This work looks into the failure of a sliding metal gate and the current practice for installing such sliding gates. The root cause of the failure was fracture of an L-shaped stopper that is very commonly used in sliding metal gates. Although fatigue associated with repeated impacts due to gate opening and closing operations are often blamed for failure of L-shaped stoppers, single-impact bending fracture was implicated in the present case. Besides L-shaped stoppers, it is a common practice to install a small metal stopper in the floor track to prevent gate overrunning. The suitability of installing such stoppers in floor track is questioned in the present study. © 2010 ASM International.