A £1.75m investment has transformed the mouldings operation at Timbmet Ltd’s Rochdale site.
The past three years have seen the components factory refurbished, two Weinig moulders purchased and a finishing line installed, leading to a 25% increase in production.
Other introductions have included two Ogam multi-rip saws, five cross-cuts saws and a Reichenbacher Vision multi-tool change CNC router speeding up jointing production.
The investment has allowed the company to move into the hardwood conservatory roof market, a technically challenging operation which requires precise engineered components but is now made possible by the new machinery.
Double-ended tenoning is speeding up jointing production, reducing costs on long runs and end-matching tongue and groove boards.
CNC routing is giving the company the opportunity to bore, drill out and provide cutting operations including door modification and decorative fretwork.
Door lipping means the company can offer a complete door/door blank modification service including resizing, lipping, aperture cutting/glazing and fully assembled and finished pre-hung door sets.
The water-based, high-speed universal finishing line provides lacquer finishing, base coating and priming. Its drying system eliminates double handling and time lost waiting for individual coats to dry.
Moulded components can therefore be machined and finished under the same roof before being wrapped for delivery, ready for use.
Mark Fleming, Timbmet Rochdale sales director, said the strong sales of machined products had a lot to do with enabling customers to keep costs down.
He said: “The cost to our customers of having to invest in new tooling and moulders is prohibitive, especially with regard to dust limitation. By using Timbmet’s machinery, customers can save the outlay required for equipment.”
