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Weinig machines help maximise yield, profit

Given the widespread use of timber products in the luxury end of the market, furniture hospitality and woodworking specialists are under increasing pressure to boost productivity and optimise the usage of the material. German wood processing equipment manufacturer Weinig provides the solutions to maximise yield and profit.

01 November 2006

Optimisation of timber is a vital necessity to maximise yield and profit, not least because of the high and steadily increasing price of timber which is up by 20 per cent today, a situation which is unlikely to get better for manufacturers in future.

Hardwoods are expensive and the low-cost softwood timbers are full of defects which make them unacceptable, unless fingerjointed for most applications – bearing in mind that it’s quality that sells today.
Growing environmental concerns and the changing pattern of timber usage are also increasing the need for optimisation in timber processing. Minimising waste is the key to solving the problem and the technology available to achieve this, also provides many other benefits such as improving quality and value and the ability to grade timber, which offers a wider choice to customers.

Width optimising
Raimann, part of the Weinig Group since 2001, has been specialising in ripsaw manufacture since it was first established in 1863. Since they became a Weinig subsidiary, the company has focused in two key products: the ProfiRip series of gang ripsaws and optimising ripsaw and FlexiRip saws for ripping, crosscutting and angle cutting for optimum yield and increased productivity. Both saws have an increasing number of installations worldwide, making a big impact in the hardwood industry in particular, where machines have made dramatic increases in yield and efficiency – up to 40 per cent in many cases.
The FlexiRip is a versatile sawing centre that is suitable for universal cutting of solid timber as well as panel products. It has been installed in furniture companies, sawmills and shopfitting companies, particularly for processing hardwoods, in the UK.
The ProfiRip series of optimising, quick set-up ripsaws give high productivity and yield. They are user-friendly with minimum change over times and offer a fast return on investment. It features moving blade technology – the ideal arbour for each and every board – as the user can adjust the saw arbour easily and quickly to the best position the incoming board. With up to six movable blades, there is maximum material utilisation and defects such as knots and splits can easily be isolated. The cutting finish is so good that it can go directly to be glued, which means fewer rejects, less processing, faster production, better yield and more profit.

Crosscutting
Dimter, which specialises in CNC optimising crosscutting and defecting saws and laminating presses, is the largest producer of CNC crosscut saws in the world, producing 450 saws per year, from stand-alone crosscut saws to highly complex production lines.
The Dimter CNC saws are ideal machines for JIT production and are much safer for the operator, with the ability to cut single and multiple pieces of timber. The latest, and fast becoming the most popular of Dimter CNC OptiCut cross-cut saws, is the S 90 which has a closed pusher system and is maintenance free. The saw cuts, optimises and defects to the user’s pre-set programme with minimum waste and maximum yield.
Dimter saws, available in the most versatile range of models, offer many benefits such as reducing waste, increasing yield, speeding up production for JIT delivery, increasing value by defecting and improving production flow. Even the smallest model in the range, the S 50 push feed saw, replaces up to three manual crosscuts – saving on space, personnel, electricity, dust extraction, saw blades and maintenance.
Mill Vision software can also be fitted, providing a perfect Dimter crosscutting solution for manufacturers of kitchens, conservatories, staircases, joinery and furniture. Saws with Mill Vision software allow users to take product data from different work orders – new and existing – to produce one combined cutting list to optimise timber yield. It also allows larger labels to be printed with more useful information for each cut piece, for example bar code, size, customer name and much more, for quick recognition at assembly. It is now being used with substantial success, achieving greater production flexibility.
In addition, Dimter offer a high-speed, high-performance series of optimising crosscut saws, for special applications, including the OptiCut 350 (Universal), 450 Quantum (the fastest saw in the world) and OptiCut 350 XL (for extra large cross-sections), along with made-to-measure peripheral equipment to complement a production line that includes automatic sorting and scanning.

Fingerjointing
There is a growing trend to buy timber at lower prices – which means using timber with more defects.
Lower grade timber can be purchased and defect cut by Dimter saws, and fingerjointed using Grecon equipment to produce longer, high-quality, defect-free material. Choosing the appropriate solution to add the highest value, pay-back and profit to suit individual manufacturer’s requirements, can be arrived at and quantified by discussion with Grecon, before purchase of the equipment with pay-back on investment often within just six months to a year.
The benefits of optimising crosscut saws are relatively well known what is not so well understood are the advantages of fingerjointing – where profits are potentially even larger. Some manufacturers still think that fingerjointed timber must be structurally weaker, which is not true. Tests have proved that fingerjointed components are stronger, more durable and give a higher performance and if fingerjointed components are tested to breaking point, the fingerjoint itself is the last section to break.
Fingerjointed material can also be produced in longer and straighter lengths and is more stable than natural timber, and all these benefits put together provide a better quality and higher value product – allowing for a bigger profit margin.
The tooling for cutting finger profiles is now much more precise and Grecon supplies tooling made by specialist companies to extremely close tolerances, providing a perfect closed joint. When the material is planed all round, the joint is hardly detectable.
The glue manufacturers have also perfected adhesives to advanced levels. Even wet timbers can be fingerjointed now with the moisture in the timber activating the joint. Hence the increasing use of finger jointing for glulam beams for main building structures, laminated timber in window scantlings, panels and more recently, in decking.