Upping the pace

If evidence were needed that moulding machinery suppliers were enjoying a bounty year, a look at some of the recent installations of their machines across the UK would present a pretty clear picture.

First up is Cheshire Mouldings, which is currently putting the finishing touches to its new £750,000 factory.

With a £1m spend on state-of-the-art technology from Weinig, alongside a cutting edge WoodEye scanner, the company's investment is just one of a number of big spends among UK moulders.

W Howard, for example, is benefiting from the inclusion of a Powermat 1000 in its latest production line that is helping improve and evolve its range of MDF mouldings.

John Boddy Timber has also been investing in moulding machinery. It recently purchased a hi-tech moulding system from Weinig, including a Weinig Powermat 500 moulder with quick set-up PowerLock HSK tooling.

The Powermat 500 has six cutter heads and a touch screen PowerCom memory system that saves up to 10,000 profile and tool setting values.

Meanwhile, Duffield Timber has improved value-added machining capacity in the last six months by investing £250,000 in a new factory and buying moulding specialist, WLH Woodmachining – a move that the company hopes will give it an opportunity to grow its moulding business.

New technology

It's good news for machinery suppliers. But, far from resting on their laurels, moulding machinery manufacturers are stepping up the pace with new technology and machines that promise faster speeds, reliability and quality of finished products.

“Today's customers are looking for as much flexibility as possible,” said Kevin Wright, managing director of Leadermac UK, whose Taiwanese parent is the second largest moulder manufacturer in the world. “Customers want speed, flexibility and reliability: they want to be sure of the quality of the moulding that comes out of the back end of the machine. Because of the way Leadermac machines are built, they can offer the best surface quality finish that can be achieved on this type of machine.”

The company has just introduced two new machines into the Leadermac stable: the first is a small four-side planer, the first of its kind Leadermac has produced; with the second, it has extended its range at the top end, with the Super Thundermac, a 300m/min feed speed machine. The first of these was recently delivered to a customer in Switzerland – and weighed in at more than 50 tonnes!

Weinig has also been busy with new product development. At this year's Ligna, around 1,500 interested customers were given a sneak preview of its new machine concept, Multipower. The company describes the Multipower as an “added-value moulder”: it doesn't just process workpieces lengthways, but can also be used for end profiling. It's equipped with a pivoted table for end profiling, which is carried out using the left spindle. The workpieces are tensioned pneumatically and fed past the tool manually. The end slide can be tilted at an angle of up to 60°, so even mitre profiles do not pose any problems for the machine. The standard version is a four-spindle machine that can be fitted with a fifth spindle if required. Further options include equipping the machine with PowerLock. This patented tool system reduces set-up times and, says Weinig, makes the machine even more flexible.

“Compared with stand-alone machines, the added-value moulder offers a much higher level of utilisation while also taking up less space,” said a Weinig spokesperson. “It provides the perfect combination of optimum surface quality thanks to proven Weinig technology and multi-model use in small and medium enterprises.

Just-in-time production

“Particularly for just-in-time production, which SMEs are increasingly having to come to terms with, this level of flexibility is essential and simply cannot be achieved using stand-alone machines.” The machine is due for a full product launch later this year.

Other manufacturers are reporting strong activity. SCM, for example, says it is having an “excellent run” on planer moulder sales, with 11 machines (six Supersets, three Compacts and two Sintex) sold in the past two weeks, the majority being fully CNC operated and set up. “The majority of companies have a serious lack of skilled labour with no-one being trained,” said SCM managing director Mike King “until, of course, we sell a machine, install it and train the operatives.”

Machines have been sold to companies in general joinery production, stairs (260mm working width), windows, doors, as well as mouldings.

Howard Brothers of Battle, Sussex, recently installed an SCM Topset XL CNC moulder to run ultra short runs of "one-off" mouldings, sometimes with only one 2m length required. “The machine is simple to use and set up,” said Mr King. “Seven different operators use the SCM machine, which is supplied with pre-set 35 tool measuring device and a tool grinding centre and template maker.”

Meanwhile, AW Champion of Edenbridge, Kent, well known for supplying the industry with mouldings, has installed an SCM Superset Class moulder with a Control 20, and feedback has been positive. “They are very pleased with it,” added Mr King. New SCM technology includes the Compact 22 range of throughfeed planer moulders, while the company has added its HSK technology (tool chuck spindle technology that reduces downtime and improves the quality of finished products) and Mobile 10 electronic control unit (touch screen numerical control units able to control either power-driven axes or position bearing axes) on its full range of professional throughfeed moulders.

Other new machines on offer include the Wadkin IIDA MH Plus which the company claims “signals a new era in the design and manufacture of heavy-duty production moulders”. This machine effectively combines Japanese manufacturing with high quality Wadkin components, offering customers build quality and performance at a cost-effective price.

“We have been selling the Japanese-designed IIDA product for about five years, mainly in the medium to high-speed sector (60-80m/min),” explained Steve Foster, operations director at Wadkin, which supplies a wide range of moulding machinery including Ledinek, Robinson and its own brand machines.

Wadkin has worked alongside the Japanese machine designers at IIDA and has brought in donor parts. “We are using lower-cost South-east Asian components in the major parts of the machine, but all the critical quality components like spindles, feedworks, beds, jointers and eventual build quality is all done in the Wadkin factory in Leicester,” explained Mr Foster. “It's like buying the skeleton of the machine and adding in all the high-end parts.”

Maintenance

Service and maintenance are key to any machinery suppliers' package, and Wadkin is no exception, with a fleet of more than 30 engineers around the country. “Jointed moulding machines need good service back-up because it's a principal part of a mechanical handling line: it will be the product that adds value to the timber as it goes through,” said Mr Foster.

Mr Foster said there was a definite market for quick-change tooling systems that are available from some manufacturers. “But,” he said, “there are also companies that are running large volumes of similar product day in, day out and need a machine that can run, and run and run.

“While you might be sold this quick-change ability, you really need to look at your product and ask: ‘do I need this or do I need a heavy-duty robust machine that will produce my products 24/7’.”