Summary
• Weinig Group’s InTech show was held at the end of October.
• The show incorporates a large machinery operating exhibition area.
• The Variomat was heavily promoted.
• Weinig has 175,000 customers around the world.

The Weinig Group built its reputation on wood moulders, but over recent years it has moved well beyond a single type strategy and now encompasses some of the best-known brand names within the industry.

Dimter, GreCon, Raimann and Waco are all well known in their own right, but the synergy created by bringing them together with Weinig allows customers a chance to put together a total machining and handling package through one manufacturer. This is a huge growth area for Weinig, which is regularly supplying customers with a total turnkey package.

The acquisition trail has not ended and from October 24-26 its technology exhibition, InTech, heralded many new developments, including the purchase of LuxScan, a company that is in the forefront of scanning technology. The acquisition improves the Weinig package while allowing LuxScan a far higher market opportunity than if it continued on its own.

This strategy looks set to continue, even into areas such as the development of specialist raw materials, such as DendroLight, a lightweight timber panel. There has also been huge ongoing investment in IT and computer processing. MillVision is just one example of Weinig systems incorporating greater software capabilities to assist processors in productivity and material optimisation.

New machines were prevalent across the show, but a highlight was the Variomat machine, which is described as “…well suited to companies that want to start four-sided processing …it also makes end profiling possible”.

Rainer Hundsdorfer, chief executive of the Weinig Group, launched InTech 2007, making specific reference to the Variomat and its positioning at the lower segment of the trade market. “We have a good order book, despite the strength of the euro and will exceed a turnover of €400m for the first time. America is our largest market and its current downturn is being compensated by Europe, especially eastern Europe,” he said.

The company’s in-house exhibition further bolstered performance. “It was very successful with over 180 companies attending and more than 100 machines sold,” said Mr Hundsdorfer.

Overall, despite the strength of the euro currently amounting to a “40% disadvantage” to Weinig, with 18% more orders coming in this year and a 19% overall improvement, 2007 will have been the strongest year in the company’s history.

“And 2008 will be as good because of our innovations,” said Mr Hundsdorfer.

The key risks to the business, he maintained, are a further deterioration in exchange rates plus foreign, notably far eastern, competition, although the latter is offset by Weinig’s own manufacturing plant in Yantai, China.

Growth areas

Weinig concedes that the moulder market is relatively flat at present, but plant optimising, scanning and large plant systems are showing good growth. And the LuxScan acquisition sets further growth in place, in an area where wood processors know they need to focus: wastage and optimisation. Dimter cross-cuts, GreCon finger-jointers and LuxScan scanning all integrate to give users a highly efficient process.

The InTech show has been running since 1990 and incorporates large working exhibition areas for showcasing new machinery, allowing visitors an insight into the whole Weinig ethos. It is about as close as a company can get to throwing its doors open to customers on a ‘warts and all’ basis, watching people making the machines that they will end up using.

Chris Osborne, managing director of Weinig UK, confirmed how highly regarded the InTech show is. “It’s very close to the UK and has to be the biggest solid timber exhibition around. We have 15 Weinig UK people here as well.”

Andy Moxey looks after sales in the south-east of the UK and he reinforced Mr Osborne’s comments. “I’ve been coming to these for about 15 years. Weinig is always upgrading and striving to go forwards, so it’s worth coming back year after year. You can pick a subject and somebody will give you the answer!”

Existing and potential customers from the British Isles were in abundance and while many were “seasoned campaigners”, many were along for the first time. They encompassed large and small businesses, including joinery works, importers and merchants.

Mike Cammack is divisional director for Ridgeons Forest Products, which is installing over £2m of Weinig equipment, as it rebuilds its main machining site in Suffolk. “We’re replacing specialist moulding and high-speed resawing lines, together with packaging and shrink-wrapping, to eliminate bottlenecks,” Mr Cammack explained. “Our existing line, using Hydromat machines, is now 20 years old and the new technology, especially on tooling with the PowerLock cutter block system, will give us huge productivity improvements.”

Flexibility

With over 18 months planning and working on the project, Ridgeons is proud of what it has achieved. “Flexibility is crucial these days and we need to be responsive,” said Mr Cammack. “Batch runs are smaller and we’re offering our customers a just-in-time service. This investment gets us to where we need to be.”

Mike Allingham, from Rother Valley Timber, is another long-standing visitor. “It’s been an exceptional exhibition – a must for anyone in our business,” he said.

Andrew Toomey from Newco, a division of the London Borough of Newham, was interested in joinery machinery. “We’re developing a window for our own housing stock that we’ll produce using a mix of CNC and joinery profiling machinery,” he said. “Weinig’s Unicontrol and Conturex systems encompass all of these specialities. This show is excellent, because it allows me to see everything working.”

Meanwhile, in the main exhibition hall, the Variomat remained the star of the show. Variomat is Weinig’s answer for small workshops that want to get into moulding and end profiling. The Variomat will allow these companies, who probably have small workshop areas, to do it all on one machine.

Demonstrations

Ongoing hourly demonstrations showed the Variomat’s versatility and by using the PowerLock tooling system, setting times are amazingly quick. PowerLock works at the touch of a button, releasing the block in seconds. Around 60% of all new Weinig moulder heads are now fitted with PowerLock.

The Variomat can be adapted from a moulder into an end tenoning system in a matter of minutes, giving joinery works an incredibly flexible machine. The accuracy of jointing on small batch runs is also immediately improved, simply because the settings transfer from side profiles to ends, on the same machine.

Although the Variomat was given centre stage, there was enormous interest in all of the other machinery. Raimann is a name that’s synonymous with multi-ripping, but is also developing other sawing technology. Its FlexiRip system is based on a beam saw arrangement and has obvious potential for sheet material cutting.

Opticut automated and pre-programmed optimisation cross-cutting systems were heavily promoted, along with the entire Powermat range of moulders. The toolroom areas were also extremely popular, with visiting machinists seeking advice on a variety of setting and grinding scenarios.

Peter Lohmeyer, Weinig marketing director, seemed to sum the show up with his words on the Variomat. “We have 175,000 customers around the world and there’s a big potential for the Variomat, which gives real advantages for craftsmen, especially in the replacement window market, or for historical joinery. Small businesses think carefully before buying machines, which could mean the difference between going on holiday, or not!”

Judging by the reception for the whole family of machines at InTech, Weinig should be looking forward to plenty of orders in 2008 – whether that gives them any time for a holiday is another matter!