Moralt opens doors

German high performance door blank manufacturer Moralt AG is bullish about the future of its UK business, with new products and investment in manufacturing technology.

The Bad Tölz based company formerly manufactured lamincore and blockboard panels together with specialised panels, as well as door blanks. The panel operations were bought by SWL, which now manufactures the lamincore products at Bad Tölz and is a major supplier of components to Moralt, which is now 100% focused on the door blank market.

“We have had very good demand in the last two years,” said Moralt’s managing director Klaus Feile. “We have made money and we have been re-investing it, which is the right thing to do.

“The British market is one of our main markets and accounts for 25% of our turnover.”

The UK business has increased by about 28% in the past year and Moralt sees further opportunities for growth in the coming years.

“This is not a commodity product we are supplying, but a high-performance one.”

Moralt is expanding its range in the UK to include larger door leaf size options.

James Latham has been the UK exclusive distributor for Moralt products since 2008. Lathams said Moralt AG’s door blank products were the “perfect fit” for its product offering in the UK.

“The Moralt door blank is a high-end, specialist product that complements the James Latham door range perfectly,” it said. “Latham’s range covers commercially competitive door cores, as well as niche, technical products at a more premium price.”

Products developed for the UK market in cooperation with Lathams have been the FireSound blank and the PassivHaus door kit. The FireSound range has gone from an initial single blank in 59mm thickness in 2010 to three blanks, the last of which was launched in early 2015.

The PassivHaus door kit is proving very popular in the retrofit market among housebuilders. This FSC certified bespoke product is produced to order and once supplied, only requires that the customer decorate the face with their choice of finish, add their own choice of handle and if required, fit a glazing aperture.

The kit includes all ironmongery, seals, lock, hinges, frame and blank so that it only needs to be put together. Lathams says the PassivHaus kit is the only PassivHaus certified door product available through UK distribution.

“Moralt and James Latham do not see each other as supplier and customer, but instead as a true partnership increasingly enhancing the UK’s door horizon,” it said.

Staple Moralt products offered in the UK include the Laminesse FireSmoke and FireSound fire rated (FD30/FD60) and acoustic door blank products. The FireSound product is available in 44, 54 and 59mm thicknesses, while FireSmoke is in 44 or 54mm sizes. FireSmoke has either chipboard or MDF faces, with FireSound chipboard faces and a further product FireSafe is ply-faced.

The high-performing Klima (56mm) and Passiv (98mm) products are designed for optimum thermal performance and have impressive U-values of 0.89W/km2 and 0.53W/km2 respectively.

Moralt has been busy with research, development and extensive testing work to British and European standards. The tests involve dozens of fire and acoustic testing with many product variations, including single leaf doors, double leaf and with or without glazing, to a wide range of sizes.

A new product to the family is FireSound 44m thick FD30 with an acoustic value of 39-40dB, which closes the gap acoustically between the FireSmoke range (32-37dB) and the other FireSound products (40-44dB). It can be available as a double leaf and with an overpanel.

Moralt uses BM Trada (all five of Moralt’s fire-rated door blanks FireSmoke 44m & 54mm and FireSound 44, 54 and 59mm are in the QMark scheme for fire doors). It has also done extensive testing in Europe with a bigger range of door leaf sizes.

Moralt has also achieved a new FireSmoke assessment to the EI standard in single/double leaf sizes of up to 3.42m2 or 6.62m2 respectively.

“If there is an important UK project, we know that architects would like to do things out of the norm with big doors and using glazing.

“If we can test doorsets up to 5m2 and tell the architects and distributors about it then we have an advantage.”

Moralt can also supply vision panels up to 2.5m2 (EI30), which is bigger than many doors, giving many possibilities in door design.