Little more than 19 months ago REM, a designer and producer of CNC machining centres, moved into a factory at Mariano Comense, not far from Milan. Today it is producing a revolution in furniture production.
It is the sheer scale of change that is astonishing both its customers and competitors.
Far faster throughput speeds, faster positioning of machining heads, higher revolution tooling speeds, 10-tool positions as standard and a major step forward in independent drilling heads – these are some of the key advantages that REM is offering as a matter of course.
Offering a 40% increase in output along with commensurate improvements in flexibility, the machining centres have already provided REM – represented in the UK by RW Woodmachines – with rapid entry into a swiftly-increasing number of furniture manufacturers throughout Europe.
REM’s machining centres are a phenomenon but, in many ways, a predictable one. Heading the company is Luigi Reguzzi, formerly chief designer and partner for more than 20 years at Brema, producer of panel processing centres.
Mr Reguzzi was acknowledged as the driving force behind a successful range of CNC machining centres, notably for the concept of vertical panel processing and automatic panel referencing.
However, differences between Mr Reguzzi and his partner meant that the former departed to set up REM – and to see many of his design dreams come true.
In fact, the speed at which drawing board designs have become practical reality has astonished many other machinery manufacturers. As Chris Woodcock of RW Woodmachines remarks: ‘REM’s progress has been remarkable. It is the equivalent of 0-60 in a couple of seconds.’
For instance, throughput speeds, once hovering around 45-50m per minute, are now up to 96m per minute at REM. To achieve this it has raised the movement of machining heads to 40m per minute, previously a modest 8m per minute, raised spindle speeds close to 20,000rpm (13,000rpm) and increased the number of tooling positions on each revolver head from eight to ten. Changeover setting time from one panel to another is down to around 0.8 seconds.
Those are just some of the major changes. There are plenty of others. The one that caught the attention of visitors to REM’s Ligna stand was its new fully independent spindle system, previously the subject of much hush-hush development.
Each spindle has its own brushless motor of 0.3kW. The size of the sealed motor is slightly larger than a cigarette packet. It means that, once a customer’s drilling process has been determined, as many spindles as necessary can be positioned on a matrix carrier – and positioned in such a way that panels may be drilled in a minimum number of steps.
These have been reduced to no more than three or four to complete the whole drilling process. A throughput of six panels a minute can at last be realistically achieved. This means no further concern about drilling blocks being of a fixed configuration because one motor drives all spindles, these being connected by either gears or drive belts. The independent spindle system also eradicates the problem of any loss of power on some spindles. There’s no longer any need to strip down gear boxes and, because these are now sealed units, no possibility of oil or grease getting on to panels, or dust getting into the motor.
If the motor goes wrong a replacement can be simply attached.
The new REM machining centres means really high speed, precise and flexible panel processing, providing all the necessary boring (face and end), routing, grooving, dowelling and gluing and fittings insertion in a single pass on different panels supplied in any sequence. It is at its dramatic best when providing complete cabinet sets, ready for instant assembly as the required sets of panels roll swiftly off the line.
The UK – expected to be one of the best markets for REM equipment – will soon be reaping the benefit with the most advanced system yet produced. It has been custom built for an office furniture manufacturer and is due to come on stream at any moment.
Designed as a single line it will produce complete cabinet sets – tops, base panels, sides and shelving – at a rate of nearly one cabinet per minute. This is appreciably quicker than any other single-line system operating in the UK.
It is also a good deal more comprehensive and flexible. In this instance, it will provide automatic cam and dowel insertion as well as the introduction of conventional wood dowels on a throughfeed basis. It means real just-in-time operations, with a consequent saving in floor space, work in progress and investment.
The size of batch is no longer important. Producing a one-off cabinet is just as easy. As Luigi Reguzzi remarks: ‘There is no machine that can match the REM.’
This is one reason why, with its growing popularity among furniture companies, REM is more than doubling the size of its factory at the end of this year. Even before Ligna the company had more than 14 complete systems on order.
The reasons for this are self-evident. Take the example of a medium-sized Italian furniture company located not far from REM which supplies cabinet furniture worldwide, currently on three-week delivery. REM soon expects to introduce its own machining centres into this plant with the result that delivery times will be reduced to one week.
