STAIRCASE MAKER'S FORTUNES TRANSFORMED WITH MASTERWOOD

A specialist staircase manufacturer's profitability has been boosted by more than 30% after switching from traditional production methods to Masterwood CNC machining centres.

It has cut out substantial amounts of overtime while increasing productivity by more than 40%, allowing it to take on additional work.

Harry Murray of HMS Joinery with the Masterwood Atlas CNC machining centre

HMS Joinery, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire has a staff of 30, including four apprentice joiners. It was set up in 1990 and although it became successful in winning contracts from national house builders, the staff, including owner Harry Murray, were regularly working a seven-day-week in order to get the work out.

"Because using traditional methods to make staircases is so labour intensive we had to come in every day to keep up with the orders, which was taking its toll on everyone," said Mr Murray. "Due to all the overtime that was being paid out and eating up the profits, the long-term future of the business became uncertain."

Harry Murray with staircases produced on his Masterwood CNC machining centres

The turn-round in HMS's fortunes began when it bought a Masterwood Atlas XL CNC machining centre. It took over the production of the staircases, replacing a semi-automatic trenching machine and the need for other tasks to be done by hand.

It has since been joined by a smaller Masterwood Project 416KS model. While the Atlas now concentrates on producing the main body of the staircases, all of the components, including the newel posts, treads and kite winders, are made on the Project.

The Masterwood Project 416KS CNC machining centre in action at HMS Joinery

"The first Masterwood machine totally transformed the way we worked while adding the second has allowed us to become even more efficient," said Mr Murray. "In a short time we have gone from being a traditional joinery based on hand-work to running a modern staircase production line."

Having the two Masterwood machines has allowed HMS to increase its output by 40%, enabling it to take on additional work from existing customers. It used to take a day to produce a standard staircase with kite winders, which can now be done in about three hours. The company turns out 50-60 staircases each week, based on five-and-a- half-day working with minimal overtime.



HMS Joinery owner Harry Murray (left) and machinist Craig Avramovic with a stair component produced on one of the two Masterwood CNC machining centres

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. 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.

The entry-level Project 416KS is available with either a pod or matrix bed and has an extremely high specification. This includes rack and pinion movement, an eight-post carousel type tool changer, with the option of another six-position tool changer that travels with the head, and a 10.5 hp router.



Machinist Craig Avramovic at the controls of one of the two Masterwood CNC machining centres at HMS Joinery

As well as the standard Masterwork software, HMS Joinery uses Masterwood's 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.

Because it can now design the staircases on the CAD program setting-up times have been greatly reduced as it no longer needs to make up templates.

"The software is very user-friendly and saves a lot of time," said Mr Murray. "Once all of the information, including the cutting list, has been fed into the computer the disc is given to the CNC's semi-skilled operator. They can be trained up in a couple of weeks, which has freed our skilled joiners for other handcrafted work."

As well as being ideal for bespoke work the Masterstair software really comes into its own with batch staircase production.

"The bottom line is that we are saving hugely on overtime payments, which has made the business far more profitable," said Mr Murray. "Our customers are impressed with both the fast service we can now provide and the first class quality of the work.

"We can now take on large batch orders with confidence knowing that we can meet the delivery dates. As we are able to build up batches of stairs in advance we are no longer constantly working under pressure."

All enquiries to Masterwood (UK) Ltd, Telephone 01436 675000, Fax 01436 678999, Email masterwooduk@aol.com.

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