You have to hand it to Masterwood, it certainly has the courage of its convictions. One of the Italian machining centre specialist’s claims for its technology is that it is straightforward to operate. It doesn’t actually say it’s child’s play, but that is the gist. To prove the point the company went one better than showing children how to use one of its joinery design software systems – it gathered a group of UK trade journalists in the training suite at its Rimini factory. What is more, it did so after lunch.
But the product did seem to pass this ultimate test. Admittedly, the company wisely did not cut loose and let the assembled hacks design a product with its MasterTraditionalDoor software and feed the result into a CNC machine to make it. But everyone grasped the essentials of the system, which Masterwood says cuts the time it takes to design a door and work up cutting instructions and costings from hours to minutes.
With this and other established products, plus the new MasterWindow package unveiled at Xylexpo, Masterwood (UK) Ltd managing director Russell Corlett says the company now has systems to meet 90% of the joinery sector’s design software needs, covering doors, doorsets, stairs and windows.
And all these and the control software for Masterwood’s machining centres are produced by its subsidiary, Teknos which, it says, spells even greater “user-friendliness” for operators.
“It means the software and the machinery are tailor-made for one another and that, if there’s ever a problem, the operator won’t have the machine maker and software supplier passing the buck backwards and forwards.”
Software progress
A quick tour of the Masterwood factory – or rather its four factories in one street – highlighted that the development of its CNC machines themselves has more than kept pace with software advances. Similarly, the aim behind the evolution of the equipment is to make the lives of timber or panel processors easier.
“Our machines can help turn a business around,” said Mr Corlett. “One Midlands stair maker using conventional equipment was turning over £1.2m, but only making £50,000 profit because it was paying about £165,000 in overtime. Replacing several machines with one of our machining centres, they cut that by £125,000. They were also able to reduce their workforce. The bottom line is that they’re now making £300,000 a year.”
Another Surrey-based joinery firm, Mr Corlett said, had been considering closing down its loss-making stair operation which couldn’t compete with rivals in the north of England paying lower wages. “But they installed one of our Teknomats and are now building a new plant three times the size of the old one,” he said. “They’re also buying a second Teknomat.”
Perhaps Masterwood’s key recent machine development is the variant of its Atlas machining centre (the Atlas K) adapted for window production. This combines all the functions of a standard window production line; cutting timber to length, tenoning, linear profiling, cutting out glass beads and glazing bars and storm proofing. Controlled by MasterWork software, it also cuts slots for air vents, key, holes for handles and locks and undertakes other milling functions. At the business end it can be fitted with up to four 320mm diameter-tenoning tools and the router takes large diameter tools weighing up to 9kg.
Window demand
With the resurgence in the timber windows market, Mr Corlett reports that demand for the new Atlas is already keen, particularly in the UK where it is selling to small to medium as well as large producers. “Because of its flexibility it is suitable for a company making, say, 20 windows a day in three styles,” he said. “It is also ideal for complex bespoke designs, including curved and arched windows.”
Besides working on new machines, Masterwood is constantly updating and adapting existing products. Recent advances include a new automatic positioning system for the workpiece supports and clamps or vacuum cups on the machine bed. Another development has been the production of more machining centres with 5.2m working beds, as opposed to 3.2m. This enables operators to load up larger numbers of work-pieces while the machine processes others.
These and other developments to drive up timber processors’ productivity and performance, combined with general improvement in the international business climate, are expected to make 2004 a healthy year for Masterwood, particularly in the UK which is now the company’s biggest market outside Italy, hence the launch last year of its Helensburgh training centre. The latter teaches customers from around the country how to operate machines and software systems. The ‘students’ cover the gamut in terms of technical aptitude, but Masterwood is confident of getting anyone rapidly up to speed on its technology – as it demonstrated with a group of post-prandial journalists.
