The Machine That’s Changing the Roofing Industry

By Evelyn Witterholt. 

The MINI-MACADEN® makes it easier for contractors to lay bituminous membranes and is even available for rental. 

Commercial roofing contractors know that the process of laying bituminous membrane takes quite a bit of time. Considering how much time is spent having to hand weld a membrane to a roof would make any contractor wonder: Is there a machine that can speed up this process? In a recent podcast with Jim Hanson, business development manager for SOPREMA, tells us that there is! 

In this podcast, Jim discusses their MINI-MACADEN machine, which is designed to help contractors easily lay bituminous membranes. He tells us the machine first rolled out in 2006 after their owner wanted to make a machine that could mechanize the installation process of the base and cap sheets of a commercial roof.  

“The MINI-MACADEN basically takes the process of hand torching, which is a tedious process and a time-consuming process to hand weld or hand torch your base sheet or your cap sheet, and eliminates a number of steps,” Jim says. “What we're seeing with the MINI-MACADEN is a production level that's five rolls every 15 minutes to one roll hand torching.” 

Right now, you can rent the MINI-MACADEN through SOPREMA’s rental program. Jim tells us they launched this rental program as opposed to selling the machine as a way of making it more accessible to smaller contracting businesses. He recommends you contact SOPREMA to get the rental process started. 

“On top of the productivity, the other benefits to the MINI-MACADEN is we're not using open flame. It's hot air,” he says. “It's not only hot air welding the field of that membrane, but also the side lap, and it creates the perfect lead out edges on both sides of the membrane. And again, you don't see this when you’re hand torching. You can't get this level of quality when you’re hand torching.”  

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about the MINI-MACADEN and how you can get set up for a test-drive.