A realisation that recruiting and retaining skilled labour in Ireland was going to become increasingly difficult prompted the owner of Fitzsimons Kitchens at Trim to mechanise and automate his factory to the greatest possible extent.
Proprietor John Fitzsimons needed machinery that would work for him, giving him open-ended productivity, guaranteed consistent quality and a flexibility that would not restrict his wide ranging design aspirations.
He opted to make significant investments in machinery from Homag – especially as the company had established a subsidiary in Ireland offering logistical support and engineering skills.
Fitzsimons can now produce all the cabinets and associated components and accessories for individual kitchen designs – with only three operators if necessary. The investment has also given the company the capacity to supply a carcass manufacturing service – up to 105 carcasses a day – for the increasing number of kitchen suppliers looking to outsource.
Equipment centres around a Holzma HPL11 self-loading beam saw, set up to strip cut all the boards to width for downstream processing. This ensures the next process – a Homag double end tenoner directly linked to a Homag single-sided edgebander – is fed whenever required. It is intended to install a de-stacker on the edgebander in the near future.
Component panels are cross-cut on a vertical Homag Sawtech panel saw prior to moving to the Weekes BMP 150 CNC machining centre.
Final clamping is carried out by an optimum cycle Ligmatech carcase cramp.
