Combine Animated Meshes

I have an overhead door that I have animated in 3DS that raises and lowers in a stacking movement. I can’t figure out how to create the animation in 3DS as one object, so each row of panels is its own object that is animated to lower. That means when I import the whole object into Unreal, it separates each row into its own skeletal mesh, animation sequence, and physics asset. Is there any way to merge these skeletal meshes and animations into one object, so I can just trigger one animation to lower the door? Right now I have to place each row of panels and then trigger an animation for each row, so I have like 12 animations I have to trigger at once, which is less than ideal. Any ideas?