Specialist fire door manufacturer MDS Ltd has doubled its turnover since introducing a Masterwood Winner CNC machining centre.

The West Midlands business previously relied on a variety of traditional woodworking machinery to produce its bespoke non-standard size fire doors which are supplied in a range of finishes.

Mike Cole, managing director, said: “We urgently needed more manufacturing capacity because although we were winning orders we had increasing problems in getting the work out on time, due to the laborious methods we were using.”

Since buying the Winner 2.4S, which is purpose-designed for door machining, production has increased from around 100 doors a month to about 200-400.

An additional bonus is the time-saving of sizing door blanks on the machine instead of a panel saw. It now sizes a pack of 20 doors in 30min instead of the four hours previously.

After sizing, doors are lipped in hardwood on a RF machine before returning to the Winner for trimming and to have holes cut for vision panels, handles and locks, as well as routing hinge recesses.

&#8220We urgently needed more manufacturing capacity because although we were winning orders we had increasing problems in getting the work out on time, due to the laborious methods we were using.”

Mike King, MDS managing director

MDS says the machine’s versatility has enabled it to add to the vision panel style range, something previously considered too complicated and time-consuming using hand-routers.

The cutting of hinge reccesses has also led to the introduction of pre-hung doorsets. Previously, customers had to hang doors themselves.

The Winner, a cantilever type machine with brushless motors, incorporates three routers, one vertical and two horizontal.

Masterwood Winner machining centres cost from £40,000-70,000, depending on specification.