Biesse came to this year’s show with 22 new products and a promise to reinvent 40% of its machinery range within the next 6-12 months.
It has also completed some large customer projects recently, including a second production line for the manufacture of lightweight panels at the Swedwood/IKEA joint venture.
The new Rover A CNC machining centre for solid wood and panels brings the world of five-axes technology into an entry-level machine. Typical end products include furniture, doors, windows and staircases.
One of these machines was sold to a UK customer by Wednesday, with Biesse UK marketing co-ordinator James Tuck telling TTJ that the UK was switching on to CNC technology.
New for panel processing was the BreMa Eko 902 drilling, routing and dowel insertion machine aimed at smaller companies with a tighter budget.
At the top end of joinery production was the by now familiar UniWin, a “factory in one machine” for the production of all standard and specialised door and window products. The first UK machine has been sold to Warwickshire-based Meer End Joinery.
One interesting story on the stand was of a Continental European customer who told Biesse what he needed out of a machine. When Biesse told him they had such a machine, he refused to see it until after he purchased it and had it installed, in case he was influenced by its design. A case of wanting a product to do a job rather than wanting to like how it looked.
Packaging machines were a new addition for Biesse. A Comil branded hybrid door packaging machine for doors and windows was shown. The concept will be rolled out in the UK first.
