MASTERWOOD GETS AROUND PRODUCTION SLOWDOWN AT ROUNDEL

A major production bottleneck has been removed at fitted furniture maker, Roundel, with the introduction of a Masterwood Project 415 panel CNC machining centre.

Roundel design, manufacture and install bespoke kitchens, bedrooms and bathroom furniture for major house builders and the domestic market. Substantial investment in modern technology and manufacturing techniques has firmly established the company as a major force within the industry.

With six factories in the North East and 150 employees, its Seaton Burn plant specialises in kitchens and bedrooms, with some study and office furniture production.

The problem was its 10-year-old point-to-point CNC machining centre was not able to drill panels fast enough to keep up with increasing production requirements. This slowed down the flow of components through the factory, playing havoc with production schedules. Also, as it did not have a router, additional processes requiring traditional machines were needed.

The Masterwood Project 415 in action at Roundel.

All this has been overcome with the arrival of the Project 415. It has a 3.2m long working bed and is equipped with a 14kw vertical router, a 10 position tool carousel and a multi-spindle drilling block.

Its purchase was part of an ongoing investment programme at the Seaton Burn plant which has also seen the recent commissioning of a Schelling beam saw and a Brandt edgebander at a total cost of around £200,000.

Roundel has four other CNC machining centres throughout its factories and the Project is its first Masterwood.

Roundel production supervisor Dave Potts (left) and production manager Garry Nicholson (right) with Masterwood's Mark Lawrence in front of the Project 415 CNC machining centre.

Group factory manager Roy Ramshaw said there were several reasons for buying it. “The main one was the attractiveness of the software, especially the multi-positioning program. It's so easy to use and if I can understand it anyone can. I also liked the machine's build and the favourable comments I got from other furniture makers when I checked it out. It's a good value-for-money machine."

The panels used for kitchen and bedroom furniture are mainly 14mm and 16mm thick MDF and MFC plus 22mm thick solid Oak and Maple.

Said production supervisor Dave Potts: “We use the Masterwood for all the routing, drilling and grooving of the panels. As well as being quicker it's much more accurate than our old CNC and has enabled us to overcome the bottlenecks we were experiencing and the downtime this resulted in.

“Because it has a boring and routing facility, as well as a handy grooving saw, we have been able to get rid of two traditional machines, a spindle moulder used for profile moulding and a pin router.

Roundel is benefiting from the remarkable versatility of the Masterwood, which can also do shaped work, and most of the panel processing is now channelled through it.

One of the many attractive kitchens produced by Roundel with the help of a Masterwood Project 415 CNC machining centre.

“We are finding new things for it to do almost every day,” said Dave Potts. “It can do accurate shaped work on panels, and we recently made a 10mm thick chipboard curved template with it which we use to produce curved glass tops for breakfast bars. We can also process all the components on it for scalloped wooden wine racks, which we had to buy in before.”

The machine's Masterwork operating software is linked to Masterwood's multi-positioning software program. This delivers full panel optimisation, with four panels placed on the machine's bed at a time. The programs are produced on a PC in the office, put on a USB stick and downloaded into the machine, all ready for the operator.

Said production manager Garry Nicholson: “The Masterwood's software is easy to pick up and the speed and accuracy of the machine has made us much more efficient, with production hold-ups now a thing of the past.”

Sales enquiries to Masterwood UK . Tel 01436 675 000. Fax: 01436 678 999. email: masterwooduk@aol.com

Editorial enquiries to Stephen Barry Publicity. Tel: 020 8341 6660. Fax: 0870 135 7143. email: stephenbarry@clara.co.uk

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