There has been a significant reduction in noise levels at the Devizes-based Smallbone Kitchens factory since the installation of Holytek 900NK planer/knifer sander.
Described by Smallbone’s chief engineer Malcolm Whitely as ‘probably the best machine I’ve ever bought’, the Holytek was supplied by Trymwood Machinery Sales.
Smallbone designs often use solid wood laminated worktops – sometimes up to 60mm thick. The laminated boards can have thickness discrepancies of around 2mm, plus glue residue that emerges after lamination.
Smallbone had been calibrating and removing the adhesive excess by putting the worktops through a conventional thicknesser. However, they experienced constant feed problems, excessive noise and compromised products with unacceptable quality.
The company then tried a wide belt sander but, because of the wide variations in thickness, the workpieces were having to be fed through in multiple passes – an expensive process in terms of time and consumption of sanding belts.
The HolyTek throughfeed can remove 3mm of hardwood stock and glue in a single pass and a Trymwood specified in-line sanding head finishes the worktops with 120 grit belts.
The TCT disposable tips of the knife/planer block ensure the chips are small which aids dust extraction and also makes the machine much less noisy than a thicknesser.
