Sawmillers, foresters, merchants and joinery manufacturers from across Europe converged on the Parc des Expositions de Paris-Nord for Expobois 2002 to assess the latest in machinery and services for the industry.

The four-day event in March attracted 19,115 visitors, of which 1,314 were international. They saw a vast array of hardware from more than 400 exhibitors who represented about 20 countries and occupied 50,000m2 of display space.

All the big names in woodworking machinery were present, including SCM, Biesse and Homag.

The biennial event is organised by COMEXPO under the aegis of SYMAP, the French Manufacturing Technologies Association, and members of EUMABOIS – the European Federation of Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers.

Show sectors included tooling, primary processing machines and equipment, secondary processing machines and equipment for industrial joinery and furniture, plus equipment for frames, carpentry, parquets, furnishings and timber frame houses. European trade organisations, training and services were also represented.

Online version

Being heavily promoted at the show was www.expobois.com, an online version of the exhibition allowing international suppliers and purchasers to use interactive means to stay in touch all year round. Billed as an ‘information and trading platform’, the organisers stress it is not intended to replace the physical exhibition.

For companies who can’t attend, it allows them to keep in touch with developments and make contacts.

‘The internet gives Expobois a new dimension: a trade show on a human scale, which is extended by being permanently present worldwide,’ the organisers said.

UK representation was small but well presented: the Woodworking Machinery Suppliers Association (WMSA) filled one large stand with some of its members, Wadkin Ultracare, Talbott’s Heating Ltd and Stenner Ltd.

Some original tooling solutions were displayed and are designed to meet modern production demands for improvements in tool strength, machining quality, loss of material from sawing, assembly speed and reduced noise emissions.

The rapid development of machining centres is playing a significant part in tool technology and leading to general use of the hydraulic clamp coupling-tool design, which guarantees safety and accuracy of centreing.

Cutter heads with uneven pitch, said to improve machining quality and reduce noise were in evidence, while the fast assembly tool concept was extended at Expobois to types of machines that have until now been associated with traditional solutions. These are vertical spindle moulders, moulders and tenoners, which, like machining centres, use HSK couplings.

The development of the first cutter heads to optimise suction was also witnessed. For the first time, tool manufacturers are incorporating the parameter of dust and wood shaving extraction into tool research and are designing a new geometry generating dynamic suction kinematics, working in synergy with the forces deployed by the tool movements. Expobois visitors could also

see for the first time hydraulic chucks, giving guarantees of precision and safety needed for the latest generation of machine tools fitted with electro-spindles rotating at up to 40,000rpm.

Tool grinding equipment on show included CNC and robot-controlled systems combining sharpener and flank grinder.

Meanwhile, in the adhesives and coatings sector of the industry, environmental considerations are playing an increasingly important part. Expobois offered some proposals in this regard – plastic instead of traditional PVC coatings, advances in waterproof varnishes and lacquers, wet wax finishes and a dust finish. The introduction of heat-fusible polyolefin or polyurethane adhesives now makes edge bonding of veneered panels resistant to extreme temperatures and humidity.

Since most timber frame assembly equipment is too large to be exhibited, Expobois held a seminar to demonstrate state-of-the-art equipment currently available. It highlighted some of the differences between England and France in this important area.

Weinmann and Homag presented their timber frame technology, listing advantages in much the same terms as in England – fewer errors, quicker, and producing attractive products. Also, the technology enables modular development, custom designs for clients and the abi-lity to produce completely finished panels with windows and plastering.

A cautionary note about the state of timber frame construction in France, however, was sounded by a French timber trade journalist. He said that there is still a ‘peasant/artisan’ approach among builders in this sector and that you could wait as long as three years for a timber frame house to be built. It could also, he said, cost a lot of money. French consumers prepared to buy timber houses were only those passionate about wood. And the number of new timber framed homes that go up in France every year, said the journalist, is still very low. What is more they are built by a skills base of perhaps as few as 250 professionals. This is tiny compared to the UK’s rapidly expanding timber frame market, where there is a growing number of

production plants and a clear willingness to invest in the latest in computer-controlled equipment.

An Expobois survey reveals the largest French production unit manufactures fewer than 200 houses per year. The main handicap appears to be that few companies are equipped with up-to-date industrial production facilities.

Someone else asked at the seminar what the English attitude was to such technology. The simple answer given was that the British were more willing to embrace new ideas.

Cheap housing

On the MiTek stand, a director explained that the French timber frame housing industry has experienced similar problems as in the UK – in that many people see it as cheap housing and it has never really shrugged off this image. The conservative nature of the French housing industry was again cited as a barrier.

Expobois sources acknowledged that wood construction continues to play ‘a marginal role’ in France. But they felt recent investments hint at ‘industrial take-off’.

The show organisers said: ‘Timber frame construction in France is currently unable to respond to fast increasing demand and the door is being left open to imports on a massive scale. However, analysts estimate that this branch of activity has the potential to create thousands of jobs and substantial investment is vital’.

Virtual reality applications in forestry management is another area of development. A research project by Ecole Nationale d’Arts et Métiers aims to design and produce a didactic, user-friendly and open-ended tool largely using simulation to help European forestry companies forecast storm effects and reduce management errors.