Faster and more efficient thanks to SCM

The eponymous German joinery business, Heiko Schmidt, has picked the Gabbiani S95 beam saw to make a huge leap in the production of furniture for homes and stores and now can offer with more confidence the challenges for the future.

‘Fit for future’ is the motto of the Heiko Schmidt joinery in Ladenburg, a German city in the Baden-Württemberg region. For this family company, this also means having a modern and efficient range of machinery, at the centre of which shines SCM’s latest entry, the Gabbiani S95 panel saw.

Daniel Briscoe, the leading carpenter and head of the furniture sector at the woodworking business, was enthusiastic about it right from the outset: “This beam saw makes our work so much easier. The work once done by two people in about four hours, can now be done in just 90 minutes by a single operator. This way, the new purchase has quickly paid its way in time and quality.”

The company’s machinery was fully replaced about twelve years ago. However, the company was also planning to move to a larger headquarters and so began to think about how to optimise the production processes. As the owner, Heiko Schmidt, explained, it was not just a matter of understanding which machines to purchase: they would also need to have been compatible with one another.

Morbidelli X200 nesting CNC machining centre, ideal for flexible and ‘batch 1’ production work alongside the Gabbiani in close synergy.

Directly above these four machines is a chaotic board store system which has a total of 14 storage areas. Not only does the warehouse autonomously sort the material stacks out but also loads the four machines below automatically, based on the orders inputted. As part of the work preparation procedure, during the night, the board store can prepare the panels needed for the next day in the right order, to ensure the work is done even faster.

Sat at his desk in the office, Daniel Briscoe needs to does no more than digitally send an order to the board store system and the software launches the production order sent and finally the board store system informs the beam saw that the panel is in position and the machine can pick up the right sheet of material and start cutting the job sent explains Stefan Höhn, head of engineering and technical consulting at SCM. “Only when the pieces are finished, does the operator intervene.” This procedure is also applied to the routers and labellers.

Maximum comfort and efficiency

The Gabbiani S95 has a saw blade projection up to 90mm thick: “The machine can fully deal with loading several overlapping panels,” explains Höhn. “The panels can easily be moved either by the grippers or by the operator without having to make an effort to pick them up, and this is achieved by the air cushion tables which allows the panels to be easy moved around the bed of the machine ensuring an easy loading and moving process.”

The maximum cut length of this machine is 4.5m long and 2.2m wide minimum but can also be 4.5m x 4.5m if needed and 90mm thick blade projection, but also can be rotated easily on the table without any effort at all This beam saw can cut all kinds of wood-based products and guarantee a productivity of up to 30% more compared to a standard panel saw.

Another very important advantage is cleaning the work environment guaranteed by the machine structure and functional units. During the entire cutting process, specific curtains by section prevent shavings and dust dispersing into the environment. The machine is fitted with several extraction ports that remove the dust towards the centralised extraction at the woodworking workshop where they are collected and reused for heating. >>

A solution to the company’s growth projects

With the new SCM machines, the company has also found a solution to the problem of a lack of qualified manpower. “The enormous reduction in the workload made possible by the beam saw and other technologies purchased was definitely an important advantage in favour of this investment,” explains Heiko, who, despite this, is still looking to hire a total of 27 co-workers. Indeed, the company wants to continue to grow. Currently, the lion’s share of turnover still comes from the construction industry, but the aim is to increase the quota from the furniture industry by 50%, says sales director Heiko. That’s not all: thanks to the newly acquired technologies, it will also be possible to take part more regularly in important competitive bidding processes in the furniture and shop-fitting industry.

As well as expanding the furniture sector, there are also plans to build a showroom on the extensive land they own. In everything it does, this family-run business is always aiming to be more sustainable as a way of best preparing for the future. “This is something we care greatly about” confirms Heiko. “We already use wood shavings for heat valorisation. The next step will be to install a solar power plant.”

Another important step will be the handing over of the company-control reins. Marek Schmidt is the owner’s son and is already learning the woodworking trade and has been identified as the person who will take over the business sooner or later. At that point, he will undoubtedly want to continue to pursue his father’s goal of ‘becoming a leader company in the industry in the Rhine-Neckar region’. www.scmgroup.com

Article by Camillo Kluge, courtesy of Holz- und Kunststoffverarbeitung www.hk-magazin.com

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