Innovation Spotlight: Tractive Motion Technologies

Product: Self-Storage Door Production Machinery 

Location: Southport, Australia 

Developer: Kerry Hayes 

Email: kerry.hayes@tractive.com.au 

Website: tractive.com.au 

Founded in 2016 and developed by Kerry Hayes in Southport, Australia, Tractive Motion Technologies is poised to change the way self-storage doors are designed and produced. Using a patented, turnkey automated/robotic production line, Tractive produces custom-built self-storage doors and accessories in a fraction of the time it would take on a general assembly line–and with more flexibility. 

Initially, Hayes developed the machinery for the garage door industry. That scope broadened when Japan-based Bunka, one of his biggest clients and one of the largest door manufacturers in the world, approached him with a challenge: Create an unmanned production line for self-storage doors. “Can you do it?” asked the client.  

Hayes chuckles while relating the story. “I come from a line of crazy inventors; my father was a famous inventor. So when someone gives me a challenge, I’m up for it. That’s my biggest motivator.” 

Bunka helped fund Hayes through the prototype, and it wasn’t long before it was in full production, even winning a Japanese robotics innovation award. Today, Hayes is already in discussions with some prominent self-storage door suppliers. “We’re the first in the world to have automated this particular process of door making,” he says, noting that while there are some companies claiming they’re already doing it, they’re only using partial automation. “Ours is much more complex, and we are ready to disrupt the market.” 

With other processes, Hayes explains that it would take 80 to 150 man minutes to produce one door; with Tractive, it takes just two minutes. “If you put in one of these machines and your competition does not, they don’t stand a chance. Tractive can mass produce very rapidly.”  

Hayes holds up his hand to make one more point very clear: Tractive is also designed to provide suppliers with more flexibility in order to serve their clients better. “If you have Tractive and a client walks in with a damaged door that needs to be replaced ASAP, the machine can interrupt production for 1.5 minutes, make that door regardless of color and size, pack it, wrap it, and have it ready to go before the client has driven to the back of the shop to pick it up.” 

Continues Hayes, “I think that within five to 10 years unmanned will be the only way to make a storage door because of all the benefits. More quality control, traceability on warranty of raw materials, the ability to customize door sizes and colors. I think companies that don’t get on board soon may miss the bus.” 

More innovations are on the horizon, and one that will be released by the end of 2025 is already inside storage doors: springs. “They’re a big cost, they’re dirty, and they’re a pain in the ass,” says Hayes with a laugh. “Wait until you see what we do with them.”