Xylexpo returned to form this year, with more visitors and a bigger exhibition area at the Rho fairgrounds in Milan.
This biennial show on May 24-28 is one of the world’s largest woodworking machinery expos and was celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
The full range of machinery was on display from sawmilling technology, to solid wood and panel processing machinery, to finishing equipment and biomass boilers, covering all the bases whether you are a sawmill, woodbased panels producer, wood packaging company, joinery manufacturer or furniture maker.
The exhibition trend of making aisles narrower certainly had the effect of making Xylexpo appear busier, but the numbers backed things up.
A 14.2% increase in visitor numbers to 17,145 was recorded, while the three halls at Rho hosted 441 exhibitors (122 from 29 foreign countries), over a total surface of 29,189m2 – 2,000m2 more than in 2014. Organisers said the results reaffirmed Xylexpo’s position among the most important exhibitions in the wood technology and wood-based materials industry. And what’s more it was a united show with the return of Italy’s largest woodworking machinery manufacturer SCM.
Years of internal wrangling in the Italian machinery sector had for a time threatened the show, but now the industry is once again united in its support of an international show in Milan.
International visitors totalled 5,068 – 29% percent of total attendance, (up by 9.3% from 2014). Some 12,437 Italian visitors were recorded, 16.3% more than in 2014 and comprising 70.9% percent of all visitors. “We are very satisfied with the results of the Milan exhibition”, said Dario Corbetta, exhibition director.
“We saw many people in the aisles of Xylexpo, plenty of exhibitors and visitors; we breathed a different air, a better atmosphere; there was a climate of participation and real interest. I want to stress the fact that everyone was at Xylexpo this year, ready to work together.”
Industry 4.0
One thing impossible to escape from is the surge towards the Industry 4.0 smart factory concept, which comprises advanced automation and data exchange – integration between machines and software providing real time information to the manufacturer.
We may be years away from fully realising this concept but several machine producers are claiming some measure of this in some of their larger production technologies linked to advanced handling equipment and access to live data on the network.
One of these highlighted was Homag’s new woodFlex system. The Battistella Company in Pieve di Soligo, Treviso has been the first in Italy to operate it.
The system controls and visualizes flexible production cells and their parts flow. Advantages cited by Homag include transparency in the entire system, in all cells and sections, enabling simple analysis and optimisation of the production sequence.
It says this leads to a significant increase in productivity thanks to optimal calculation of the minimum parts distance or faster elimination of malfunctions, as well as constant backup to allow faster troubleshooting. The continuous feedback means sales team can see how far orders have been processed and whether further workpieces need to be completed.
Biesse, which had more than 20 machines on display, said 30% of technologies purchased at its stand belong to the Industry 4.0 category.
It believes “smart factories” are within reach and even small and medium-sized businesses are interested in attaining this.
“4.0 Ready” technologies displayed include a totally integrated solution for flexible edging to systems for the intelligent management of space as WinStore K3 in 3D nesting cell with the work centre Rover A FT.
In addition, the Synchro, a manipulation device for controlled axes interlocked to the Rover work centre was demonstrated for economical small batch production and continuous working akin to the car manufacturing industry.
Meanwhile, SCM’s colossal 2,600m2 stand featured “easy and responsive” solutions for Industry 4.0 scenarios: integrated solutions and modular cell systems offering intelligent innovations with an ability to reconfigure production flows in order to meet consumers’ requests for a wider product variety and customisation. SCM characterised them as production systems that are agile, responsive, ready for changes and able to render “mass customization” competitive.
Sawing Technology
On the sawing front, Salvador, fronted by the irrepressible Christian Salvador, expanded its stand size by 100%, with the Superangle 600 taking pride of place, together with new Salvawood software. This machine combines rapid cutting of wooden elements at different angles and drilling of pieces with diameters between 6 and 16 mm.
The machine commands four axes overall, offering the possibility of working on two boards simultaneously, while a separate and independent cells chain loader, in addition to a buffer unloader, can work without operator intervention.
“We arrived at Xylexpo extremely confident, but we never imagined it would be such a positive experience and important for our company,” said Mr Salvador.
“We had a number of contacts at least twice the previous edition, and the strong feeling that many may turn into orders.” In addition, the company announced it would be establishing a new factory in Poland for the production of entry-level machines.
Italian sawmill machinery producer Primultini exhibited alongside the Bongioanni brand, which it acquired last year from the Pezzolato Group.
The company’s director Lorenzo Primultini, president of Xylexpo organiser Acimall, said the company had doubled its turnover in 2015 and had been buoyed by good UK business, including installations at Stuart Somerscales, Woodgate Sawmills and A&J King Timber.
The company is currently installing a new line at BSW Timber.
On display was an 18° tilted hydraulic log carriage CFL for hardwood processing, alongside a historical 1400/SHF headrig, a classical-style canter type WSF and other high-tech solutions.
Primultini has recently developed an automatic edging system, which utilises laser triangulation photocells to trace the exact profile of the board, to first create a virtual profile and then get the pre-programmed quantity of well-finished boards, thanks to an advanced optimising system that manages the automatic processing cycle.
Solid wood machining specialist Weinig Group presented solutions covering the entire value chain and has the proud record of attending every Xylexpo since the first show in 1968 – something which was recognised by the show organisers.
And it was happy with the show – reporting about 14% more professional visitors than the last fair – reassuring as Weinig has traditional close ties to the southern European markets.
Weinig had an integrated stand concept for solid wood and panel processing under the “Think Weinig” motto.
The Powermat planer/moulder range displayed included the 700 launched at Ligna last year, featuring a spindle speed of 7,000rpm, while the Powermat 1500 was the new machine on display, with a variable speed range of 4,000-12,000rpm. The 1500 has recently had its world premiere at the Holz Handwerk exhibition in Nuremberg.
This machine fills the gap between the 700 and the Powermat 2400 powerhouse and its big selling point is ease of operation through the ComfortSet concept, as well as modular build giving a large number of demandoriented system configurations such as numerous spindle arrangements.
Speed can be increased to 12,000rpm in combination with PowerLock, at feed speeds of up to 40m/min.
The next stage of evolution of the Cube planer – the Cube “Plus” was on display featuring a large touchscreen for better operation, underlining its claim as the world’s easiest planing machine to operate.
Noise emissions also reduced, while an automatic stacker at the outfeed enables profitable one-man operation.
Finishing equipment specialist Giardina Finishing, which together with sister company Mauri Macchine is predicting a €20m turnover, says the UK is currently one of its strongest markets thanks to big technology partnerships with big kitchen manufacturers Ultima and Wren Kitchens.
It has introduced UV drying because of increased demand for this technology, which reduces power consumption and extends lamp life.
It has also noticed a trend of increased pretreatment of joinery before finishing. For door coating, Mauri presented its RBP robot, a solution for just-in-time operations, equipped with new fully-automated loading and unloading system Giardina’s latest UK installation is for Hammonds Furniture, where it has supplied systems to streamline and improve finishing, providing a spray-coating line combining the Dualtech 501 spraying machine and a flexible drying system.
Machinery orders growth
Italy’s largest woodworking machinery producer SCM started 2016 with a double digit growth in orders and sales, following a 10% sales increase in 2015.
SCM UK managing director Gabriele de Col estimated that the current UK woodworking technology market was worth in the region of £120m annually and had almost recovered to the levels of pre-financial crisis.
SCM’s innovative videowall system was presented as “revolutionary” to display machines at the fair – effectively providing machine virtualisation. These huge screens shows visitors a virtual rendering of some of its technologies, using 3D animation, filmed at 6K high definition.
The machines are reproduced in their real-life dimensions with close-up detail. Using an iPad, the visitor can “enter” these machines and follow every close-up detail of the woodworking process.
“The new machine virtualisation system is the result of an extraordinary work and investment by SCM and which will allow industry operators to better appreciate the wide range of technological solutions the group is offering,” says Gian Luca Fariselli, the SCM group corporate communications director.
The Accord 50 FX, SCM’s new 5-axis machining centre with fixed worktable and mobile gantry, had its world show premiere.
This unit can perform routing and drilling of work pieces up to 500 mm in height. Its application sectors include panels, curved plywood, traditional elements in solid wood, design objects in wood, plastic, composites, resins and light alloys.
To meet the needs of new 5-axis applications, it was necessary for the tool to move freely around complex-shaped work pieces. The machining head is equipped with an electrospindle developing an output of 17 kW from 12,000rpm up to 24,000rpm.
New at Xylexpo for Homag was the Weeke Venture 115 5-axis machining centre for entry-level users, with new safety technology making the unit freely accessible from all sides.
This Venture 5-axis machine is only one of nine possible configurations within this series.
The machine can be put in operation within a single day and requires up to 15% smaller footprint, while the optionally available convenience package enables control of certain functions directly at the machine frame without requiring input at the operator panel.
Also new was Homag’s Venture BMG 312/V which combines 5-axis machining technology and edgebanding in one machine.
Homag and other large machine manufacturers are upping their service capabilities, with its ServiceBoard enabling users to transmit service incidents to the Homag Group Service Centre live via video diagnostics from an iPad. This allows the Service employee to provide information immediately via a mobile device — such as instructions, videos, images or drawings, and the user can often use this information to resolve the error immediately.
It also allows direct access to the eParts replacement parts unit. Some 14 orders were placed for ServiceBoard at the trade fair.
Biesse’s Uniteam acquisition
Biesse used Xyelexpo to announce its acquisition of 100% of the shares in Uniteam SpA. Since 1991, the Venetian-based Uniteam has specialised in design and manufacture of CNC multi-axis machining centres for wood construction materials (such as cross-laminated timber and glulam) and machining of advanced materials and a range of other special applications.
Biesse Group will further extend its product range, penetrating the highly strategic industry of timber carpentry (beams and structural facades). This deal is part of Biesse’s development and growth project, which has seen the group expanding its business along external lines for some time.
Uniteam will benefit from Biesse’s international exposure and visibility. Biesse said its orders finalised at Xylexpo had grown by 103% since the 2014 edition – equating to €20.6m.
Homag said it was very satisfied with the level of incoming orders and the number of qualified trade fair contacts, while for Biesse 40% of the orders it received at Xylexpo had come from Italian companies, giving proof, it said, that domestic and European markets are in recovery.
Weinig completed the positive picture with 71 wood processing machines and systems sold group-wide – a strong improvement on Xylexpo two years ago.
Machine innovators recognised during “the night of Xylexpo”
Woodworking machinery innovators were recognised in the second XIA-XYLEXPO Innovation Awards before an audience of hundreds at the Rho fairgrounds
“The night of Xylexpo” saw Maurizio Riva, co-owner of Riva1920, presenting the winners of the “Primary operation and solid wood processing” category with prizes taken from his own collection, the first prize went to Griggio for “Unica Safe”, a blade retraction system with 5-millisecond reaction time, sensitive to human body conductivity for the effective prevention of accidents and injuries.
Second was Imal’s “Fbc200”, a blister classifier designed to detect defects in different types of panels, while third was Salvador’s Superangle 600 which integrates cutting, bevelling and boring operations.
The “Panel processing” category was won by SCM group for the Stefani branded edge banding solution “J-Shape”, a soft-forming process for complex surfaces, followed by Biesse in second place for its “heat control System” to monitor the temperature of glue spread onto a panel before applying the edge. Third was Metal World’s “turbo System”, a device to clean surfaces during milling operations.
First prize in the finishing section went to Cefla for its “iGiottoApp X2”, a pair of articulated robots for automated surface coating and for non-flat surfaces. Biesse was second for “Opera R”, a Viet technology for unconventional automated sanding operations on 3d parts, while EMC was third for “R-Evo”, a sanding machine for multi-directional superfinishing with rotary system.
