Old becomes new. That saying currently has two meanings for PDI. The first meaning is of course that the current year will soon be the old year and that the coming year will soon be the new one. "2018 was a busy year for us. I think that I speak on behalf of all greenhouse builders and installers when I say that nobody had to worry about whether this year's schedule would be full", says Jeroen de Jonge of PDI. "Whether 2019 will be the same busy year again, we will only know in exactly one year. At PDI we are certainly working hard to be busy next year as well."
The second meaning of the title refers to the PDI Slip-in system. In 2009, the first Slip-in system, similar to the current version, was applied in a new greenhouse in the Netherlands. This therefore refers to the system in which the familiar blue straps are woven ‘into’ the cloth.
This version with the straps in the cloth is in 2018 still fully active. "It could even be that 2019 will be the year of the 1,000th hectare to be fitted with the Slip-in system," Jeroen calculates.
But we are not there yet. Now it's about the Slip-in system. "That was invented, among other things, so that the cloth no longer needed to be fastened with little clamps – and then, after years, to be able to change the cloth in a simple manner. After 9 years it was now time to replace the cloth from 2009.
And that was quite exciting, Jeroen admits. "It is fair to say that we at PDI did not quite know how exactly this would go. After all, the canvas has been used in a greenhouse for many years with all kinds of external influences." But the idea from 2009 was totally correct. "On one side of the greenhouse we tied the old cloth to the new cloth and then started to roll up on the other side. And it all went as intended."
The pipe-rail trolleys only had to be used in the first and last path. In the evening the installation just could run again. "And the new cloths were immediately finished off along the sides so nothing could get stuck on it."
Jeroen explains that PDI's vision that cloths in the future no longer would need to be tied by hand, turned out to be correct. "Slip-in systems are becoming more and more common these days and are applied all over the world. Having been at the start of this working method is something that we at PDI are very proud of."
For more information:
Peter Dekker Installaties BV
Industriestraat 40
2671 CT Naaldwijk
Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)174-629444
Fax: +31 (0)174-626671
info@peterdekkerinstallaties.nl
www.peterdekkerinstallaties.nl