Case Studies

The Challenge

Located in Amsterdam, NY, one of the global leading manufacturers of PVC-coated textiles commissioned the development of a continuous welding and cutting machine to speed up their production of swimming pool covers. Until this time, they had been cut manually and welded with HF and impulse welders. Pool-covers contain extra-large panels of bubble wrap that, once spread on the water surface, keep the heat in and the dirt out of the water.

The Solution

SolarEdge Automation Machines developed a multiple-roll sealer with conveyor belt, a first bridge with multiple welding heads, and a second, travelling bridge with twin CO₂ laser cutting heads. The machine feeds the fabric from four motorized unwinding stations with automatic edge correction and digital fabric tension control to manage the extra-large rolls. The welding heads installed on the first static tool bridge join the rolls together to create a single, extra-large panel. The panel then travels on a conveyor belt surface towards a second travelling tool bridge. Two laser heads then simultaneously fly-cut the shapes (circles, ovals, squares and rectangles) created by the CAD program. The program is easily managed by the operator, creating pools covers that are delivered by a conveyor belt and then placed in cardboard boxes for shipment.

Reduced cycle times. Well-engineered structure and components.

Prior to commissioning SolarEdge Automation Machines’ solution, the company operated manual cutting devices with high frequency and impulse welders. Following installation, with the continuous welding and cutting cycles of our solution, this customer increased their hourly production output multiple times over.

As the mother rolls are extremely heavy, with diameters up to 2 m, and the customer intended to use the machine for a minimum of two shifts each day, we designed the machine’s structure specifically for heavy duty manufacturing jobs.

The machine has been operating in our customer’s U.S. factory as of 2015.