Within the woodworking industry, and particularly in the highly specialised kitchen and bedroom cabinet doors sector, it is becoming clear that what Willie-George Orr does today, others will inevitably decide to do tomorrow. He has built a reputation as the man to watch when it comes to spotting, and usually adapting, the best technology to suit his needs and this has led to CNC Components, the company he runs with his brother Hugh, becoming one of the leading firms in the market.

CNC Components was the first to introduce VarioPin membrane pressing a couple of years ago. Working closely with the German manufacturer Wemhöner to develop the technology, it installed the first ‘merry-go-round’ pressing system using three tables to speed workflow, and has also led the way more recently with the installation of a Routech Protos multiple-door machining centre, customised to Willie-George Orr’s own specification.

CNC Components’ latest £300,000 investment in plant and building premises provides the company with two overriding benefits. First, output is increased by 10% to approximately 30,000 doors a week. Secondly, since the application of adhesive is smoother, and blemish-free surfaces are attainable, it takes the company into a new area of high gloss vinyl surfaces. According to director Hugh Orr, this is a sector of the UK market that has been consistently dominated by Italian competitors.

‘The combination of blemish-free MDF, super-smooth adhesive, and special Japanese foils has given the Italians a distinct advantage in this field,’ he said. ‘From today, it’s a market in which we can now compete, head-on. We’re using the same Japanese foils too,’ he added.

Nine doors can be processed with adhesive and warmed in readiness for the membrane press in under two-and-a-half minutes – thereby contributing to further savings. Prior to this, all adhesive application was by hand. The line was installed and commissioned during February this year and went into production in early March.

For the Italian manufacturer, Cefla, glue spraying marks a new direction. The company has long been a world leader in sprayed lacquer technology and the machine at CNC Components heralds a sideways diversification into throughfeed adhesive spraying.

The line breaks down into three main components: a Sorbini cleaning machine (Sorbini, being a member of the Cefla Group), a Cefla Spraybotic spray booth, and a Cefla warm air drying oven.

First, MDF workpieces are placed on the in-feed grid conveyor. Here, they are positioned roughly where they will remain throughout the process. They then enter the Sorbini brushing and cleaning machine, this cleansing being in addition to the cleaning they receive as they leave the routing zone. According to production director Willie-George Orr: ‘You can’t have too much cleaning if you want to deliver a product that matches – exceeds even – the best high gloss surfaces in the world.’

Clean machine

The Sorbini Serie 2000 ‘top and bottom’ brushing machine was designed specifically for cleaning raw kitchen cabinet doors and relieved panels and incorporates an anti-static bar, rotating compressed air blowers, and top and bottom dust extraction hoods. The in-line conveyors feature abrasion and solvent resistant synthetic belt conveyors; the ‘letterbox’ type allowing the panels to be automatically loaded in parallel configuration, should that be required.

Workpieces then pass through a clear Perspex dust-free zone into the sprayer. As they enter, they pass beneath a robot eye that identifies precisely the position of each item. Armed with this information the spray head, with its three guns – each with their own role – applies the adhesive, with at least four times as much being applied to board edges as it is to flat surfaces.

Once sprayed, the workpiece is conveyed out of the booth, again via a clear Perspex dust-free tunnel, to the air dryer. Here, the water-based adhesive is part-cured to a touch-dry condition and workpieces are stackable. In normal conditions, these workpieces are conveyed automatically onto the membrane presses while they remain warm.

Cefla’s Spraybotic was originally designed by the company for the efficient spraying of finishing lacquers, especially onto complex shaped workpieces, and its use at CNC Components represents an important departure for the company. While the spraying of any substance onto a panel employs essentially the same principles, it is the first time that such technology has been used to apply adhesive onto panels prior to membrane pressing.

The Spraybotic uses a heavy-duty frame construction and features fast, smooth movements in each axis. The conveying system has been designed to work with either disposable paper or the CFB self-cleaning conveyor belt, and the newly designed spray gun holders and the straightforward programming are just some of the features which give the Spraybotic its flexibility to achieve consistent high quality results.

The Spraybotic utilises the user-friendly Windows NT-based software which will already be familiar to most users and which allows the easy setting of working parameters. The control computer can execute the desired program on workpieces of any shape. The programming parameters can be set by the operator directly at the machine or can be downloaded from a remote office through a PC network. Each workpiece is accurately positioned thanks to a high precision 120 photo-diode reading system while the actual shape of the workpieces can be detected by the photo-diodes reading system itself or directly from a CAD file.

More guns

The top surface of workpieces can be sprayed in either robot and oscillating mode. The machine at CNC Components uses three spray guns but further guns can be deployed should they be required depending on the required application. The programmable, automatic spray gun cleaning system is highly efficient thus reducing down-time.

The extreme versatility of Spraybotic allows the user to switch easily the system from robot mode, when spraying pieces with complex shapes, over to oscillating mode when continuously spraying at a feed rate of 4-6m/min.

The conveying system, consisting of a CFB belt conveyor, is 1650mm wide and, by perfectly adhering to each workpiece during spraying, leaves the bottom face completely clean – an essential feature especially when spraying adhesives. The exceptional heavy duty frame construction allows fast and smooth movements between axes (150m/min) and vibration-free operation.

The air is exhausted from the spraying area through the four sides of the conveyor and this can be linked to any form of extraction or filtration system currently in use.

From its ‘cold start’ over 12 years ago as the UK’s first manufacturer of membrane pressed door and drawer components, CNC Components has consistently led the field, both in terms of technical investment and product design. Indeed, much of the equipment installed over the past five years has been the first of its kind in Europe.

Growth potential

Today, CNC’s output can be broken down roughly between 80% for the kitchen market, 15% for bedroom furniture manufacturers and 5% goes onto the bathroom sector. The company has identified the latter two as having the most growth potential. Growth is attainable in the bedroom sector through more involvement in free-standing furniture and home office furniture. For bathrooms it is developing a range of doors with thicker and heavier duty foils that enable components to be produced significantly cheaper than with laminates. Meanwhile, the com-pany’s ability to ‘take on the Italians’ in the high gloss market is a distinct advantage, and growth in the bathroom furniture market is confidently anticipated as a result.

CNC Components employs a staff of around 55, and it has planning permission granted for additional building alongside its existing premises.

‘Steady and sustained growth has been our philosophy throughout’ commented Hugh Orr. ‘So far, it hasn’t let us down.’