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Masterwood (UK) Ltd, St Andrew's House, 13 East Abercromby
Street, Helensburgh G84 7SP.
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STAIRCASE MAKER UPS OUTPUT WITH MASTERWOOD
Staircase manufacturer, P & L Joinery Ltd, has ordered a second Masterwood CNC machining centre, just months after installing an Atlas XL model that has slashed production time for winder flights by half.
A Masterwood Project 416L is expected to achieve the same time savings on straight flights and one-off specials produced by the Stoke-on-Trent joinery company.
Its core business is the production of stairs for blue-chip house builders throughout the UK. It also does a thriving trade designing, making and fitting bespoke stairs and other high quality joinery items for well-heeled homeowners in the area, including several Manchester United soccer stars.
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| P & L Joinery's works manager Nick Maxwell (left) and Masterwood's Robert Willmott with staircase components produced on the Atlas XL CNC machining centre. |
“Because our order book is constantly full we needed to move away from traditional methods of hand manufacture,” explained P & L’s owner, Fred Powell. “We wanted to take the pressure off our joiners of often being behind schedule, plus cutting down on all the costly overtime that was being worked.”
He added: “As first-time CNC users we talked to several suppliers before deciding that Masterwood machines were the user-friendliest of them all. What attracted us was the simplicity of the software and the quality of advice we received from the Masterwood people, who seemed to understand our needs far better than anyone else we spoke to.”
The Atlas XL, with its 6m long bed, has an X axis of 6000 mm, Y axis of 1350 mm and Z axis of 650 mm and is designed to process components for staircases, doors and windows - even arched windows. It can accommodate the bulkiest joinery components without them having to be moved once in position on the bed.
With a wide range of head compositions, the main router, either 10.5 or 15 hp, can tilt from vertical to horizontal, from -5 degrees to 90 degrees or any angle in between, by pneumatic movement or DC motor. NC controlled, it is possible to have up to 25 tool posts, with a maximum tool diameter of 160 mm.
As well as the standard Masterwork software, P & L Joinery uses the purpose- designed Masterstair stair production CAD/CAM package. This Windows-compatible software was released following extensive field trials at several leading UK stair makers, whose recommendations and suggestions helped to further improve its effectiveness.
The Atlas machines all of the components needed for the winder flights and has enabled P& L to boost production from around 30 sets a week to between 50 and 60.
Works manager Nick Maxwell explained the advantages of using the Atlas over traditional hand methods “Because we can now design the stairs on the CAD program setting-up time has been greatly reduced, as we no longer have to make templates. There’s more free space in the workshop, as we don’t have to find storage room for them.”
He went on: “The Masterstair software is very good. It’s quick and extremely accurate and I’m very impressed with it. It has made both staircase design and manufacture so much simpler. With the Atlas you are guaranteed the same highly accurate precision every time you use it.”
P & L’s new 5.2m bed Project 416L will be used to produce straight flights and specials. These are currently still being produced in the traditional way as the Atlas is kept fully occupied meeting the demands for winder flights.
It comes with either a 3.2m or 5.2m long bed. It features tubeless beds, 100mm high suction cups and a large timber path. The X-axis has a working field of between 3,200mm and 5,200mm and the Y-axis 1,360mm with the router in the front position and 1,050mm in the rear position. The Z-axis has a 175mm passage way.
Other features include a handy access window for the operating head, the option of digital readouts, a pre-arrangement of the bed for clamping options and various router configurations.
Said Mr Powell: “We were so pleased with the first Masterwood that we decided to buy a second machine to enable us to increase our production still further.”
