Inflatable Products from PVC and Hypalon

Aeronaut's automated cutters are used to cut inflatable products from military and rescue RIB tubes to aircraft floatation bags, swimming pool and outdoor inflatable structures in PVC and Hypalon. Aeronaut's flatbed cutting tables are wide enough and long enough to accurately mark and cut the most complex structure and the difficult materials used in industrial inflatable boats.

When cutting inflatable products with an automated cutter, there are a few things to think about. The first of them is marking. Inflatable tubes have to be accurately welded or glued to get the best fit when assembled and products like RIBs and containment bags have lots of fittings and patches which means that more time is going to be spent marking than cutting… however the additional markings give a huge speed boost to fabrication.

A single steered tool cutter will be fine for most PVC inflatables for pools and play areas. Products like boats and RIBs have more detail in valves and fittings. Here, a multi-tool cutter with several blade geometries is better.

RIBs made from Hypalon and similar coated materials need special techniques. The heavy material used in the base areas of hulls benefit from the optional high pressure cutting axis. Aeronaut's unique Hypergrinder is used to buff the surface of hypalon to remove the surface coating on the fabric to allow good bonding. The Hypergrinder is an effective tool which saves hours of manual labour.

Aeronaut's Elektron Mono WS is a single tool automated cutter with the power and accuracy to handle the thickest materials and most demanding work with inflatables. It comes fitted with a concentric marker holder for consistent accuracy with any pen or felt tip and can be fitted with machine vision systems and inkjet heads for digitising and high speed marking.

The Mikron Elektron Quattro with 2, 3 or 4 steered tool axes can handle the most complex cutting tasks with ease. Use a 28mm rotary blade for most cuts and a drag blade and punch tool for smaller cutouts and holes. Tools are changed automatically in software for consistently accurate, high speed production.

Aeronaut's Hypergrinder attachment is a specialised attachment for buffing Hypalon type materials. The Hypergrinder mounts onto any Aeronaut cutting system and is used to buff the surface of Hypalon and similar coated materials to allow proper bonding. Aeronaut's Hypergrinder makes light work of buffing and can do the work of many people with speed and consistency.

On the Elektron Quattro, tools are changed automatically under software control. However Cam-lock tools can be changed by hand in a few seconds so you can fit the tools you need, when you need.

The Cam-lock tool range includes 18mm, 28mm and 45mm rotary blades, tangential or drag knives with various depth stops for normal and high friction materials, creasing and scoring tools in a wide range of profiles and drill-punch sizes from pin to over 25mm. Drill-punch inserts are easy to sharpen and exchange.

Aeronaut's Tangent software is the key to reducing fabric waste and Tangent's powerful and user friendly cutter control is essential to increase production. 

Fast and efficient autonesting can pay for a cutting system in months if your fabric is expensive - and isn't waste fabric the most expensive fabric in your business? 

Aeronaut has developed rapid patterning software and CAD plugins to reduce the design to cut time down to a few minutes on complex patterns.

Aeronaut's revolutionary SiliconEye machine vision software can accurately trace and digitise a table full of patterns in seconds.

With Aeronaut's full-table or gantry mounted machine vision systems, aligning cut profiles to patterned fabric or digitally printed material is simple.

Inkjet printing is the fastest way to do pattern numbers, markings and reference text on almost any fabric.