Puertas de Exterior Wholesale in China: Puerta de Entrada, Puertas de Seguridad and FOB Pricing

1. Puertas de Exterior: Terminology and Scope (ES / EN)

The phrase puertas de exterior covers every door leaf that separates a conditioned interior from the outside: the puerta de entrada (front entry door), the puerta de paso to a terrace, service doors, and the puertas de seguridad fitted to apartments. In a bill of quantities written in Spanish the same physical object can be named four different ways, and the mismatch is the most common cause of a wrong shipment. The table below fixes the vocabulary used throughout this article.

Spanish / English term mapping used in specifications

What is in scope and what is not

• In scope: single and double leaf exterior doors, doors with sidelights (fijos laterales) and overlights, thermally broken and non-thermally-broken aluminium frames, panel and glazed leaves, security-rated leaves to RC3, fire-rated leaves to EI₂ 30.
• Also in scope: thresholds, multi-point locks, cylinders, hinges, closers, gaskets, the precerco interface and the declared performance values that go into a Declaration of Performance (DoP).
• Not in scope: interior passage doors, revolving doors, industrial shutters and garage doors. For sliding or folding terrace doors the relevant specifications are covered in puertas de patio and puerta plegable de aluminio.

2. Puerta de Entrada: Leaf Geometry, Clear Width and Thresholds

A puerta de entrada is the one leaf in the envelope where four independent requirements collide: clear passage width for accessibility, thermal transmittance, water tightness at the threshold, and resistance to forced entry. Moving any one of them moves the other three, so the leaf geometry should be fixed before anything else.

Standard leaf sizes in Spain and Latin America

The clear passage column matters more than the nominal leaf size. CTE DB-SUA 9 requires a free passage width of at least 800 mm on accessible routes, measured with the leaf open at 90° and with the handle in place. An 825 mm leaf with a standard butt hinge and a 55 mm frame profile delivers about 770 mm – it fails by 30 mm. The fix is not a wider leaf: it is a hinge with a larger throw, or moving the frame profile to 45 mm. Both are cheaper than upsizing the opening.

Threshold detail: the single most expensive 20 mm in the door

EN 12208 class 7B is not a typo and it is not achievable on an exposed facade. The B series of EN 12208 applies to unprotected openings; 7B caps at 300 Pa, while 7A (protected) reaches the same numerical class at a much higher pressure. A door that a European supplier quotes as “class 7A” will not hold that rating once it is installed on an open elevation in Valencia. Always ask which series the test report covers.

Leaf construction options for a puerta de entrada

Two conclusions follow directly from this table. First, a sandwich panel leaf reaches U 0.7 with 40 mm of PU, which is roughly one third of the cost of reaching the same figure with triple glazing. Second, if the brief also calls for acoustic performance, mass is the only lever that works: a 28 kg/m² steel-lined leaf buys 6 dB over a 13 kg/m² PU leaf, and no gasket upgrade will recover that difference.

3. Puertas de Seguridad: EN 1627 RC Grades and Locking Hardware

Puertas de seguridad is a regulated claim, not a marketing word. In Spain the resistance of a door set to forced entry is tested to UNE-EN 1627 with the companion parts UNE-EN 1628 (static load), UNE-EN 1629 (dynamic load) and UNE-EN 1630 (manual attack). A supplier that prints “alta seguridad” on a brochure without a class number and a test report number has made no claim at all.

Resistance classes and the test behind each one

The “N” suffix is frequently misread. RC2N means the set was tested without attacking the glazing, which is only legitimate when no glazed panel is within reach of the lock. Putting a full-height glazed panel into an RC2N door makes the class meaningless – the attacker goes through the glass, not the lock.

What the class actually rests on: lock, cylinder and hinge

A resistance class is a property of the set, not of the leaf. In practice the RC class is decided by three components, and upgrading the leaf alone does nothing.

For buyers whose projects also cover steel doors, the resistance and hardware data in security door specifications and metal doors for houses follow the same EN standards and can be quoted alongside an aluminium set in one container.

4. Puertas Exterior para Casa: Configurations and Opening Sizing

A puerta exterior para casa is specified as a set: leaf, frame, sidelights, overlight and threshold. The configuration drives the ex-works price far more than the finish does, because glass area and leaf count drive both material and labour.

Six standard configurations

The FOB index is normalised to C1 at 100 and reflects material, fabrication and packing cost only – finish, security class and glazing type are priced separately in section 14. Note that C4 costs more than C3 for the same opening width: a double leaf needs a meeting stile, a second set of hinges, a flush bolt set and a rebate seal, all of which are labour.

Choosing between a single leaf and a double leaf

• Passage width: if the required clear passage is under 1000 mm, a single leaf with a sidelight is cheaper and seals better than a double leaf.
• Furniture moves: double leaf earns its cost only when the leaf is opened fully a few times a year. A single 925 mm leaf plus a 300 mm sidelight delivers 1225 mm when the sidelight leaf is specified as openable.
• Rebate and weather: the meeting stile of a double leaf is the first place water and air get through; it needs a dedicated centre gasket and a flush bolt at both head and sill to hold EN 12208 class above 5A.
• Security: a double leaf doubles the number of attack points. RC3 on a double leaf requires a 3-point lock on the active leaf plus shoot bolts driven into the head and sill of the passive leaf.

Opening tolerance and the precerco interface

The precerco is a Spanish and Latin American convention that surprises buyers used to UK or US practice. Because the sub-frame is set by the mason before the door arrives, the door manufacturer is working to the precerco dimension, not to the structural opening. Every RFQ must state whether sizes are huela de albañilería (masonry opening), precerco or marco (frame outer). Mixing them up is a 40-60 mm error, which is unrecoverable on site.

5. Puertas para Casas: Climate, Wind, Seismic and Corrosion Selection

Puertas para casas shipped to Spanish-speaking markets face five independent environment variables, and each one changes a different line of the specification. Ordering the same door to Madrid, Cancún and Santiago is the fastest way to generate warranty claims.

Destination matrix: what each environment changes

Seismic: why the frame anchorage is the controlling detail

In Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico the door leaf itself is never the seismic problem – a 45 kg aluminium leaf cannot fail in a way that matters. The failure is at the interface: the frame is anchored into a wall that drifts, and if the anchorage is rigid the frame racks, the leaf jams and the door stops functioning as an egress route. Three rules follow:

1. Anchor the frame to the precerco or the structure with fasteners that are rated for the drift, not just for the dead load. A 4.2 mm screw at 400 mm centres is a gravity fixing, not a drift fixing.
2. Specify a 10 – 15 mm clearance between leaf and frame at the hinge side and the lock side so that a racked frame does not bind the leaf. This clearance is then taken up by a compressible gasket, not by a rigid stop.
3. On egress routes, do not use a closer with a hold-open that latches. After a seismic event a door that is jammed or latched is a life-safety item, and the cost of a free-swing closer is trivial next to the liability.

6. Profiles, Alloys and Section Properties

Exterior door frames and leaves are built from rectangular tube sections because the leaf has to resist bending in two directions at once: wind normal to the face, and the concentrated reaction at the hinge and lock points. Six sections cover essentially every residential exterior door.

Section properties (EN 755-2 basis, 6063-T6)

Maximum leaf width by wind pressure (deflection limit 5 mm)

The controlling criterion on a door leaf is not strength. It is deflection, and the limit is set by hardware rather than by the code: a multi-point lock keeps its engagement over roughly 5 mm of leaf bow before the cams miss the keeps and the gasket loses compression. The table below is solved for a horizontal rail spanning between the stiles, carrying wind over a tributary height of 550 mm, at δ_max = 5 mm, with E = 70 000 MPa.

The percentage figure below is the utilisation of the allowable stress (R_p0.2 / γ_M1 = 170 / 1.10 = 154.5 MPa) at that same deflection-limited span. Read across: at 1.0 kPa the S3 section reaches 2000 mm of leaf width while using 19% of its allowable stress.

Alloy and temper selection

6063 remains the default because door profiles are chosen for extrudability and anodising quality, not for strength – and the tables above show that strength is never the controlling criterion. 6061 and 6082 earn their premium only in three places: the hinge stile of a leaf above 150 kg, the bottom rail of a thresholdless door, and any leaf that carries a pivot fitting.

7. U_d Calculation to EN ISO 10077-1

The thermal transmittance of a door is calculated with the same area-weighted method as a window:

Reference geometry for every row below: a leaf of 1000 x 2100 mm, total area A_d = 2.10 m². Glazed configurations use a 700 x 900 mm panel (A_g = 0.63 m², perimeter l_g = 3.20 m); panel configurations use a full-height sandwich infill (A_p = 1.75 m², l_p = 5.60 m).

Nine configurations, calculated

Reading the table: two results that change the specification

• A 20 mm thermal break with standard double glazing does not meet any CTE climate zone. Configuration D2 lands at 3.46 W/m²K, above even the zone α limit of 3.20. The belief that “a thermal break door is compliant” is wrong; the break width and the glazing have to be sized together.
• A glazed door only reaches CTE zone D with triple glazing. Configuration D5 (34 mm break, triple Low-E, warm edge) gives 1.81 – it fails the 1.80 limit by 0.01. Dropping the glass to U_g 0.6 (D6) gives 1.78 and passes. Meanwhile a 40 mm PU sandwich panel on a 30 mm break (D7) already gives 1.15, and on a 34 mm break (D8) gives 1.08.

That gap is a purchasing decision. Going from D5 to D6 costs roughly $95-130 per m² of door. Going from a glazed leaf to a 40 mm PU panel leaf costs $40-60 per m² and delivers a value 0.63 W/m²K lower. If the brief does not require daylight through the door, the panel leaf is the cheaper route to zone D and E compliance.

8. Spain CTE: DB-HE1, DB-SI, DB-SUA and DB-HR

Four documents of the Código Técnico de la Edificación touch an exterior door. They are independent: a door can satisfy one and fail another, and the building inspector checks all four.

DB-HE1 – thermal transmittance limits by climate zone

The 2019 revision of DB-HE1 tightened every zone relative to the 2013 text – zone D moved from 2.70 to 1.80 – which is why doors that were compliant in 2013 are not compliant now. Confirm which text the project licence was granted under; existing-building refurbishments are sometimes still assessed against the older document.

DB-SI – fire and smoke, DB-SUA – accessibility, DB-HR – acoustics

For the window and door package that surrounds the entry door, the CTE calculation method, climate-zone tables and AEV classification used here are the same as those documented for ventanas de aluminio under CTE DB-HE1, so one DoP set can cover the whole envelope.

9. Air, Water and Wind: EN 12207, EN 12208 and EN 12210

EN 14351-1 requires an exterior door to be classified for air permeability, water tightness and wind resistance, and the three are reported together on the DoP. Reading the classification correctly is the difference between a door that performs on the project and one that leaks at the first storm.

Air permeability – EN 12207

Water tightness – EN 12208 (A and B series)

Wind resistance – EN 12210 and the design pressure

The class is written as a letter followed by a number (for example C3): the letter is the relative frontal deflection limit under the test pressure, the number is the pressure class. A door classified C3 has held 1200 Pa with a frontal deflection not exceeding L/300. For hurricane destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean the design pressure frequently exceeds 2000 Pa, which is outside EN 12210 class 5 – in those markets the door is specified against a project wind calculation and tested to the measured pressure, with the result reported outside the class.

10. Acoustic Performance: CTE DB-HR and the Cost of a 1 mm Gap

Acoustics is where exterior doors underperform their test certificates. The leaf may be rated at 40 dB, but the installed set delivers whatever the seals deliver.

CTE DB-HR requirement by outdoor noise level

The perimeter gap: calculated penalty

Modelling transmission as the leaf area plus a continuous perimeter gap of the stated width, on a 1000 x 2100 mm leaf (2.10 m², perimeter 6.40 m) with a leaf sound reduction of 40 dB:

A 1 mm continuous gap is 0.30% of the door area and it costs 15 dB. Half a millimetre still costs 8.5 dB. This is why a 40 dB leaf specified with a single compression seal and a brush threshold will test at 25 dB on site, and why the acoustic specification has to name the seal system, not the leaf.

Seal specification that holds the rating

• Two compression seals, not one. A single seal has to absorb the full tolerance stack; two seals in series give redundancy and let each one work at lower compression.
• Automatic drop seal at the threshold. A drop-down seal closes the bottom gap when the leaf shuts. Budget $22-38 per set; it is the cheapest acoustic decision in the whole door.
• EPDM or silicone, not PVC. PVC gaskets harden at low temperature and take a permanent set, which re-opens the gap permanently. EPDM holds compression set below 25% after 1000 hours at 70 °C.
• Adjustable keeps. Multi-point lock keeps that can be adjusted ±1.5 mm let the installer tune compression after the building settles. Fixed keeps cannot.

11. Surface Treatment and Coastal Corrosion Classes

Aluminium doors survive on their surface. The substrate is chosen for extrudability, and the coating is what has to survive twenty years of salt, UV and cleaning. Corrosion category is set by ISO 9223 and the durability band by ISO 12944-6.

ISO 9223 corrosivity categories

Coating standards and what each one guarantees

Fasteners: the galvanic problem

• Isolate aluminium from wet concrete (pH 12-13 dissolves the oxide layer) with a DPC or bituminous paint at the frame foot.
• Isolate aluminium from stainless with an EPDM washer or a nylon sleeve where the two meet in a wet zone.
• Never use CCA-treated timber in contact with the frame; the copper in the treatment is exactly the galvanic partner to avoid.

12. Hardware: Hinges, Locks, Cylinders and Closers

Hardware is roughly 12-22% of the ex-works cost of an exterior door and it generates most of the warranty claims. Each item has its own EN standard and a classification code that should appear on the order.

Hinges – EN 1935

The cycle count matters as much as the mass. A community entrance in a block of 48 flats sees well over 100 000 operations a year, so a 200 000-cycle hinge is a two-year item. For those positions specify a floor spring or an overhead closer rated for the duty, not a butt hinge.

Locks, cylinders and closers

A closer power size that is too small is the single most common complaint on exterior doors: the door does not latch in wind. Sizing by leaf width alone is not enough on exposed sites – add one power size when the door faces a prevailing wind, and two when it opens directly onto an unsheltered elevation.

13. Production Process and Where the Lead Time Actually Goes

A container of exterior doors takes about 24 working days of shop time once the drawings are released. The critical path is rarely the factory.

Twelve process steps with time share

Inspection points worth paying for

• Dry build (step 11). One assembled set per size, cycled 50 times, photographed and shipped with the container. This single check catches more errors than all the others combined, because it is the only one that tests the interfaces rather than the parts.
• Film thickness record. A batch-average of 60 µm with a minimum below 40 µm in a corner is the normal powder fault. Ask for the readings, not the certificate.
• Diagonal tolerance. A leaf out of square by more than 1.5 mm will not seal, and no amount of hinge adjustment recovers it.
• Cylinder and key operation before packing. A cylinder that binds is found on site otherwise, on every door, at the worst possible moment.

14. FOB Price Tables (USD)

Prices below are FOB Guangzhou / Shenzhen, quoted per square metre of door area, for three order volumes. They are indicative ranges for thermal-break aluminium exterior doors with a European-standard multi-point lock and a Qualicoat Class 1 finish; security, fire and hurricane options are priced as adders.

Eight configurations by volume

The volume discount is roughly 12% from the first tier to the second and a further 14% to the third. It reflects set-up amortisation, not material: a 150-set order of one size can be run as a batch, while a 20-set order of fifteen different sizes carries fifteen set-ups.

Option adders (per m² unless stated)

15. MOQ, Lead Time, Payment, Packing and Warranty

Standard commercial terms for exterior door orders

Packing, stuffing and warranty coverage

Three packing decisions decide whether the doors arrive in specification. Cartons alone are adequate for unglazed panel leaves; glazed leaves and any leaf with a sidelight need a plywood crate, because a corner impact on a glazed leaf is not a cosmetic defect – it breaks the sealed unit bond and the glass has to be replaced. Container stuffing should be photographed at the first row, the middle and the last row; the photographs are the only evidence available when a claim is filed. Warranty periods differ by component because the failure mechanisms differ: coating failure is a batch process fault and runs to ten years, while gaskets are wear items and run to two.

16. Container Loading and Landed Cost by Destination

Exterior doors are a bulky, medium-weight cargo: the container fills by volume long before it reaches its payload limit, unless the doors are knocked down. The reference order below is 60 sets of the E4 configuration at a net weight of about 86 kg per set.

40HQ loading mathematics (68 m³ usable, 26 500 kg payload)

Frames knocked down is the standard practice for export doors and it raises the count from 179 to 244 sets, a 36% improvement, for about $18-26 per set of additional assembly labour at destination. Fully knocked down reaches the payload limit at 315 sets but requires the leaf to be assembled on site, which is only worth doing when destination labour is cheap and the order is large.

Landed cost for a 60-set order, five ports

Duty rates shown are the ones applied in the calculation and each one must be confirmed against the current tariff before the order is placed. The EU applies a Most-Favoured-Nation duty to aluminium doors under heading 7610 and, separately, an anti-dumping measure on certain aluminium extrusions from China with producer-specific rates that range from zero to over 30%. Chile and Peru apply zero duty under their free trade agreements with China. The difference between the two outcomes on a single container is larger than the entire freight bill.

Sensitivity: duty and anti-dumping on the Valencia route

17. Installation with Precerco, Commissioning and Failure Points

Spanish and Latin American sites install a door into a sub-frame, not into a raw opening. The sequence below assumes a precerco is already set by the mason; where there is no precerco, step 2 changes and the frame is anchored directly with through-fixed anchors at 400 mm centres.

Eight-step installation sequence

1. Verify the opening. Measure width and height at three points. The gap between precerco and frame must be 10-15 mm on each side; a 40 mm gap cannot be shimmed and a 4 mm gap will not accept the frame.
2. Dry-fit the frame. Set it in the opening on packers, check the diagonal within 1.5 mm, and check the reveal is square to the wall face. This is the last moment at which a problem is free to fix.
3. Fix the frame. A2 or A4 stainless screws at 400 mm centres, never more than 600 mm, with additional fixings within 150 mm of every hinge and every keep. Do not fix through the thermal break.
4. Seal the outer joint. Backing rod plus neutral-cure silicone in an 8-10 mm joint. Acetoxy silicone releases acetic acid during cure and attacks both the anodic layer and the polyamide strip.
5. Hang the leaf. Fit hinges with security pins pointing into the frame. On a leaf above 90 kg use three hinges and a temporary support under the lock stile while the third is fitted.
6. Adjust the keeps. Set every lock keep for even compression: the leaf should meet the seal along its whole perimeter with the handle offering the same resistance at each point.
7. Fit and set the threshold and drop seal. The drop seal must contact the threshold along its full length and release cleanly; check that it does not drag on the floor covering.
8. Commission and record. Cycle the door 20 times, verify latch engagement, verify the closer closes against wind, and photograph every set. Cycle counts and photographs are what a warranty claim is built on.

Six failure points, and which ones are decided at order stage

18. Project Case Data

Two delivered projects, both measured. Figures are the project records supplied by the buyer at handover and at the 12- and 18-month service review.

Case 1 – 48 dwelling entrance doors, Madrid (CTE zone D3)

Case 2 – 22 villa entrance doors, Cancún (C5-M, hurricane region)

19. Material Comparison and When Not to Use Aluminium

When aluminium is the wrong choice

• Budget below roughly $300 per set installed. Below that point a steel security door delivers a higher RC class for less money; the aluminium advantage is dimensional range and corrosion, neither of which matters at the bottom of the market.
• Heritage or protected facades where the authority requires a timber profile or a specific sightline that an extruded section cannot reproduce.
• Sites where the opening will be cut on site. Aluminium frames are factory-finished; trimming on site destroys the coating and the warranty. If the openings are not surveyable, use a material that tolerates cutting.
• Doors that must be field-modified after installation for access control or a different closer. Drilling into a thermal break profile after coating compromises the barrier and the corrosion protection.

Selection by project type

For projects that mix facade types, the entry door normally shares a section family and a powder line with the surrounding package – see aluminium windows and doors, windows and doors packages and ROGENILAN windows and doors.

20. RFQ Checklist

Eight technical questions

1. Which climate zone is the project in (CTE α to E, or the equivalent local rule), and what is the maximum permitted U for the door?
2. What is the design wind pressure at the door position, and is the door protected by a canopy or recess (this changes EN 12208 from A to B series)?
3. Which resistance class is required (RC1N to RC6), and is the glazing inside the attack zone – if so, the N suffix is not valid?
4. Is a fire or smoke classification required, and if so which one? This changes the conformity route from System 3 to System 1.
5. What is the required acoustic performance, D_2m,nT,Atr, and the outdoor noise level it is derived from?
6. What is the corrosion category at the site (ISO 9223) and the distance from the sea?
7. What are the clear-passage requirements – is 800 mm needed, and what threshold height is acceptable?
8. Are the stated sizes masonry opening, precerco or frame outside dimension?

Eight commercial questions

1. How many sets of each size, and are the sizes repeatable enough to reach the next volume tier?
2. Is the order to be consolidated with windows or other products to fill a container?
3. Which coating standard and class is required, and is a colour fastness target specified?
4. Which hardware brands or standards are mandatory – EN 1303 grade 5 or 6, EN 12209 code, EN 1154 power size?
5. Is a Declaration of Performance required in Spanish, and does it need to be issued by a named notified body?
6. What are the payment terms, and is the buyer established enough for B/L-copy terms?
7. What is the required delivery date, and does it fall in a peak season window?
8. What spare parts are needed – typically 2% of cylinders, drop seals and closers?

21. Related Products

Door systems

• Front entry doors – leaf construction, hardware and FOB pricing
• Entrance door U-value tables and price bands
• Pivot doors – floor spring loads and pivot geometry
• French and double doors – configurations and specs
• Glass doors for commercial and residential entrances
• Security doors – steel leaf and resistance classes
• Metal doors for houses – steel versus aluminium
• Exterior doors export – technical specs and factory pricing
• Driveway and pedestrian gates

Windows, sliding and folding systems that share the extrusion family

• Ventanas de aluminio under CTE DB-HE1 – Spanish compliance data
• Puertas de patio – sliding patio door specifications
• Puerta plegable de aluminio – folding door systems
• Sliding glass doors – frame specs, U-values and FOB pricing
• Folding and bifold doors – panel mathematics and U-values
• Aluminium sliding windows – frame specs and performance data
• Fenêtre aluminium – French market AEV and RE2020 data
• Janelas de alumínio – Brazilian ABNT data

Other envelope products that ship in the same container

• Glass garage doors – panels, impact glazing and pricing
• Insulated garage doors – panel and opener specifications
• Greenhouses and glass houses – frame and glazing specs
• Pergolas and gazebos – aluminium structures
• Four-season sunrooms and conservatories
• Foshan / Guangdong aluminium doors and windows – AS 2047 data

22. Glossary ES / EN and Standards Index

Spanish – English glossary for door specifications

Standards index