Machinery manufacturers have reported encouraging sales and forward orders for moulder/planers in most sectors of the woodworking industry and in all sizes of business. There is even cautious talk of a year that so far has shown promise of a move away from the dark days of recession.
While potential customers each have their own clear reasons for investing, they all have one thing in common – value for money.
"The people who came on to our stand at Ligna said ‘I have a problem, what can you do for me?’," said Weinig UK’s managing director, Malcolm Cuthbertson. "Six, four or even two years ago they would have said ‘what have you got that’s new and can we have a look?’. We’ve had a fantastic start to the year in the UK and the signs are that 2013 will show significant improvement.
"The market is fairly polarised," he added. "It is good for us at the top end and the lower middle, but not much in the pure medium-sized businesses. For the smaller companies the economy is getting better, but they don’t have the confidence or ability to look at the longer term. They are busy, but they cannot take on someone else.
"At the bigger end, where they have the traditional flow of capable employees, they are busier this year and have the confidence and can afford to think longer term."
However, at Daltons Wadkin, which sells the Kuper range of moulders, the middle of the market is where they have seen most activity in an otherwise difficult market. Much of the business is with windows manufacturers, driven by new requirements and regulations in construction. Companies investing have been medium-sized enterprises looking to reduce labour. This has not been such a big issue at smaller firms because often they deploy people around the business anyway, said sales director Andy Walsh.
Time and labour costs
"The focus in the market is labour saving and the ability for fast set-up for short runs," said Mr Walsh. "There is not so much long-run work around in general and it is more short batches and set-up with push button technology to remove the need for time-served machinery operators.
"The vogue is: simple to set up and change from section to section without a concentration on the tool room. Customers are also looking at lower cost and pre-owned machines, but the extra labour and set-up doesn’t give them the greater throughput than they have with their existing machines. If a company wants to or is forced to labour away at the lower end of the market, then that is an effective investment for them, but if they want to grow and succeed, then they have to look at labour saving, ease of operation and avoiding downtime."
SCM, which showed the Superset NT at Ligna, said smaller planer/moulders such as the Profiset 40 and 60 have been selling in small quantities, mostly to small joinery manufacturers who are upgrading existing machines or buying a moulder for the first time in addition to their other machines.
A recent installation was a Profiset 60 for SDRB Joinery, a Northamptonshire manufacturer of bespoke windows, doors, staircases, furniture and garden products. The Profiset 60 is designed as a sturdy machine with a new feed system using Cardan joints and gearboxes for high productivity and finish.
"Historically, fast setting-up between jobs is very important, with NC controllers now fitted to most machines for setting fences, heads and so on, even on smaller machines such as the Profiset," said SCM spokesperson Mike King. "Production runs are shorter so setting up very fast is important to provide quick deliveries and reduce stock of finished components. Customers can then deliver and get paid faster."
Leadermac UK managing director Kevin Wright said prospective customers were generally looking at the best-selling five spindle Smartmac and six spindle Compact Leadermac machines, although the company has also seen interest in its large-capacity 310x250mm six-spindle machine for a UK home-grown sawmill sector.
"The smaller companies who buy a Leadermac machine can equip it with the automatic tool-setting system at such a competitive price; all of the machines sold over the last 12 months have included this option," Mr Wright said.
In June, the company installed a Speedmac 631 at Wigan-based timber importer and sawmiller Prowood. Leadermac also installed a complete Leadermac production line for a national kitchen and joinery manufacturer producing MDF mouldings. The line included an automatic infeeding system and MDF pack destacking machine with automatic feeding into a Leadermac 1300mm-wide panel Multi ripsaw. The cut strips are then transferred and fed into a Leadermac 300mm-wide seven spindle Thundermac moulder running at a feed speed of 80m/min. All the toolings were also supplied by Leadermac with the cutterblocks being made in PCD (polycrystalline diamond) and all fitted on Hydro sleeves from ETP Transmission.
Weinig has recently installed a Powermat 500 at Sturrocks Joinery, the staircases, doors and windows manufacturer in Tayside. It was specified with six cutting heads – five of which were fitted with HSK tool holders. Spindle speeds are 8,000rpm and the machine has a PowerCom setting system for fast set-up.
New machines
But the company said its big draw at Ligna was the new version of the Cube, Weinig’s compact four-side planer/moulder. The £29,000 machine was shown with its new optional £10,000 mini OptiCut P stacker, which can stack fixed lengths into packages.
"Essentially this transforms the Cube into a one-man operation," said Mr Cuthbertson. "It is a four-sided planer and even I can work it in 15 minutes. We have sold it to one-man bands as well as to substantial businesses."
For Leadermac, its new uPower 623 was shown at Ligna fitted with the latest quicksetting features, including the HSK tool holders and touch screen Smartset control system linked to the tool-measuring equipment tool rooms and resharpening and grinding machinery. "It attracted a lot of interest," said Mr Wright.
For SCM, its new Superset NT has been well received since the show and generated several enquiries at the later SCM UK open day. The Superset NT has increased capacity and an improved CNC controller. The automatic throughfeed, also suitable for companies working various shifts, can produce prismatic profiles, frames, profiles and linear components for windows, doors, furniture, garden furniture, boat furniture, and is effective for small batches.
However, Francis Dalton, owner of Daltons Wadkin, said that traditional business remained tough and was moving more and more away from the smaller joiner where the pool of potential customers was smaller and competitive. Although public sector construction business was holding up and leading to new business, the company had been forced to diversify away from timber into areas such as aerospace and automotive.
"It’s something we have done because timber is quiet at the moment, but we certainly won’t be turning our back on joinery. In some ways a return to inflation would be good. When it costs to borrow, people buy now rather than later because the price is going up. Now it’s the other way around. It means a lot of work and a lot of waiting for an order."
Daltons Wadkin took up Kuper after the demise of traditional Wadkin moulders. Kuper is a hybrid machine, set apart from the cheaper Far East and cheap Italian end of the market, said Mr Walsh. "Kuper is not as well known as the Weinigs, but it does offer the German pedigree in that the chassis is from the Far East and the remainder is like Siemens controls. It’s been a good machine for us."
Other suppliers agree about non-northern European manufacture. At Leadermac business picked up with the onset of the recession. "People were looking at price and what else was out there," said Mr Wright. "We were able to show them our machines have the same components. We have 200 machines in the UK and Ireland and we are still getting a share of the market."
Mr Cuthbertson is squarely behind Weinig’s German engineering. "The others are imitations rather than copies," he said. "They are cheaper machines, which have an attraction, but you have to think about running, all day, all week, all year. We find a lot of people come back to us."
