 |
|
|
|
|
|
Masterwood (UK) Ltd, St Andrew's House, 13 East Abercromby
Street, Helensburgh G84 7SP.
|
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
AWARD-WINING JOINERY BOOSTS OUTPUT WITH MASTERWOD ATLAS
Denne Joinery is making substantial productivity gains after becoming one of the first UK companies to install the new Masterwood Atlas KL machining centre. Although in use for only a few months, the Canterbury, Kent, company is already benefiting from overall savings of around 25 per cent in man hours, helping it to win new contracts.
|
| Mel Folwer with a component that has been machined with a tenon disc on Denne Joinery's versatile new Atlas KL. |
The introduction of the highly versatile Atlas is part of a £250,000 investment which has included linking it to the latest 3D modelling and drawing software.
Denne Joinery is part of the 200-year-old specialist construction company the Denne Group, and specialises in making a wide range of quality designed joinery products.
It has been involved in various high profile projects including Canterbury Cathedral's International Study Centre, for which it won the 2001 Timber Industry Award for major projects. It has also supplied joinery to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Westminster.
The Atlas KL has a 5.2m length bed, large enough to hold the largest joinery items it produces and ideal for tandem loading.
A unique feature is its additional tool changer for large tools up to 320mm in diameter. This gives it the ability to scribe and tenon up to 125mm, making it the perfect machining centre for stile and rail door manufacturers. The tenon discs can cut shoulders up to 30mm, above and below the tenon.
Its high specification also includes a 17Kw liquid cooled router head, 14 position tool carousel, a rear horizontal head and vertically and horizontal drilling heads. There's a C-axis control on the main router head, a tubeless bed system with pneumatic clamping devices, digital readouts for fast positioning of pods and a built-in waste conveyor in the bed.
The configuration of the heads allows the operator to set up the next operation at one end of the machine whilst it's working at the other.
It was supplied with Masterwood's MasterWorks CAD/CAM software package. To increase still further staircase design and production, Denne Joinery has also installed the purpose-designed MasterStair software program.
|
| The Masterwood Atlas KL CNC machining centre in action at Denne Joinery. |
Said Stuart Robinson, Denne Joinery's general manager "The Atlas is our first CNC machine. It's capable of carrying out all the processes previously needing five or six different traditional machines, and does them much more quickly and accurately."
He said it was bought to help grow the business by developing new markets, which includes including winning more contracts from sister company, Denne Construction.
"In a highly competitive market we only get their joinery business if our price is right, and the Atlas has made us far more competitive. We are also now able to go after more major outside jobs as we can offer a far more cost-effective product.
"The MasterStair software in particular has solved a lot of problems involved in estimating for staircases, particularly straight flights with winders at the top. We can now do the job in a third of the time it took manually".
To enhance the advantages provided by the Atlas and its software, Denne Joinery has bought the state-of-the-art Auto Desk Inventor CAD drawing software package, which features 3D modelling facilities. It automatically produces a cutting sheet which saves time as a draughtsman does not have to do it manually, as well as cutting down on possible errors.
The drawings are sent via the company's wire free internal computer network to the CNC programmer's desk. He adds in the tool paths and produces a programming code for the machine's operator. As the Atlas is linked to the internal network all the operator has to do is call up the required program and start the processing cycle.
"We began to benefit from the Atlas right from day one," said Mr Robinson. "On average, it's achieving around a 25 per cent saving in man hours across all the work we do on it."
Its versatility can be seen in the wide range of work it does. It produces straight staircases as well as more complicated curved versions - doing away with the need for a stair trencher - formers for curved deskwork, which would previously have needed a band saw, jib and spindle, and routes out panels for cupboard and other units.
Door making is a particular area in which it excels. It's used to make flushed and panelled versions, including preparing the vision panels, lock casings and hinge cut- outs, allowing Denne to produce an entire door on it. It can also do circular work, such as making bulls-eye windows, which used to need a great deal of hand work.
|
| Denne Joinery's general manager Stuart Robinson (left) and joiner Mel Fowler with the Atlas KL CNC machining centre. |
Mr Robinson said he expects to see even more benefits as it takes on the kind of repetitive work they are now competing for. "With the extra productivity it's already achieving it will have paid for itself within three years, something you can't say about many machines costing well into six figures."
Mel Fowler is one of four joiners at Denne who have been trained to use the Atlas and are now putting their newly-found knowledge to good use.
"It's a fantastic machine," he said. "It does things so much faster and precisely every time, even the most complicated one-off jobs, and it's so reliable. When we process two or more of the same components on it, they always come out absolutely identical."
Masterwood personnel received praise for their initial advice and subsequent training and after-sales service.
"Right from our very first meeting they wanted to know all about our operation and our products and what we wanted to achieve with a machining centre," said Mr Robinson. "They then steered us towards the model and software they thought would be best for us. It was clear they wanted to enter into a long-term partnership with us rather than just making a quick sale."
He said the in-house training for both the machine and the software was thorough and presented in a way that was easy for staff to follow, and the after-sales service is excellent. "Their local area manager is always easy to get hold of if we have a problem, which is very important to us as first-time CNC users."
The transformation to CNC operation "and into the 21st century" had been a positive and relatively painless move. "We have increased productivity, improved product quality, and our staff like using the Atlas. As traditionally trained joiners they were slightly wary of it at first. But since they have seen what it can do they are often queuing up to use it, as it makes their job so much easier. It's definitely a win-win situation all round."
