Tour of Bruco: Monolithic's Fabric Architecture Manufacturing Plant

Today’s video takes you inside Bruco—our manufacturing plant where we build every Monolithic Dome Airform and other fabric architecture projects. We tackle projects for different industries, like biogas and compost covers, and every now and then, we take on some pretty unique builds just for fun.

When I made this video, we were working on a 43-foot Airform headed to Oklahoma. You’ll see our team welding the panels together, but the process construction of the Airform starts earlier—with precision cutting on our marking platform. The machine reads the pattern and lays out the panels—marking the seam widths and match lines before cutting—so everything lines up during assembly.

We use two high-frequency welders, each mounted on a 200-foot table. They’re made specifically for our Airform material and can operate at the same time on opposite ends, speeding up the process. Once welded, we cut a test sample and check the seam strength at our quality control station.

In addition to the RF welders and marking/cutting platform, we’ve got sewing machines, tackers, smaller specialty welders, and racks of material ready to go.

One of the more unique areas is the heat room—kept at 140°F. We use it to test how the material and seams hold up under heat and stress, especially since Airforms stretch during inflation. We want to be sure the seams stay solid. We test every batch of material before we use it.