The company has installed a Powermat 500 with a PowerCom quick setting system and a state-of-the-art toolroom with Rondamat 960 profile grinder, HSK PowerLock tooling and an OptiControl tool setting system.
Mill manager Gavin Butterworth said the ability to prepare tooling in advance, ready to install on the moulder and record the settings, transfer the data to the control system and store for recall had quickly paid dividends.
He said: “We were not so much buying a machine, but a process. The bulk of the work is now done in the toolroon, so the set up is very simple and the finish very accurate. We have studied the jobs so far and we have achieved 33-36% increase on our production runs and that can only get better as we use it more and begin to fill up the database.”
Company secretary Jeanette Corner said: “The Weinig package gave us confidence in our investment as the way forward and gives us twice the throughput of conventional moulders.”
Mike England Timber was formed in 1969 in a partnership between the former Blackburn Rovers, Spurs and international footballer, and his next door neighbour and salesman John Hardman. It employs 21 people in the mill.
The new moulder replaces one of two older Weinig machines and the long-term plan is hopefully for a further replacement to run the latest technology, Mr Butterworth said.
