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Specifying motors made easy: How to utilise Ellard's Product Calculator.

Updated: Feb 1, 2023



Understanding what motor you need for specific doors can often seem complicated and time-consuming. With this in mind, our Technical Team has created a product selector chart which is a useful tool to help us guide users to the correct model and size motor for each job.


The product selector can aid us in specifying numerous motors, including tubes, Direct Drives, Sectionals, Flange, JM Fire Motors, and High-Speed Motors. From here, if we have the relevant information, we can recommend the motor, the torque required and the suspended weight. In most cases, customers call our team to spec their door and we will talk them through this process. However, this process is quick and easy to use, and customers can run through this individually on-site without having to interrupt their day with a phone call.


This article will explain how to use the Product selector, using how to find the recommended size of the tube motor needed as an example.


For a Tube Motor, you need to ensure you can fill the yellow fields below with the relevant information.

  • Motor type: Here a drop-down option allows you to select the motor type you are specifying.


  • Barrel Dia (mm): Drop-down option regarding the size of the existing barrel in the door. If you do not have this information, you would need to measure the barrel or find out from the company where the door was made. Alternatively, if the spec is for a new door, we can recommend the barrel size for you.


  • Height to Centre of Barrel (mm) – This is the height of the door from the floor to the centre line of the barrel.


  • Width (mm) – This is the width of the opening of the door.

  • Curtain Weight (KG/mtr): Here input the weight of the physical curtain in KG per square meter. If this is not known, you can also determine this by the gauge lath of the curtain. The weights for these can be found at the bottom of the product sector and will look like the image to the left.



  • Bottom Rail Weight (KG/mtr): This is the weight of the bottom rail on the door. Normally this would be 4.8kg but if you are unsure the options for the different weights are available at the bottom of the sheet.


  • The number of extra wrap turns on Barrel: If you have an extra wrap of the curtain around the barrel when the shutter is in the down position, this is something that needs to be considered, as it can affect the size of the motor needed.

Once all this information has been filled in, the product calculator will then work out what motor would be most suitable for the door. These results are then shown on the right-hand side of the sheet and look like the below:

  • Actual Torque Required – How many Newton Meters (NM) would be needed to lift the door.


  • Suspended Curtain Weight – Total suspended weight of the curtain in KG.



Underneath these results, it will then show you the suggested motors for these doors in order of the most suitable 1-6

  • Type – The model of the motor required (most suitable at 1).

  • Speed (RPM) Revolution Per Minute - indicates how many times the motor can potentially turn one complete circle during a one-minute period.

  • Phase – Phase of the motor (All Tube motors would be 1ph, however, if you were calculating other types of industrial motors, it would give you options for both 1ph and 3ph)

  • Barrel Turns – How many barrel turns would be needed to lift the door

  • Time to fully open (Per second)The amount of time in secs it would take to lift the door fully.

The product calculator is a great tool to aid in specifying a motor when you are unsure of job requirements. If you would like a copy of this product calculator, click the file link below to have a go yourself!


If you need help with motors that have not been mentioned above, please feel free to give our customer service team a call, we will be more than happy to help.

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