Carlisle, UK – Saip of Italy has supplied a fully-automated plant to Steadmans to make over-standard size polyurethane sandwich panels.
Steadmans is using the customised line to make continuous roof and wall panels of up to 16m long.
The Saip machine has a 36m long double belt. This mounts a caterpillar designed to contain the panels during the polymerisation phase.
At the end of the conveyor, tipping and stacking equipment passes the finished panels to a 40-station cooler.
In addition, the line has Saip's overlapping and endlapping technology fitted. The overlapping process helps form the longitudinal junctions. Endlapping ensures that there is a foam-free zone at the gutter to help assembly.
The overlaps can vary between 20-300 mm in length. A polypropylene strip is applied to seal the area, after the overlap is formed on the machine. This stops foam intruding into the space.
Furthermore, Waterproof joints can be made more efficiently on site because of the overlap. It removes the need to modify panels that are completely full of polyurethane.
In addition, Saip said that other benefits of the overlap system is a better finish, lower raw material wastage, lower power consumption and lower labour costs onsite.
Finally, Steadmans made its machinery choice after visiting the CEDEPA joint research and development centre run by Saip and Dow in Navarre, Spain. It was able to use the on-site roll-forming system to make the same panel profile in the tests that the company is producing in the UK.
