Dave Nordentoft - Redesigned VARIMAT - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Dave Nordentoft from Leister. You can Read the interview below or Listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello, and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeShop. This is Heidi Ellsworth. We are here today to talk about equipment. Not just any equipment, we're talking the top of the industry technology enabled equipment from Leister. Yeah, everyone knows Leister. It's so exciting. We have Dave, here from Leister, returning to the show to talk to us about some really exciting news. Dave, welcome to the show.

Dave Nordentoft: Heidi, great to be back with you. Thanks again for the invitation.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, I love it. Dave, let's start out. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do at Leister, and Leister overall.

Dave Nordentoft: Certainly, thank you. Yeah. My name is Dave Nordentoft. Again, I'm the roofing products manager here for Leister in the United States. Been with Leister now for almost 10 years. My core responsibilities revolve around managing our distribution and getting product out into the marketplace. I oversee and I work with our distribution partners across the country, managing those relationships. Taking care of things such as training and education, application training and that sort of thing. As well as industry relations with our friends in material manufacturing and that sort of thing. That's my core responsibility.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great, that's great. You know what? I know everybody knows the name and they're very familiar, but maybe share a little bit about Leister and its history of innovation.

Dave Nordentoft: Absolutely. Yeah. Leister will be celebrating its 75th anniversary as a company, as we head into 2024 here. We like to pride ourselves on being innovators and pioneers in hot air welding technologies. Whether it's the roofing industry, which of course most everybody knows us for, but we really cover a myriad of different industry sectors and applications. If it's a thermal plastic based product, there's probably some type of a Leister tool that can work with it, whether it's for welding, or heating, or activating, or sterilizing, treating. There's all sorts of ... It's almost infinite, the number of applications.

These are the sorts of things we've been involved in, including other nanotechnologies and things involved now with laser plastic welding, and that sort of thing. We're always taking a look at new technologies and ways that we can improve our products, and bring new products to the market, and improve on what we have.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Well, talking new products, that's what we're talking about today. But before we jump to that, really when you talk about a history of innovation that you just shared, everyone knows the brand Varimat. I would love to hear from you a little bit about how did it come to the roofing industry. Give us a little bit of the history on the Varimat machine.

Dave Nordentoft: Sure, thank you. The Varimat machine, the first version of Varimat was brought into the market in 1996. It replaced a machine that we had had prior to that, it was called the Variant, which was really one of the first welding machines specific for roof applications and whatnot. The Varimat became our first welding machine that was digitally managed, digital technologies. The Variant, prior to that, was an analog machine, meaning we just had independent control over just the temperature, from say zero to nine, and the speed from zero to nine. There was no way to really control and manage those key welding parameters.

We looked at new, emerging digital technologies to be able to gain more control over the welding process, and control over those key welding parameters. That was really one of the big parts of that Varimat platform. It was optimized and really designed to try to specifically address the needs of that welding process for thermoplastic roof membranes. That was the genesis of the Varimat platform, again. Yeah, we refined it. It was wildly popular. We're looking forward to new things on the horizon.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know, it's very ... When the Varimat came onto the market, that really was a game changer for contractors, wasn't it?

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah. Yeah, it really was because it really put a lot more control into their hands over this process, and gave them the ability to begin having the ability, I guess in a sense, to really dial in the welding process and get predictable, reproducible welding results on a much more consistent basis. I think that's where it was a game changer.

In addition to that, because of the newer blower technology that was coming out, and nozzle designs, and things like that, it really gave us the ability to not only improve the process but pick up some productivity along the way. Because again, time is money so contractors were looking for ways to be able to not just have good quality control over the process, but also pick up some production along the way as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I just think about how much the industry has changed over the years. When you think about that, and then you think about how the Varimat has really been a part of so many contractors' and roofing companies' lives. Let's talk a little bit about some of that evolution. Basically, going to the Varimat V in 2003, take us through that timeline through to today.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah, sure. The Varimat was replaced by the Varimat V in 2003. There was a lot of similarities really, between those two machines. From a mechanical standpoint, for the most part, it was very much the same. I think there was some enhancements that were made to the electronics to make it a little bit more stable, a little bit more reliable under more challenging conditions. I think the things that we learned along the way, by having things field tested over the years and get the feedback from contractors on what works, what could be improved, that sort of thing. I don't really think there was a lot of significant mechanical changes made to it, but there was definitely some enhancements in electronics that helped make it more stable and operate better under a wider range of challenging conditions that are always present on job sites. Picked up some productivity along the way with that as well, but essentially, it was ... Mechanically speaking, certainly it was almost identical to the Varimat.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Then, in 2009?

Dave Nordentoft: That was a big game changer year for us. 2009 was the year we introduced the Varimat V2, which was essentially a new machine from the ground up. We looked at it and you said, "Oh, yeah," recognize it as a Varimat. But, used the opportunity to really integrate some brand new features into it at that time. Brand new blower. We went to a brushless blower at that time. Completely redesigned nozzle configuration, to what we call our speed nozzle. Completely redesigned the display and the user interface to our e-Drive, which is our push and turn button system. Yeah, it really changed. Electronically as well. We now had more, we'll call power management features into it. Again, made it so it was a friendlier machine to operate under more challenging electronic conditions. Again, things that we don't have a lot of control over but our engineers like to try to figure out ways to work around some of these things.

That really lifted the bar, from a productivity standpoint as well. It was a much more powerful machine, greater air flow, with the nozzle configuration. We had a patented pressure wheel on it called the pendulum wheel, which gave the wheel a little more adaptability on the roof surface to rock back and forth, and make micro-adjustments during the welding process, to go over the imperfections on the roof surface and maintain better contact. All those things all coming together, all helped make it a more robust and more reliable machine.

Here we are now, since 2009, closing in on 14 plus years of that machine being out in service. It's been a great machine for Leister. It's our flagship production welder.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: A lot of contractors have done quite well working with that machine. We're proud of it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's the leader. It's the leader. Okay, here we are, 2024. This is pretty exciting. You have an announcement on a new version release. In fact, three different machines.

Dave Nordentoft: Absolutely.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Tell us what's up, Dave. This is so cool.

Dave Nordentoft: Well, you mentioned try to be a leader and try to be an innovator. Leister takes those things seriously. You take a look at a machine that's been around for 14 years and there's a lot of folks that would say, "Hey, this machine is great. It does exactly what we need it to do." It's reliable, it's low cost to maintain, long life cycle to it. There's a lot of things that are really positive, so why do we need to replace something that's working?

I think, as a manufacturer, I think you don't really want to get complacent. You don't want to sit back and say, "Everything's working fine so we don't need to do anything." I think, over the years, you still have opportunities to take a look at every single aspect of the machine and say, "What could we do better?"

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: We get feedback from the contractors all the time, and from material manufacturers that offer us ideas and things that they think could be done to make the process a little bit better. You think a look at all the individual little things that they talk about and you say, "Well, that by itself maybe is not significant [inaudible 00:10:30]." But when you wrap it all up and you integrate all these different changes into it, well pretty soon, you have really, transform the machine into something much better.

We really feel like, at the end of the day, it's our responsibility almost, in a sense, to the industry to try to say, "What could we do better?" Or, "We can do this better." We can make the best welding machine in the industry. We have other things that we can offer, and some newer technologies, and newer features that we're excited about. But at the end of the day, we want to put the best welding machine in everybody's hands.

You mentioned a few moments ago that we've gone from one to three.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Dave Nordentoft: We are differentiating the line a little bit. It's not going to be so much maybe a one-size-fits-all proposition like it's been for a really long time, because we feel like there are differentiated needs within the industry. We're trying to meet more people's needs, more contractor needs by differentiating the line a little bit and offering ... We started doing this a long time ago. Again, this is not something that's just unique to our roofing category. We've been doing this in a lot of other tool categories as well because in just about every industry sector, there are differentiated needs. We want to try to meet more of those needs with a broader offering in our portfolio than maybe we had in the past.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Okay, let's start, because I'm excited. But let's start with the 300. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag here with the new release, but there's 300, 500 and 700. Just talk about innovation. Let's start with the 300. Tell us what are some of the benefits? You did it the other day, we were talking. But I'd like to hear the differences between 300, 500 and then up to the 700.

Dave Nordentoft: Sure. What I'll start with is the fundamentals, or the basics of what's going on mechanically. Basically, this platform is brand new from the ground up. Again, we used the opportunity to take a look at every single aspect of the machine and the process, starting from the wheels that are touching the roof and up to the handle, and everything in between. If we take a walk around the machine, whether it's a 300, or a 500, or a 700, from a mechanical standpoint, it's essentially the same platform. We'll touch on all that. We'll start at the 300 level.

Basically, if we start on the backside of the machine, on the user side, one of the first things that we did was we changed how we manage our transport axle in the back. Now, we've added an adjustable, flexible transport axle that can slide out to one side now, so we have a much more balanced handling system. It makes it so that it's, again, more balanced handling, it's going to track straighter and easier perhaps, than any predecessor. It's going to be great for moving the machine up to the next seam, or for doing basic field seams. But again, that axle can be slid and retracted back in, because users like to take the Varimat and slide it up against a curb or a parapet wall and do flashing details with it as well. You'll still be able to do that with the machine, but now you have the flexibility to change that stance and you have a much more balanced process through that.

One of the other things that we did at the opposite end of the machine is we changed the weight distribution. We took a look at the Varimat V2 and the weights were hanging off the front end of the machine. We've now completely redesigned this, and take and integrated the weight into the front end of the machine, and moved the center of the weight further back and over the pressure wheel, which is really where you want it and where you need it. We've been able to do this and integrate this weight system into the front end of the machine. Then, there's supplemental weights that can be added to the top of the machine. Again, straight above where the pressure wheel is. We've increased the amount of welding pressure by a significant amount over the Varimat V2, with only adding a few pounds total to the overall weight of the machine.

Through this redesign, it's a little bit tighter, a little bit shorter, a little more efficient in terms of the design concept to it. Without adding a lot of extra weight, we've increased the welding pressure by a significant amount. That'll make it a better, more reliable process, regardless of what kind of membrane, or membrane thickness, or ambient conditions you have. It's going to really improve that welding process in that reliability.

One of the other things that we addresses as well is the way that we manage the way that the blower and nozzle is released and inserted into the seam. Up til now, we've used, we'll call a trigger lock pin system, that's held that blower into place. Users have to reach down below, squeeze that trigger release down, and slide that blower in. It could be a challenge. It's a spare part that can break. We thought it was a little bit of an Achilles Heel to it. Completely redesigned this whole concept now, and got rid of that traditional trigger lock pin system. I think a lot of the people that use our machines are going to be very appreciative of this improvement. But now, basically what the users do is they place their hand over the top of the blower handle, and then to the right where their middle finger and ring finger are, there's almost like a small paddle shifter.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Basically, what it is, it's a lever that can be squeezed, it's spring-loaded to release and drop that nozzle down, and slide it over into the nozzle. It's an easy process. We've improved the way that that blower is mounted. It's no longer on the traditional axle system to it. It's a better process, the starter sensor is now located internally within the machine so it's protected. It's going to be a much improved process.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: A lot of safety. It seems like there's a lot ... Not that it wasn't safe before, but you just are building on those safety features.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah. Safety issues and just, again, reliability issues as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Things that we look at and say, "Why don't we just do it better?"

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Dave Nordentoft: Make it easier, make it more ergonomic.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Dave Nordentoft: And improve the welding process through all this, at the same time. Everything that we've done, we've always put an eye on this to say, "Does this make it a better machine? Is this going to make it a better welder? Is this going to make it a better experience for the user?"

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Dave Nordentoft: And try to make sure that we're always bringing more value to them, to that process.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: One of the other mechanical things that we did is we separated the air dam belt system from the drive wheel. It was tied and integrated into the drive, which was part of the pressure wheel and drive system to it. By separating that now, what we've done is we've created a little less conflict down there. It's going to reduce any of the chances for wrinkling that would take place before. We changed the type of air dam belt on it to a flat belt, so it changes the way that the air dam operates. It relieves a little bit of the pressure that used to be born on the air dam belt, shifting all the pressure onto the pressure wheel. Again, which is where we want it and where we need it. The pressure's now relieved off of the air dam belt. It operates independently from the pressure wheel. It's going to be definitely a more reliable system and process.

We also beefed up the roller system to it, made it just a little bit more sturdy and reliable. That's an improvement, we believe, as well.

One of the other things that we changed was the location of the power supply coming into the machine.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah. In the past, power supply always coming in in what would be the user end of the machine. If I'm welding and I'm going backward toward me, the cable would be potentially in the direction of the weld. Users had to figure out cable management and how to keep that out of the way. It could be considered distracting, something that keeps them from 100% focused on keeping the machine in line and on track. We've moved it to the other end of the machine now, so the power supply's coming in at the other end. It'll be trailing behind the welding process. It should be less of an issue during the welding process and fairly easy to manage when moving back, up to your next seam. All I'm doing is moving the machine, I'm not welding in that process.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Dave Nordentoft: It's not as distracting.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, and it makes sense. It makes total sense. Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Those are some of the key mechanical highlights, as we have taken our walk around the machine. The 300 is what I guess we would consider a base model machine. It still has a digital interface on it. It has a display that has independent controls for temperature, speed and airflow. But there really aren't any advanced menu systems to it, like they might be used to with some of our other machines like a V2. They're not going to be able to see their incoming voltage, there's no advanced menus to allow them to see hours on the machine or distance traveled. No custom recipes, no preset recipes. Those are some things that people have got quite used to having at their fingertips. Again, base model. We're just trying to provide a high quality welding machine, but not a whole lot of bells and whistles to it. Again, basic.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: The blower will be a brushed motor. It really wouldn't have the same kind of airflow characteristics that maybe they're used to with the V2. They can still weld with it, it just requires a little bit of a change in the mindset, and adjusting to the procedures, and running their tests, and getting it dialed in. Again, it'll certainly do the job but it may have a few different characteristics to it, again because it's going to have different airflow. And again, it doesn't have regulated electronics, like the V2 has or like the other machines will have. These are all some things that can affect the way that the machine would respond to some challenging electrical power supply things. But outside of that, it's going to be a great machine.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. It's the perfect machine, like you said, base machine. But you have some ... You can go up one level to the 500, so let's talk about that. What's that look like, what's that difference?

Dave Nordentoft: Sure. We packed a lot in the 500. I think there's going to be a lot of value in the 500. I think for anybody who's a V2 user today will find the 500 to be very friendly and very similar in terms of the kind of features, plus more. First and foremost, they're getting all these new things mechanically, as you walk around the machine, as we just reviewed. But in addition to that, there's definitely some additional benefits and electronics features that are built in.

Number one, it's going to have a different display on it. It's a hybrid mix between what they're used to with our old e-Drive and what our newer digital displays are like. It has that push button turn interface on it, turn and push to select. Most people will be very, very familiar with how that operates. One of the first things that we built into it is what we call our Monitored Welding Assistant. We've talked about this before, in our Uniroof 700s, tied in with our LQS and whatnot

But the Monitored Welding Assistant's a neat new feature. Basically, what that allows users to do is set parameter limit ranges, plus or minus. So when the nozzle's engaged and you're actively welding, if there's something that happens mechanically or electronically that takes one of those welding parameters outside of that limit range, they're going to get an alarm on the machine. The display will flash red, there will be an audible alarm that would tell the operator that perhaps these changes in a setting could take you outside of your welding window and potentially impact weld quality. The thought process would be hey, stop the welding process, assess the conditions, take corrective actions before continuing to weld. It's a quality management tool that's in there. It's tied in, in our Uniroof 700s and now we're rolling this into the Varimat 500 as well, it'll be a standard feature in there.

You'll start to see some other things in the display as well, that you maybe have seen before in a Varimat V2. Again, so you can see what we call the duty info, that's the hours on the machine, the distance traveled. You have the ability to create custom recipes, there's preload recipes or parameter recipes, combinations in there. You clearly can see your set parameters, your actual settings, your incoming voltage is all visible right there. We added another feature, an LED work light.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Ooh.

Dave Nordentoft: That is on the underside of the machine, it shines LED light. It illuminates the entire work area, right at the work zone, right before the pressure wheel where the nozzle's inserted. If you have challenging lighting conditions, early morning, or evenings, or working in the desert when you work at night-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Now, you have an illuminated workspace if you use a 500.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I was just thinking that. I thought of all the people who have to work, all these hot temperatures we have, they're working throughout the evenings and night.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah, exactly.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. I love the technology. All the display, that's great.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah, yeah. The other thing that comes in the 500 is what we call power management. That's a system that we've put in, that helps the machine perform optimally under challenging under voltage conditions. Again, on another podcast we did, we talked about some of the challenges with power supply.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes, we did.

Dave Nordentoft: It's just a reality of working on job sites today. On a machine that doesn't have this kind of technology built in, when the voltage starts to drop, it can have adverse effects on the way that that machine performs, including its ability to either reach or maintain some of the highest temperature settings. It could become more challenging for operators to figure out how to work with it under those conditions. Our engineers have worked hard to try to overcome some of these realities.

The system's set up where we can operate, even up to a tolerance of up to 20% of voltage drop. But once that threshold is hit, the machine is set up to go automatically to shut down. It does that to try to protect it. To protect the process, but protect the equipment as well. That power management helps manage that whole process. That's just an unfortunate reality of-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it really is.

Dave Nordentoft: Job sites today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. When you look at putting all of this together, let's talk real quick about the app, myLeister app. Because it connects right, with this new display and the 500?

Dave Nordentoft: It does, yeah. The myLeister app, it's free to download and operate the myLeister app. There's a Wi-Fi signal that's put off by the machine, that's the communication protocol on how a mobile device running the myLeister app will communicate with a machine. With a 500, you still have the ability to use the app to create custom recipes, and then they can be transferred onto the machine. If you have multiple machines, you can create these custom recipes which could maybe just change based on mill thickness, or manufacturer, or ambient conditions. It's really up to the end user to determine how you want to set those up. If you have multiple machines, you can then save all those recipes so everybody whose operating your machines can all work out of the same hymnal, so to speak. Yeah, that's available and part of the package on the 500.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Okay. The cream of the crop, 700. Tell us about it.

Dave Nordentoft: Okay. The 700 has everything that we talked about with the 500, and it also is LQS enabled. Again, LQS stands for Leister Quality System. This is basically the data recording and the data acquisition that takes place in the background on the machine. Again, every time that the nozzle is inserted, the keyed welding data is recording in the background on the machine. That would be the temperature, the speed, the airflow, the incoming voltage into the machine. And now, also the welding pressure is being recorded and part of what's being tracked.

One of the things that's available as an accessory on the 700, and by the way, it's also going to be available for the 500, but it's we call Weight Detection.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Basically, in that area on the top of the machine, where I told you were the secondary accessory weights can sit, it's a load cell basically that gets installed into that, it ties into the machine and it detects those extra weights. We know what the base weight is of the machine, the base pressure on the pressure wheel, and then it's also tracking any additional weights and accounting for those. In the display, you'll now see temperature, speed, airflow and the weight would be seen in the display. Also, then recorded in the background as part of LQS.

We added another new feature, tied in with LQS as well. One of the things that material manufacturers talk about all the time is the importance of running test welds prior to the start of every day, or every time there's a significant break. Run those test welds, make sure that you have those parameters dialed in before you do any production work. Well now, with the 700, you have the ability to go in and differentiate a weld from being a test weld to being a production weld. It, in a sense, will document the fact that it's a test weld. Again, if there was ever a question as to what was done as a test weld, what were those parameters that were used for that test weld, if would be differentiated in that data report.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We had a whole podcast on this.

Dave Nordentoft: We did.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: With the data, and the app, and being able to have those reports, and set the parameters and recipes. I think it's brilliant. And to know that now, you have the top-of-the-line bringing everything together, in that 700, all the technology.

Dave Nordentoft: Right, right. I think a lot of real forward-thinking contractors are seeing the value in archiving this information and saving it. It's a useful tool, first and foremost, in real time to have access to this information. But then, retrieve it off the machines, create the data reports and use it as a safety net, in a sense, to be able to refer back to it and make sure that everything looked like it was in order. And again, if that Monitored Welding Assistant I mentioned was active during any one of those welds, that would be indicated on that welding report. It could be used as a warning, in a sense, to say, "Hey, we had a Monitored Welding Assistant alarm go off on weld number seven, so let's go back and let's track ourselves back to weld number 7, and let's look at that again before we walk off this project."

Then, obviously we know that things happen on jobs and things can happen after the fact. It could be a year down the road, it could be five years down the road, and somebody asks questions about what was done. Whether it's issue related to welding or not.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: But at least it's been archived, and something that can be referred back to later on and say, "Well, here's what we did."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I think that, and we talked in that ... If anybody hasn't listened to the podcast that Dave and I did on the technology of Leister, the LQS, it is phenomenal. You need to go listen to it. But really, when you think about that, Dave, the risk mitigation and the documentation that comes from that, it's so important. And like you said, some of this is available at the 500. You can still get your display, you can see everything that's going on. But getting those reports in that 700 really is a big differentiator.

I do have a question. Okay, so for those contractors out there right now who are listening to this and saying, "I love my V2," which one of the new three models is going to be comparable to the V2? What would you recommend?

Dave Nordentoft: I would say if someone's looking to basically have as many of the features that they're used to with a V2, I'd say it's probably going to align the closest with the 500. It will also, from a price standpoint. We're going to be able to bring that new 500 machine in at the price point that they're accustomed to with the V2. We're very excited about the ability to be able to do that, but yet here's all the things that you're used to, the benefits of a V2 and more. We think that we're adding a lot of value for basically the same dollar.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You're launching this right around IRE.

Dave Nordentoft: Correct.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: 2024. Very exciting. As contractors who are ready, who want to get this new Varimat, either 300, 500 or 700, or even get more information about it, tell us a little bit about where they can get it, and also about IRE.

Dave Nordentoft: Absolutely. Yeah. We're going to be, of course, featuring this front-and-center during the IRE. We're going to be running a demonstration station there, to run the Varimat for three days straight, to let people take a look at the newest. We're going to have all the machines there on display, running live demos for the Varimat. We know that that'll be our feature in the booth. We're running a couple other things there as well, but really this is ... We're here and it's all about this new platform, because it's a big deal. We've been out with this machine for 14 years, but I swore for at least the last three or four, every trade show I attend, somebody walks up to me and says, "When is the V3 coming out?"

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: Everybody's been expecting the V3 for a while because they looked at our history, and they looked and say, "Okay, yeah. Leister comes out with a new machine six, seven years or so, you're past due."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Dave Nordentoft: This is a process, Heidi. This took a long time. This has been years in the works.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: I've known about this, I've sat on this for a really long time.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You're good at keeping secrets.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah, thanks. I've wanted to tell people for a very, very long time.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Dave Nordentoft: It's been literally years in the works. If you talk about it from concepts to actual creation and production, it's a very, very long time. Leister takes a lot of pride in quality, and bringing things out and doing things right so as much as they'd love to get a new product out as quickly as possible, we also take a very responsible approach to it and make sure that it's ready.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Well, it's ready and it's going to be at IRE. For everyone out there, go visit it.

Dave Nordentoft: Yeah, come see us at the IRE. But also, we'll have information on our website of course, leister.com. They could also contact our office and talk to us, we'll get you plugged in with one of our regional distribution partners who will all have this machine. Yeah. Give us a call, 855-LEISTER. Or you can contact us through our contact page on the website as well, we'll get you linked up and set up.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. That's what I was going to say too, check with your distributor of Leister equipment that you use right now, be asking them because it's out there and you can work with them. Also, of course, you can get all this information on the Leister directory on RoofersCoffeeShop.

Dave, thank you. Thank you for sharing this big news with us. We're so happy to have it on Roofing Road Trips.

Dave Nordentoft: No, it's my pleasure. I always enjoy the visit.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, I love it, too. Well, we will be seeing you, we'll be in that booth, and we'll be coming and checking it out. We'll see you at IRE.

Dave Nordentoft: Looking forward to it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Thank you all for listening. Wow, exciting news! New machines for 2024. Check it out at the IRE and also on the Leister directory. Check out all of our podcasts, tons of new information that's coming out with every episode, under the RLW navigation under Roofing Road Trips, or on your favorite podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe and set those notifications. We will be seeing you next time, on Roofing Road Trips.

Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening, this has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the RoofersCoffeeShop.com.