In addition to providing complete blown and cast extrusion systems, Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. specializes in designing and building custom winding and web handling equipment.

Macro recently designed and manufactured two highly advanced customized winders for roof material such as PET woven, non-woven glass TPO and EPDM.

They consist of an entry accumulator, a 3-blade slitting station with trim nip, a dancer/accumulator, a two-spindle automatic turret winder, a core magazine with core loader and an unloading cart.

The winders are designed for 120" wide material with thickness ranging from 0.030" to 0.100" at speeds up to 70 fpm, and for rapid indexing of small rolls of 100 or 200 ft per roll. To achieve this, the winders are highly automated to minimize operator involvement. Each winder incorporates a tucking assembly to eliminate the requirement to apply adhesive or tape to the empty cores. Automatic roll changeovers are initiated based on roll length. An airshaft removal system, automatic core loader, automatic airshaft inflation system and a roll unloading cart are incorporated into each winder to assist the operator.

The dancer/accumulator provides the necessary accumulation time to allow the web to stop at the winder for a square cut without shutting down upstream equipment. The entry accumulator provides up to 2 minutes of emergency accumulation time if a problem should occur within the winder and is useful at startup.