This might not be totally new technology, having been developed in 2007, but it is a revolution for car manufacturing and construction, and therefore a potential challenge for repairers of the future.
The Retractable Vehicle Door, also known as the Disappearing Car Door and Rotary Drop Door, from Californian-based Jatech, offeres a new approqach to car door operation.
In a conventional sedan, which would have four doors and a B-pillar, the B-pillar is removed and there is only one door and one window on each side of the car.
The window is retracted into the door skin and then the door retracts into a void underneath the car floor.
According to Jatech, the door makes entring and exiting the car easier and safer, and it also means parking in tight spots is easier, dispensing with the space required to swing a conventional door open.
Jatech website stated: "This ground breaking, game changing technology has been developed over the last decade incorporating design and engineering input from many major automobile manufacturers (OEM's) and their Tier One suppliers."
Some advantages of the Retractable Door architecture include:
Significant improvement in strength, stiffness and lightness of overall structure;
Applicable to all traditional and modern construction materials;
Greater safety in door operation and vehicular crash worthiness;
Access to occupant and/or their escape greatly enhanced is serious crash situations;
Convenience of power operation;
Moving doors will stop and reverse if foreign object detected;
Vehicle floor and belly pan form a box-like structure which greatly enhances body stiffness and strength;
New geometry of inner and outer sills also contributes to overall structure efficiency and weight savings;Passenger doors can be opened and closed safely from driver’s seat via window lift type activation;
Door cuts need not be absolutely vertical;
Cannot be ‘parked in’;
Side mirrors remain in place when door is opened enabling continued observation of traffic from behind;
Drop door does not swing out endangering other road users or pedestrians;
No door 'dings';
Less parking or garage space required;
Compact outer sill reduces ’step over’ during entry and egress;
Drop door need not be stressed for multiple slams during its life cycle;
It may be constructed as a modular component with the door frame designed to reintegrate structurally with the main vehicle body;
2, 3, 4, and 5-door applications possible for sedans, coupes, wagons, hatchbacks, convertibles, crossover vehicles, SUV’s, trucks, and vans, whether equipped with front, rear or all-wheel drive;
Converted vehicles for the physically challenged; and
Special vehicles for domestic services and the military.
Like all good ideas, it could be some time before Jatech’s Retractable Door technology is seen across the motor industry, and this development will be hampered by the present duldrums of the US car manufacturing sector.
But if the technology is effective and affordable, it is only a matter of time before repairers are seeing this type of car door in their repair shop, adding to the ever-increasing knowledge base needed to run a modern body repair facility.