A significant investment in veneer pressing and edgebanding machinery has been made by leading UK door and doorset supplier Midland Building Products to improve production of non-standard veneered doors.

The £20m-turnover group, whose companies include UK Doorsets, Millennium Door Systems, Specialist Joinery Products, Southern Doors and Cubicles, Manchester Doors and Cubicles, Joinery Specialists Ltd and Leeds Doors and Cubicles, invested in a Sergiani GSA throughfeed veneer pressing line and a SCM S30000-MX edgebander to apply solid wood lippings to the cores of doors.

The machines, supplied by SCM, have been installed at Millennium Door Systems’ (MDS) Great Bridge factory in Birmingham, which supplies all of the group companies.

MDS production director Jim Manning said the new technology meant the company could now manufacture one-off specials or complete runs of hundreds of doors.

The 3000x1300mm, 120-ton capacity Sergiani has Mylar foils covering the top and bottom oil-heated platens, with door cores and veneers assembled on an infeed conveyor while doors are being pressed. Pressed doors are ejected onto an outfeed table, with new batches automatically fed back in, “significantly increasing the capacity of the press”, according to Mr Manning.

The Sergiani is typically pressing oak, beech, cherry, maple, walnut and ash veneer.

MDS wanted a new single-sided edgebander to apply hardwood lippings to all four sides of premium doors. Normally, it lips the two long edges as standard.

The SCM S3000-MX was specified with uprated motors on the end-trimming unit and a heating lamp to heat the door core before lipping, ensuring good adhesion.

A top and bottom edge trimming unit follows the end trimming unit, followed by a tiltable trimming unit.

Electronic positioning of the top pressure beam saw is included to enable all units to move automatically up and down, which helps if door thicknesses are regularly changed.

Two spindle moulders were also specified so MDS could switch from one unit to the other instantaneously, depending on the type of grooving required on the lippings of the doors.