Exhibition Preview
WMF 2006: International Outlook
WMF 2006 (incorporating the 11th W M Fair China and Furniwood China), the largest woodworking machinery exhibition in China closed with great success on March 10 2006 at China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC), Beijing. Goh Tz'en Long reports. A record-breaking number of 24,453 trade visitors were drawn to the four-day event, representing a 27 percent increase over the previous edition in 2004. There were 1,101 overseas visitors from 65 countries/ regions including Russia, Mongolia, Germany, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Italy, Austria, US, Hong Kong and Italy. The organisers welcomed visitor delegations from Poland, Vietnam, Russia, Sweden and Japan as well as representatives from Gabon and Spanish embassies. Besides, there were a number of Chinese local delegations from various furniture associations, panel board associations and renowned corporations. With 530 exhibitors from 19 countries/regions, the exhibition area approximated 44,000 sq m. The exhibitors were generally satisfied with their participation. Mr Gao, the General Manager of FushanTian'an Plastics, appraised the exhibition highly and remarked, “About 200 visitors visited our booth and exchanged contacts within only a few hours!” Mr Fang, Manager of Kirschner Maschinenbau also said that he had reaped an excellent harvest from the exhibition by meeting visitors from all over the world and expressed the intention to join the 2008 WMF again.
Seeing Is Believing Domestic and international exhibitors made their presence felt in 11 exhibition halls with a diverse range of product categories and technologies presented. At least five of the nine exhibition halls for machinery displays were allocated to domestic players with the other halls catering to international exhibitors, China and/or Taiwan joint ventures. Decorative products, furniture fittings and accessories and raw material supplies were featured in the remaining halls. HAPCO displayed its laboratory presses which can be used for testing of wood-based panels, printed circuit boards and insulating plates to obtain ideal process
62 FDM ASIA
MAY/JUNE 2006
Xu Xiaoyu Managing Director, HAPCO
parameters. The presses can be set to simulate different kinds of press operations to obtain the desired results. Operation can be customised for simplified operation using industrial computers, human machine interfaces (HMI) or programmable logic controllers (PLC). Smooth and stepless pressure profiles can be achieved with a stable hydraulic system. The temperature control of each hot platen can be set individually and temperature difference can be auto-controlled with high precision. Press closure time settings can be adjusted to different parameter settings. Among the wide range of equipment available from HAPCO are short cycle press lines, parquet flooring lines, plywood lines, glue spreaders and panel saws.
Panel Manufacturing SUFOMA offers comprehensive solutions for the woodbased panel industry and is involved in the design and installation of particleboard, MDF/HDF, Thin MDF, laminate flooring and other equipment such as wide belt sanders with touch screen operation, disc and drum chippers and double end tenoners. Over at the Shanghai Wood-Based Panel Machinery (SWPM) booth, numerous discussions could be seen
Exhibition Preview
Shanghai Wood Based Panel
taking place throughout the four-day event. SWPM supplies complete production lines for the particleboard, MDF, HDF, OSB industries amongst others. Other equipment supplied by SWPM include hot presses for plywood and bamboo board production, short cycle laminating lines and horizontal impregnating production lines.
Tongan Woodworking Machinery is a leading Chinese machinery manufacturer which produces a wide range of woodworking machinery including clamp carriers and composers, hydraulic hot and cold presses, ďŹ ngerjointing machines, glue spreaders, mortisers, short cycle lamination presses amongst other equipment.
ENQUIRY NO. 557
A discussion taking place at the SUFOMA booth.
FDM ASIA MAY/JUNE 2006
63
Exhibition Preview
including a motorised rise/fall and tilt adjustment of the saw unit with a digital tilt angle display. When asked to comment on the potential of the China market, Helmut Wenzel, General Manager, Altendorf Qinghuangdao said, “Furniture is still a growing market, not only in the cities but especially also in the rural areas, there are still plenty of people who have to furnish their new flats and a lot of flats are being built so I would say the next ten years, the market will be growing and growing.” Woodworking machinery at the Tongan booth.
Helmut Wenzel, General Manager, Altendorf Qinghuangdao (l) Tony Shi and (r) Roman Lichomski, Sales Managers, GreCon China
Online Measurement At the GreCon booth, a live demonstration of the DMR 3000 CL Online Thickness Measuring Gauge could be observed. Online measurement by the GreCon thickness gauge DMR 3000 CL allows a continuous thickness check after the press and in the sanding line. Consequently, tolerances are not exceeded, production quality is increased and material and energy consumption are reduced. One measuring head each is installed above and below the panel to ensure accurate thickness measurement, even during bending or vertical movement of the panel. Through an interface, the measurement results are transferred to a PC or notebook. The modular design allows the thickness gauge to be customised to local on-site conditions.
Growing Market Altendorf presented its WA8 sliding table saw. The WA 8 is an affordable entry-level machine that has been fitted with a number of proven Altendorf features,
64 FDM ASIA
MAY/JUNE 2006
Dynea is a world leader in adhesives solutions for the wood industry and its business in China is mainly focussed on Wood & Specialty Adhesives and Panel Board resins. It offers phenol resorcinol formaldehyde, urea formaldehyde, melamine-urea formaldehyde, polyurethane adhesive systems, PVAc, EPI, hot melts etc. “Dynea is particularly strong in formaldehyde based adhesives for parquet flooring, veneering for furniture, woodbased panels such as MDF, particleboard, plywood, even concrete flooring. Dynea’s policy is to be a one stop supplier for woodworking,” says Yang Hong, General Manager, Dynea Yang Hong, General Manager, Dynea Shanghai Shanghai. FDM
Exhibition Preview
FDM ASIA MAY/JUNE 2006
65