Universal Pultrusions LLC

Providing Durability and Performance in the Harshest Environments
Universal Pultrusions, LLC manufactures complete fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) door systems for corrosive industrial applications and those that require frequent sanitization. We offer doors, frames, vision lites, louvers, mullions, center posts, wall anchors and thresholds that are ideal for new construction or retrofit. Each product we sell is custom made to order to meet the exact specifications and requirements of your application.

All Universal Pultrusion products are fabricated using our exclusive pultrusion manufacturing process in our Marshall, Arkansas facility, allowing us strict control over
quality and lead times. Our products are promoted by a network of independent territory sales representatives,
and sold exclusively through approved distributors in
North America.

Universal Pultrusions, LLC, manufactures complete Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) door systems for industrial applications. All Universal Pultrusions products are fabricated of pultruded FRP. Our door products are specifically designed to contribute to the goals ofsustainability.

We pultrude all of our FRP profiles and door panels in our own plant in Marshall, Arkansas. Our products are promoted by a network of independent territory sales representatives and are sold exclusively through approved distributors in North America.

In addition to door panels, we also pultrude all of the internal reinforcements and frame profiles for our door systems as well as custom profiles for a variety of non-architectural applications.

History

Universal Pultrusions was formed in 1986, and since then has been the only manufacturer of door panels using the pultrusion process.

Brothers Keith and Kevin Jensen acquired the company in 2004 from the founder and continued to grow the company's product offerings and business, expanding into custom manufacturing for non-architectural markets.

In January 2012, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Special-Lite, Inc., a privately held manufacturer of FRP/aluminum hybrid doors for a wide range of commercial applications. Keith Jensen continues to serve as General Manager of Universal Pultrusions.

CREATING A MORE DURABLE ALL-FRP PRODUCT

The pultrusion process is similar to extrusion with a few key differences. With
extrusion, a homogeneous raw material is forced through a profile die to produce
the end product. With pultrusion, different raw materials (in this case glass fiber
reinforcements and resin) are drawn into a profile die where they are combined
and cured, with a mechanical pulling force applied to the finished product to
draw more raw materials into the die.

This automated process has been used to make FRP profiles since the early 1950's. Universal Pultrusions produces a wide variety of pultruded profiles for architectural and marine applications, and was the first to use the process to produce door panels beginning in 1986. We are still the only manufacturer in the world to make pultruded doors.

Pultrusion produces a door with excellent physical and thermal insulating properties, immunity to corrosion, and easy-cleaning surfaces making them perfectly suited for corrosive and sanitary industrial applications.

Our Door Pultrusion Process
Our exclusive door panel manufacturing process begins with a high-density, closed-cell polyurethane foam core panel. This core reduces the weight of the door without diminishing its strength, and provides excellent thermal performance.

Multiple layers of glass fiber reinforcing fabrics envelop both sides of the core panel as it moves through the process—a woven layer for impact resistance, two layers of random continuous filament for flexural strength, and fine veil top layer to provide a smooth surface finish. These glass reinforcements wrap around the panel edges from both sides to greatly improve structural properties.

An FDA- and USDA-compliant resin fully saturates the glass fiber fabrics before the door panel enters a profile die, where the reinforcements are compressed around the core panel. The resin fully cures around the core as the panel passes through the heated portion of the die. A constant pulling force draws the door panel through the process, and pulls in more materials behind it, in an automated, continuous process.

This process produces a hermetically sealed, incredibly tough door panel free of voids. The FRP has a 65% glass content and completely encapsulates the core to a thickness of 1/8' at the door faces, providing excellent impact resistance, and 9/16' at the stile edges, for secure screw hold.

After cutting the door panel to length, full-width top and bottom rails (also manufactured using the pultrusion process) are bonded to the panel structure to create a completely sealed assembly. The resulting door is light in weight but absolutely heavy-duty, having a monolithic structure that's immune to moisture and corrosive gases or liquids, with the rigidity necessary for industrial-size openings.