix had major problems with rusting doors. The challenge was to design and build a product that was beautiful, stronger and rust free. After many months of research and development and millions of dollars invested in new equipment, we have designed a product that is unparalleled in the marketplace and best of all there is never any rust.

Isn’t Steel Stronger and better than Aluminum?

That is a very common myth. Aluminum can be engineered to almost any strength needed. There are many different aluminum alloys that are engineered for specific applications. Different alloys are used in everything from light weight beverage cans to heavy duty applications like aircraft, automobile engines, skyscrapers and thousands of other different products. 6063-T6 aluminum is the alloy formulated to be primarily used in architectural applications like our doors. It is used worldwide on commercial buildings, schools, banks and skyscrapers because of its strength and durability. We’ve engineered our products to far exceed the strength of the 16 gauge steel used by virtually every manufacturer of the old style steel doors so we can offer a far better technologically advanced product without the rust or weakening problems associated with steel.

What are the results of static force tests on Unique doors?

Static force tests are performed with a specific set of parameters established in advance, such as size of door, distance of pull from a door, how quickly force was applied and others. Unless one knows the exact way a test was performed, a direct comparison to other tests is impossible. Unique had our doors, as well as others, tested by an independent testing lab to establish minimum requirements for our doors. Our main objective was to prove that the rust free 6063-T6 alloy that we use is engineered to make our frames at least as strong as the 16 gauge steel frames used by competitors.

Testing to the elastic limits using the same testing equipment at the same time, our 1 1/2” architectural grade Aluminum door frames tested to as much as 80% stronger than those that use the standard 2” wide, 16 gauge steel  frame on security doors. Clearly, our doors tested far superior.