Leister lays floors in four easy steps
The right machines and tools can turn the tedious task of laying floors into an easy and fast process, as BMC Gulf reveals.
01 April 2011
USING machines to weld plastic and linoleum floors can cut the time required to lay flooring systems by up to 70 per cent compared with doing it manually, says Leister Process Technologies of Switzerland, which offers a range of tools to facilitate the process.
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Welding a plastic or linoleum floor involves four steps and Leister provides the corresponding machines and tools to handle each of these steps.
Elaborating on the process, Mark Leo Irac of BMC Gulf, Leister’s exclusive sales and service partner for the GCC region, says: “First, the groove is milled at the joints of the laid-out plates or rolls using a grooving machine.
“A welding rod is then welded into the groove using a hot-air welding machine – which joins the two elements firmly and permanently.
“Then, the projecting part of the welded rod is pulled out by hand to about 2 mm above the floor-covering using a trimmer and spatula (crescent knife). This step avoids damage to the welding rod during the subsequent ‘planing’, while also preventing the rod from being pulled out of the groove.
“Finally, the projecting welding rod is ‘planed’ fully to the thickness of the covering using the spatula. The result is a perfectly joined plastic floor that is not only technically flawless but also looks great.”
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To carry out this four-step process for laying a plastic or linoleum floor, Leister offers the Groover grooving machine, the Unifloor-E hot-air welding machine and the spatula and trimmer for removing the projecting welding rod.
“The Groover grooving machine mills to a uniform depth, thanks to its three-point support. This is the most important requirement for a subsequent neat weld. Its extra-powerful motor ensures an even start-up, while the adjustable guide roller guarantees an accurate course. It runs at up to 18,500 cycles and is adjustable in two stages. Milling blade shapes for the Groover can be selected depending on the required joint form and welding rod adapted to it. Even milling close to the edge is possible, thanks to its small dimensions. Users also appreciate the integrated auxiliary fan and dust bag, which allow a dust-free and clean working environment for the machine operator,” Irac highlights.
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Fast and reliable welding
Unifloor-E is a sturdy and resilient hot-air welding machine for welding plastic and linoleum floors.
“It comes with the ‘close loop’ technology, which means the selected hot air temperature is measured and automatically controlled via a probe. The welding speed is constantly controlled. This and the infinitely adjustable air volume ensure uniform and flawless welding results. An important prerequisite for this is that the welding rod and floor-covering are made from the same base material,” he says.
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Four-step process (from top) ... milling the groove, inserting the welding rod with the Unifloor-E machine, ‘pulling out’ the rod with trimmer and spatula, and ‘planing’ the projecting welding rod with a spatula. |
He continues: “The removable welding rod de-reeler guides the rod into the preheated groove. As soon as the set welding temperature is reached, the hot-air nozzle can be swivelled in and the Unifloor-E starts up automatically. It welds at up to 7.5 m per minute exactly over the milled groove without the need for manual guidance and direction correction. If the machine encounters a wall, the integrated wall switch-off device will automatically stop the unit.
“An important guarantee for reproducible welding settings and results is the digital display. All three relevant parameters – speed, air volume and welding temperature – can easily be monitored on this. A specially produced, moulded nozzle with an extremely narrow air slit is available for the difficult-to-machine PUR (polyurethane) surfaces of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) floors. With this, the air jet is directed accurately onto the groove and inserted welding rod, but not onto the heat-sensitive PUR surface.”
Useful accessories
For areas that are difficult to access such as floor bases, Leister offers the manual welding units Triac PID, Triac S and Triac BT, which have proven themselves over and over again, he says.
Like the Unifloor-E, the Triac PID comes with the ‘close loop’ technology. This achieves reproducible results particularly with tricky floor-coverings. Leister’s quality push-fit nozzles can easily be changed to suit different requirements.
Its spatula (crescent knife) and trimmer as well as the cutter round off the company’s complete portfolio for the easy and neat machining of plastic and linoleum floors.
“With its sturdy and durable devices, Leister guarantees high-quality, flawless results,” Irac says.
Leister also ensures reliable and fast service, thanks to its international, close-knit network of over 120 sales and service partners – which in the Middle East is handled by BMC Gulf (www.bmc-plasticwelding.com).
BMC Gulf was established in Dubai in 1998 to serve the local markets of the Middle East with specialised engineering services and turnkey solutions for industrial and private projects.
