Gloucestershire-based sheet material merchant Severn Plywood Ltd has invested £200,000 in a new Holzma HPL-11 beam saw and dust extraction system to speed output.
The Holzma replaces the previous panel saw at the £3m-turnover company and is back-loading rather than the more conventional front-loading.
The loading arrangement and the faster cutting is reckoned to have increased the company’s output by more than 200%. Instead of the saw having to temporarily stop while sawn board is removed and board for machining is put in its place – as was the case with the panel saw – unsawn board can be fed in the back of the Holzma machine while sawn board is taken from the front. This enables two workers to keep the machine operating continuously.
Severn believes the investment will enable it to cut lead times to three or four days for kitchen, bedroom and furniture manufacturers who are increasingly outsourcing component cutting to the company.
Severn’s sales manager Paul Thatcher said: ‘We needed this Holzma just to keep up with demand. Our seven to 10-day lead time was unacceptable to a lot of our customers, but the purchase of this highly specialised saw will ensure we continue to offer the very best service.’
The saw has fully integrated Magicut optimisation and production software, generating efficient cutting patterns for sheet materials and identifying the most suitable board size.
The investment in the Holzma coincides with the opening of a new trade and retail sales area at Severn’s depot, which stocks more than 900 boards and complementary products. Total investment at the premises in recent months totals £400,000.
