Flat-pack furniture manufacturer Crosby Kitchens has grown its capacity by 30% since introducing two Holzma beam saws to its Sheffield factory.

The £5m turnover company says the HPL11 saws, supplied by Homag UK, have also led to a 35% rise in sales, as well as providing a smaller footprint in the 60,000ft2 factory compared to the old sawing system.

The two Holzmas, which cost about £160,000, run on regular 12 or 13 hour shifts, frequently extending to 24 hours.

Jim Clark, Crosby’s production director, said: “Every production operation downstream of the saws depends on the accuracy and quality that we get from the Holzmas. We needed enormous cutting capacity and by working with Simon Brooks (of Homag UK) we were able to create a single saw centre with the configuration of the central feed and lift.”

&#8220Every production operation downstream of the saws depends on the accuracy and quality that we get from the Holzmas”

Jim Clark, Crosby production director

Saw cycle speeds are boosted by a saw carriage speed of 130m/min and program fence speeds of 80m/min. Saw blade projection is 125mm to receive large book heights, while the clamps, special side pressure devices and alignment fences are designed to ensure the books of panels remain true.

Both machines can receive cutting patterns from the offline Magicut optimisation software and are controlled by individual CadMatic controllers.

Crosby’s production is divided into two sections – 60% is its own range featuring 17 designs and the rest is customer branded products ranging from five unit orders up to 500.