A proven success product: A century of tire winders "made by SELVE

It started in the 1920s with a cast-iron casing that was handcrafted piece by piece. A century later, everything is different, not just in appearance. Just as SELVE's belt winders have grown into an ever larger, more diverse and increasingly optimized product group, their production has also changed. At the SELVE plant in Bad Arolsen, state-of-the-art technology is now used to manufacture strap winders. "SELVE is the largest manufacturer and market leader and has produced 4.4 million strap winders in 2021 alone," says product manager for roller shutter technology Udo Pingel. "Together with smart controls and innovative drives, they continue to form an essential cornerstone of the comprehensive SELVE range." 

Tire winders started small at SELVE. The first catalogs and old posters testify to the time when they did not have such technically sophisticated interiors as today, were made of different materials and sometimes had curious names. The Roller model is long gone, but the built-in belt winder Paro (Patentmäßiger Rollladenwickler, patented roller winder), in a similar form, is still part of the in the range. 

"Over the past hundred years, SELVE has played a leading role in the history of the belt winder," Pingel emphasizes. "Behind dozens of part numbers today lies by far the largest range of strap winders in the entire industry, with a wide variety of versions and variants." 

"Also in drives and controls, SELVE has a broad product range that is constantly supplemented by innovative new products," Pingel continued. "Not least through the production of belt winders, we have become increasingly connected to the roller shutter and awning industry since the 1920s. From the 1960s, we specialized in it completely. After initially trading in roller shutter motors, we have been developing and manufacturing them ourselves since the 1990s. Since then, the range has been consistently expanded and perfected. This also applies to controllers, for which SELVE has offered solutions for many years, and so our product range has now become very broad." 

Tire winders for every situation

In addition to the 0848 mini belt winder as the absolute top seller, standard products for new construction such as the 110100 and other models for surface-mounted and flush-mounted or semi-flush-mounted are part of the range. SELVE makes strap winders with a strap in different lengths, without a strap, cord winders and special designs. The latest addition is a new gear winder with a belt take-up of nine meters. Nearly 400 different winders are produced in Bad Arolsen (near Kassel), averaging about 18,000 per day. They are delivered to customers in Poland, France, Croatia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria, among others.

"For price reasons, belt winders remain in demand in certain construction sectors," notes Pingel. "This is why we have continuously invested in new machines in recent years in order to offer top quality at a competitive price. Despite the increasing motorization and automation of roller shutters, belt winders remain in demand and are expected to remain in the range for a long time to come. Through continuous adjustments of product and production, SELVE remains the standard in this product group." 

Automated production

The basis for the enormous production volume are lean production and state-of-the-art machinery. "No less than 80% of our belt winders are produced fully automatically," says Jürgen Weißenfeld, Plant Manager in Bad Arolsen, who played a key role in the implementation of lean production. "For lean, we reorganized the entire production hall and introduced a kanban control system for all production materials," he explains. "In addition, we invested in new assembly machines and a new storage system." 

With a dedicated team of 30 employees, Weißenfeld manufactures belt winders. The necessary plastic parts and housings are manufactured in Lüdenscheid, most of the metal parts in Bad Arolsen. The spring pot with the spring inside forms the heart of a tire winder. Depending on the variant, a winder consists of nine to twenty parts. The individual belt winder components are produced on five fully automatic and four other automatic machines in two shifts. Thus, production in Bad Arolsen is running at full speed in order to continue to meet the high demand for SELVE belt winders.