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Appleton Awning

"Appleton Awning, established in 1922, just upped their production output drastically by purchasing one of Carlson's strongest machines. the PTi-120."

About Appleton Awning

Appleton Awning, like many others, specializes in creating custom awnings and boat covers, but what sets them apart is their adoption of some of the latest technology in digitizing their projects and now cutting them on an automated cutting machine. Being in business for 90+ years, Appleton understands the benefits of automating the tasks that take up most of the time when fabricating their products. With a team of dedicated and talented fabricators, Appleton has sped up their cutting process and freed up those valuable team members to focus on more meaningful tasks.

Installation Details:
Model: Pro PTI
Attachments: Hot Knife, 28mm Rolling Blade, Carbide Drag Blade
Plotter Width: 120"
Table: 24'
Blowers: 4 x 5hp Radial
Applications: Awnings, Boat Covers, Custom Canvas Shades
Materials Cut: Marine Vinyl, Shade Cloth, Sunbrella
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What was unique about this installation?

The plotter/cutter operator at Appleton Awning, Steve, is no stranger to digitizing the patterns for both the boat and awning jobs that come through. Using the Leica 3D Disto Laser Digitizer system, Steve can digitize, panel, and flatten out patterns ready to cut. Utilizing the 3D digitizer and a Carlson Design Plotter/Cutter, this process is incredibly quicker than fitting the material by hand.

Appleton also uses a lot of Sunbrella material. Sunbrella tends to fray at the cut edges. Most of the time, this is solved by heat-sealing the edge after cutting the material. With Carlson’s Hot Knife attachment, it’s possible to cut AND seal the edge all in one pass. A sacrificial layer of heavy paper is placed under the material not to burn the plastic cutting surface.

Real Results

Appleton Awning cuts many different types of materials. The PTi-120 was able to cut all of its materials in much less time than before automating. Using Carlson Design’s proprietary 2D design software, creating patterns from scratch or importing.DXF format files are a breeze. This, paired with the simplicity of the machine, makes a Carlson Plotter/Cutter easy to adopt and put to work on day one.

Install & The solution