MFI claims its Stockton-on-Tees factory is now the biggest kitchen and bedroom door manufacturing plant in Europe following a £1.5m investment.
Its laminate and uPVC door lines are each now turning out about 110,000 finished doors per week.
MFI production consultant Ian Wood said: “We have been building up the volume. It’s a reaction to customer demand. They are demanding more of the traditional uPVC pressed door and more of the laminate door and moving away from wood veneer.”
Before the latest round of investment in machinery, the plant’s output was about 80,000 laminated doors per week and about 70,000 uPVC.
At the end of last year a Cefla spraying line was installed, along with a Wemhöner semi-automatic glue and press line and Demag handling equipment.
The line uses Keighley-based Vacform Design’s 4mm thick natural rubber and 3mm silicone rubber pressing membranes, which allow heated gloss and matt uPVC fascias to be vacuum-pressed onto MDF door forms.
Mr Wood said using the membranes and carefully balancing process parameters has reduced press cycle times from four minutes to three minutes, helping to increase the volumes.
He said there were still some American factories producing larger volumes than Stockton.
