Pull Clearspan Keder Fabric Panels Faster, Without Damage
Clearspan keder fabric panels often don’t pull smoothly by hand. And they can rip in expensive ways when pulled by machines not designed for the task. How can your installers pull panels faster, reduce potential for damage, and save your company plenty of crew hours in the process?
Keder Fabric Panel Challenges
First, let’s get a grip on two challenges you face when working with fabric panels:
1. Keder Panels are difficult to pull by hand. A 30-meter clearspan tent requires two crew members to feed a panel into the keder channels and a minimum of two, often three people per rope on the pulling side. That’s six to eight people! The task is physically taxing, especially when uneven pulls cause the panel to bind.
2. Keder Panels easily tear when pulled by the wrong kind of machine. Your company may use a tele-handler or forklift to pull panels on clearspans exceeding 30 meters. But the operator has no “feel” whatsoever when the fabric begins to snag. An expensive panel tear can result if the spotter fails to alert the operator in time. Backing off the pull speed reduces the possibility of rips, but going slow means your crew will spend more costly labor time on site.
A Smarter Alternative: OX Roof Keder Panel Puller
Unlike tele-handlers or forklifts, OX Roof Panel Puller is designed specifically for the job, pulling panels at higher speeds with near-zero chances of fabric tears. Its 2200 pounds of hydraulic pulling force makes short work of pulls and spares crews from maximum physical effort. Far fewer crew members are needed and they complete pulls 50% faster, lowering labor overhead expenses in a big way.
Unique performance and safety features include:
- Infinitely adjustable speed from 20 – 60 feet/minute
- Operator can easily feel how the pull is progressing
- Rubber wheels on both ends of the tension bar draw fabric smoothly over purlins and the ridge connector
- Instant-stop safety features stop the pull as soon as the operator stops pulling, releases the rope or moves away from the control lever.
Higher Speeds Deliver Higher Productivity
In comparison to other methods, OX Roof Panel Puller completes panel pulls in about a minute with just one operator and two people on the other side of the structure to feed the panel into keder channels. That’s more than twice as fast as the norm and it it requires fewer than half the crew! This high-performance innovation gets your crew off the tent site and on to the next job sooner.
Customers tell us they regularly see two major benefits to the purchase of the OX Roof Panel Puller attachment:
Cuts Personnel Requirements. The majority of commercial tent installation costs are eaten up by labor — crew hourly wages multiplied by the number of crew needed to complete the job. Tent OX reduces labor costs by reducing the number of crew members required to pull panels by 50% or more. The smaller crew also finishes pulls faster and panel damage potential falls to near zero.
Boosts Profitability. The OX Roof Panel Puller’s superior performance — combined with the productivity boosts from other Tent OX innovations like stake drivers, stake pullers and materials handling attachments — helps reduce total time on site by 20% – 30% on average.
If you are intrigued by the power and productivity Tent OX can bring to your clearspan business, click here to see first-hand the amazing labor savings the OX Roof Panel Puller can deliver.