A-Frame Vertical Lift

An A-frame vertical lift is the hardware setup used when a commercial door must travel straight up the wall. It gets its name from the triangular steel frame that bolts to the wall next to the door opening. This frame holds the torsion spring, the torsion shaft, and the cable drums at the correct height. The door rises straight up and stacks against the wall with no overhead track.

In a standard-lift setup, the door curves at the top of the vertical track and then travels flat, parallel to the ceiling. A vertical-lift door has no horizontal track. Every section or slat rises straight up along tall vertical rails. This uses more wall height but removes the 12 to 18 inches of headroom that a standard-lift curve needs.

When vertical lift is required:

• Ceilings too low for a standard overhead track run
• Buildings where cranes or hoists travel below where a track would go
• Fire stations where doors must clear tall apparatus
• Facilities where ceiling structure blocks any overhead track

The A-frame bracket puts the counterbalance system at the side of the door rather than above it. Cable drums wind up longer cables as the door rises. The spring must be sized for the full door weight over the full travel height.

A standard-lift door shifts from vertical to horizontal at roughly the door's width above the floor. A vertical-lift door keeps the full door weight on the cables the whole way up. Before ordering, installers confirm bracket height, drum flange size, and cable length from the manufacturer's spec sheet.