The all-round capabilities of highly automated CNC machining centres may have garnered the headlines in the world of wood processing recently while, by comparison, the planer moulder has been seen perhaps as a mature technology.
However, manufacturers patently don’t see the moulder market being subverted by machining centres. In key respects, the technologies remain complementary. In addition, maybe with less fanfare, the capabilities of moulders themselves, and particularly their software systems, have been making strides. Moreover, the advances are not reserved for top end powerhouses. Technology once the exclusive preserve of the bigger machines has found its way down to entry level models – or in the words of one supplier, buyers today get “a lot more moulder bangs for their buck”. At the same time, the bigger machines have increasingly combined huge productivity with flexibility and advanced control, capable of switching seamlessly from long runs, to small batches and one-offs, and back again.
“Continued development and increasing sales of CNC machining centres doesn’t shift the moulder market but merely realign it,” said Weinig UK managing director Malcolm Cuthbertson. “All solid timber that goes on a CNC centre has to be prepared and planed all round. That’s the function of our Cube Plus planer, for instance, which could be seen as the unique preparation machine for every CNC router in the solid wood sector. The realignment is therefore more planers relative to moulders, with incorporation of CNC technology in Weinig moulders now tried and tested, for example, to generate either totally random patterns or structured repeating patterns. ”
Gabriele de Col, managing director of SCM Group UK agreed, and said that advances in one area of wood processing drive developments in others. “Customers are increasingly attentive to technological aspects and expect to find innovations in machining centres implemented on other machines, especially as regards diagnostic and reporting systems,” he said.
The ultimate evidence that moulders continue to advance in line with market requirements is borne out by sales levels. While business may be largely on hold currently, manufacturers report solid performance through 2019, regardless of the UK’s political turmoil and economic jitters.
“Despite it being a challenging year, our sales volume exceeded 2018,” said Mr Cuthbertson. “A key driver was customers’ pursuit of better and better quality production. And demand was strong across the board. In unit numbers the small to medium sized sector won out, but by value the high speed sector came through. ” SCM also reports a “very positive year”.
“Many negotiations resulted in orders,” said Mr de Col. “Most models sold have tended to be in the mid-range, but there was also a significant increase in higher-end, technology-rich models. We also sold several seven- to eight-head, top-end models in the UK. ”
New technical advances have also driven sales, he added.
“Customers may have had old machines still doing their job well, but these have very little technology and are difficult for younger operators to manage. They prefer more technological and PC-equipped machines. ” Recent developments from Weinig include relaunches of the Powermats 700 and 1500, designed to bring the “design quality of the flagship Powermat 3000 within reach of all businesses”.
The 700 is, in fact, aimed at SME joinery shops, with its standard 7,000rpm spindle speed, says Weinig, spelling greater linear production without sacrificing surface quality. “Compared to conventional moulders, the production increase is up to 15%,” it maintains, adding that there is also an option of 8,000rpm spindle speed.
The Powermat 1500 offers another step up. “It’s the ideal machine for the custom and hardwood moulding markets,” said Mr Cuthbertson.
The machine has a standard spindle speed of 7,000rpm, with 8,000rpm and 12,000rpm options and, like the 700, features Comfort Set ‘wrench-free adjustment’ for pressure and guiding elements, plus PowerLock tooling, a quick-change technology now 20 years old, but maintains Mr Cuthbertson, still “never matched”.
Weinig says it’s still winning over firsttime users among SMEs to moulders and has just developed a brand new model in two variants for the sector. It was due to be launched at Holz-Handwerk in Nuremberg in March, but with the show postponed until June, its unveiling has been put on hold. “But I can reveal it has an outstanding price/ performance ratio,” said Mr Cuthbertson.
“Quality like this has not been seen in a moulder costing less than £30,000. ”
Developments at SCM have been particularly geared to increased automation; moulders equipped with loading and unloading benches and return systems to reduce operator requirements and drive cost effectiveness.
“Machines also feature electronic axes, shafts with HSK connection and electronic controls with an advanced human-machine interface (HMI) to cut unproductive time,” said Mr de Col. “Development has also been directed at simplifying set-up and operation. Moulders must increasingly guide operators and alert them to operations required, helping develop their feel for the machine. We’re also moving towards automation of processes, with bar code readers, label printers and capacity to generate detailed reports on production and machine diagnostics, so users have more information and precise control of the production cycle. ”
Currently SCM is also working on developments to its mid-range Superset NT, mainly with a view to improving operating ergonomics, with both updated mechanical aspects and HMI.
As critical as the hardware to moulder performance today – and as key a customer attraction – is the software system driving the machine. This area too is seeing accelerating innovation.
The latest from Weinig is its WMC machine control system, which harmonises HMI across all group technology, from cross-cuts and multi-rips, to moulders.
“It’s class leading Industry 4. 0 technology, but highly intuitive and easy-to-use,” said Mr Cuthbertson. “It means that integrated production lines are exactly that. ”
Introduced at Ligna 2019 and launched on the market this year, WMC is available as standard on all new Weinig machines, but can also interface with the company’s PowerCom system on previous models.
SCM has focused particularly on control systems’ capacity to report.
“Customers need to understand how much their products cost them and how operator interacts with machine; metres worked according to programme executed, state of tool wear, how a particular shift was carried out and how much time the machine was available to work and how much left idle,” said Mr de Col. “The aim is to be able to define how to increase capacity and operator skills and reduce unproductive times. ” Alex Dalton of DaltonsWadkin highlights the development of the K2 control system for planer moulders from Kuper, for which the company is sole UK and Ireland agent.
“As with most of our machinery these days the focus is on time saving, skill reducing technology,” he said. “The K2 control system has been developed by Kuper to make moulder set up as easy and efficient as possible. The intuitive touch screen graphical interface is available in three levels of increasingly intelligent control; Basic, Professional and Advanced. ”
Pressure beam setting and individual heads with powered axial movement, he added, can be set from the K2 control panel and the position stored to recall repeat work. An additional 3. 5in screen is also mounted adjacent to each powered spindle for the operator to quickly refer to when first setting up a job.
Additionally with K2, tooling and the corresponding profile can be photographed and stored in a library for easy selection.
The status of each individual head and feed speeds, along with any machine faults, are graphically displayed for quick monitoring and diagnosis.
There have also been developments from moulder suppliers in machine support.
This month Weinig is opening a restructured webshop for tooling and other machine consumables at www. weinig. co. uk, promising better prices than calling direct.
SCM says it has embedded the experience of its service engineers into HMI to help users to get machines running again in the event of breakdown.
Through the current lockdown period, moulder suppliers say they will continue to provide machine advice and remote diagnostic support.
Looking beyond this, they are upbeat about the outlook. Companies promise machine users any help needed to get back on stream and, down the line, further improvements in moulder price/performance ratio and more technical developments.
SCM is planning to update its entire range of higher-end moulders, to “cater to customers with even more complex needs”.
“We’re also working on advances in ergonomics and technology to increase performance of our universal machines, which by their nature are particularly difficult to set,” said Mr de Col.
Among the next “big things” Weinig predicts to be taken up in the UK market is the 3D moulding package for its Powermat 3000. Already in use on the Continent, this enables machine heads to move independently up and down and side to side as timber passes through, giving it the ability to creatively texture and produce repeat patterns the length of the moulding. It’s seen as particularly applicable to companies servicing the architectural and design sectors. It sounds like the kind of development that will further underpin the moulders’ position in the wood processing marketplace.
