Project: The Gibus Group commissioned the development and construction of two machines for the automated and continuous hot air welding of “omega” profiles on large PVC sheets.

The machines feature 7 hot air welding heads installed on a tool bridge. A motorized station unwinds the PVC off of of the roll. While the roll is being fed into the machine, photocells continuously check the position of the fabric, and automatically correct the position when the fabric is not coming off the roll perfectly straight. On top of the tool bridge 7 double bobbin holders are installed that carry the “omega” profiles. The bobbin holders, carrying two bobbins each, can be pneumatically lowered so that the operator can easily load a new bobbin.

Based on the SM-321-HA model, designed to manufacture truck covers, the machine that was designed for Gibus is able to continuously and fully automatically produce sheets for pergola’s, with great speed and precision, while drastically reducing the need for human intervention. The quality of the end product will no longer depend on the skills of the operator, but will always live up to the high standards that Gibus has set for her products.

With a depth of almost 2 meters and a width of almost 5, the machine makes it possible to produce extra large sheets in a very limited space, and with only one operator.

The custom made machine has optimized Gibus’ production, both in terms of quantity and quality, making several steps in the production process that were previously done by different machines superfluous, as all steps are now integrated in one single station. Thanks to the new machine, the production output of the company has doubled, while the human resources needed for "pergole" production could be greatly reduced. Furthermore, discards were reduced to an absolute minimum. Thanks to the motorized trolley, the transport of very heavy rolls through the production plant has become very light and easy.