Hunter Douglas International N.v.

Peter Gawell

Peter Berntsson

Carl A Knikkenberg

John Peter Prins

Adri Steffen

Peter Van Oostrom

Reine Larsson

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a plurality of sequentially arranged edged contoured slats for use in a blind. A strip of material 10 is provided lengthwise into the slat making machine. It passes through a forming unit 6 where it is cambered, into an accumulator 8 where any excess is held, through a position encoder 12 and over a collision detector 14. Edge contours are then cut into the strip material if they are not already pre-provided. The positions of any edge contours are detected by a sensor 18 which provides relevant information to a CPU 40. On the basis of this information and other pre-provided information on the type of blind being made guide holes and notches and the ends of the slats are cut ensuring that the contouring and the guide holes and ends do not interfere with each other.

Method and apparatus for producing a plurality of sequentially arranged

A system for manufacturing blinds comprises a processor unit, at least one manufacturing facility for carrying out a manufacturing step and a communication device for exchanging data between the processor unit and said at least one manufacturing facility. To arrange for efficient and economical manufacturing, whereby manufacturing time and scrap are relatively low, the processor unit is adapted to generate data for controlling the system taking into account an order portfolio and at least one parameter from said at least one manufacturing facility.

System for manufacturing blinds

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Jorlanda, Sweden

Peter Gawell