Case Studies

The Challenge

One of Europe’s chief manufacturers of truck curtains and a long-time SMRE customer requested the development of a fully automatic welding machine to produce anti-vandalism straps. The straps were to be used on the automatic welding station. The SM-321-HA that we previously supplied to this customer created perfectly cut and welded anti-vandalism truck curtains with 13 horizontal straps and up to 92 vertical straps with one operator in just under 30 minutes.

This customer required the anti-vandalism straps to be extremely durable due to the heavy-duty application, and the welds to be precise (25 mm strap + steel cable + 12 mm strap or the “classic” 25 mm strap + steel cable + 25 mm sandwich). In order to double the manufacturing output, the new machine would have to process up to four rolls of 25 mm PVC strap + two rolls of steel cable, while simultaneously producing two rolls of high-quality anti-vandalism straps.

The Solution

SolarEdge Automation Machines’ engineering department designed a mechanism with two highly powerful welding heads along with a series of pneumatic systems to ensure a fully controlled feeding of the different materials into the welding machine. This way, the produced anti-vandalism products are of the highest quality, both in strength and aesthetically.

While the machine is operating, it will automatically splice 25 mm wide PVC-straps into two 12 mm straps to produce a 25 mm + cable + 12 mm anti-vandalism products.

The unwinding system – suitable to process up to 4 rolls of PVC straps and up to two rolls of steel cable – are motorized and so is the rewinding system. The motion of both the unwinder and of the rewinder are synchronized with the welding speed of the machine so that the tension of the steel cables on the PVC-straps is always accurate.

Throughout the work cycle, the system automatically moves from left to right to guarantee perfect rewinding of the created anti-vandalism straps and avoid snags or tangles.

Special guides, welding wheels and nozzles were added to guarantee anti-vandalism strap production of the highest quality. This machine can be programmed to produce the desired number of meters. A series of sensors and photocells monitor the rolls of material (PVC straps + cables) so that if the machine runs short of material, the welding process is automatically interrupted, and the operator can load a new roll to substitute the finished one.

After a successful test run and customer inspection in our production hall the machine was installed in their Spanish factory.