There’s an undisguised air of satisfaction about Mike Arksey when he talks about his most recent investment – the latest Selco WNTR beam saw to be installed in the UK.

With a cutting speed of 150m/min and an integral turntable that automatically rotates panels between headcutting and ripcutting operations, ‘it’s an exciting piece of kit and leaves visiting customers very impressed,’ he says. More to the point, it has enabled his company, Matchboard International Ltd, to expand into a new market with a sizeable order which could not have been handled before.

Matchboard specialises in machining MDF to a high quality finish. Operating from 12,000ft² of production space in Littlehampton and with nine employees, the company supplies all the major DIY com-panies as well as leading builders and timber merchants. In addition to bespoke work it manufactures a variety of branded items – including DecoScreen fretworked decorative screens; RadPlus self-assembly radiator cabinets; PanelPlus integrated wall panelling system – including dado rail, skirting and interlocking panels; and Professional Matchboard moisture resistant panelling for use in bathrooms and kitchens as wall panelling, bath panels and cabinet doors.

The WNTR is a significant step up from the company’s previous saw and, as well as increasing capacity for existing products, it has allowed Matchboard to extend its services into a new area: moulded MDF dado rails for the ‘budget’ end of the market.

‘We’re making it for one of the major DIY sheds,’ says Mr Arksey. ‘They are testing demand with an initial quantity of 12,000 and a further 36,000 in January. If all goes well we will be looking at 150,000 a year.

‘This is the first time Matchboard has manufactured “value line” products for the mass market. We could not do it without the speed and accuracy of the WNTR.’

The dado rails are produced by profiling 2100x178mm or 2100x89mm boards of 12mm thick MDF through a CNC moulder and then splitting the boards into 42mm wide dado rails on the beam saw. Mr Arksey says this could not have been done economically – and possibly not at all – on his old saw.

‘We knew we had to replace our saw and so I visited Woodmex 2000 to see what was available. I was impressed with the design and performance of the Selco – and by the knowledge of Biesse UK’s staff. They were able to answer all my questions – which wasn’t the case with some of the other beam saw manufacturers. We then went on a Tech Tour organised by Biesse UK, to see Biesse’s state-of-the-art production facilities at first hand – we liked what we saw and placed our order as soon as we returned.

‘The installation went like clockwork and the training was excellent. Biesse UK’s engineers are helpful and thorough, taking the time to ensure operators understand what they have been taught.’

Unlike a conventional lift-table machine, the WNTR can perform headcuts and ripcuts in a single operation, without the machine operator having to turn the panels by hand. The WNTR’s integral turntable can rotate boards through 90O for headcutting, and then rotate them back for trimming and ripcutting. The cutting sequence can be monitored on the WNTR’s PC control, in 3D and in real time.

‘In addition to improving our productivity, the extra capacity means I can now offer a 48-hour contract cutting service on all types of sheet materials, including plastics, to companies within a 100-mile radius of our factory,’ says Mr Arksey, ‘and with Selco’s optimisation package, Optiplanning, waste is reduced to a minimum. I can calculate the exact cutting time for any job, I know the cost of each single panel and my stock is automatically updated. The WNTR is proving to be a value-for-money solution for our future growth.’