Since Lohmeyer's introduction to the woodworking market a couple of years ago, the young company, located in southern Germany, has been completing its product portfolio to cover the entire value-chain for professional cabinetry, step by step. At W14, the company presented itself for the first time to the UK market.
Based on the experience in the British market and the focus of customers in the UK, the KAM 775 IQ edgebander and the FKS 350 IQ sliding table saw, with its new features and an attractive price-performance ratio, were made the core elements of Lohmeyer's presentation.
Managing director Peter Lohmeyer was delighted by the interest of the visitors in the technical details and the potentials of the exhibited machines. The guests at the stand were impressed by the high standard and excellent workmanship, in particular the robust design and the focus on standardisation combined with intelligent software.
Lohmeyer's portfolio consists of sliding table saws, edgebanders, beam panel saws and CNC machining centers – and are all produced at Nanxing, China, in one of the world’s most advanced factories for panel processing machinery. The annual production of Lohmeyer's Chinese partner, which has been in the market since 1995, is around 10,000 machines per year. Wood IQ Lohmeyer is its general importer for the EU and Switzerland.
Outside Germany, Lohmeyer co-operates with local sales partners. The cost efficiencies due to economy of scales are passeddirectly on to European customers. In order to ensure the high quality and to meet the European standards, Lohmeyer runs his own engineering office and workshop with a team of highly qualified and experienced engineers in Germany, including Chinese speakers as well.
Besides that, Lohmeyer has established a close co-operation with various pilot customers to monitor the machinery in the long-term application. This approach has proven its worth as a valuable source for further improvements and even better adaption of the machines to the requirements of the customers. The pilot customers share their experience with Lohmeyer and benefit from the open-minded and quick response from Lohmeyer.
Lohmeyer sliding table saws FKS 325/350 IQ One of the highlights at the Lohmeyer booth was the sliding table saw FKS 350 IQ complete with its new electrically-driven rip fence. As the software surfaces are developed in-house, the Lohmeyer technicians master the software to the most minute detail and can undertake customer-specific adjustments such as varying acceleration ramps when an automatic feed is applied.
The operator enters the cutting width on the eye-level terminal into the software surface, presses the Start button and the rip fence moves to the desired position with the precision of the tenth of a millimeter. Thanks to the movable operating panel at eye-level, the user can have a close eye on all settings at all times.
The data is entered via a touch screen. When the ruler is tilted, the modified off-set dimensions are automatically calculated. The maximum cutting width is 1300mm at the vertical position of the ruler. Highly dynamic and precise in positioning, the fence can be taken off when processing particularly wide workpieces.
The FKS 350 IQ as well as its little brother FKS 325 IQ has pre-defined equipment consisting of a sliding table of 3200mm and a scoring unit. The core part of both machines is the sliding table which has proven its worth in practice and the sawing aggregate.
The main bearings of the saw shaft are arranged at a considerable distance to ensure the appropriate stability. Any saw requires a certain robustness to tolerate the impact of high radial forces to the saw blade such as the canting of big boards. The Lohmeyer saws do not have guidance systems near the saw blade, the height adjustment is arranged away from the saw blade and is carried out through a smart lever system.
Optionally, Lohmeyer offers a double sided mitre fence applicable to both saw models.
Lohmeyer Edgebander KAM 775 IQ At W14, Lohmeyer showed the flagship of its edgebander series – KAM 775 IQ. In keeping with the company’s focus the machine is furnished with robust, high-performance aggregates which are more massive, but ensure the excellent accuracy and repeatability. Besides that, higher feed rates can be realised – up to 20m/min - which allow the processing of several workpieces at the same time.
The model is equipped with all relevant aggregates required for perfect edge processing such as a pre-milling unit fitted with DIA tools of Leuco, a spraying unit, preheating, two trimming units, rough milling and fine milling units, two corner rounding aggregates, pneumatically controlled profile and surface scraping units. The aggregates are not combined, so that the machine can be perfectly adjusted for each individual edge.
Meeting the market request for the processing of PUR, Lohmeyer recently completed the edgebanders by adding a PUR device.
All edgebanders are equipped with a 10in touch screen. Instead of selecting programs the operator can activate and deactivate the various machine functions and enter the desired parameters at the touch screen such as the glue temperature or feed speed.
Furthermore, he can decide whether the pre-milling aggregate shall be employed, edges shall be profiled or corners rounded.
Further parameters such as the pre-milling depth can be adjusted with hand wheels according to digital displays.
Being a young player in the market, Lohmeyer consequently follows the initial idea of catering craft and small industries with standardized no-nonsense products of a high and reliable quality. The open communication with the Chinese partners targeted on the continuous advancement of the machines and the technical implementation of the practical experiences are the main key for the successful introduction into the European market.
With regard to spare parts Lohmeyer has taken a different approach and follows an unconventional path. In the age of internet trade the customer can easily order the required spare parts in the internet after the warranty period is expired.
For that purpose the operating manuals of all Lohmeyer machines contain the lists of manufacturers and the exact designations of the components. “Also in that respect we want to stay honest and not upset our customers with high-priced spare parts”, Peter Lohmeyer, the managing director of Wood IQ, explains the company’s strategy.
The first participation of Lohmeyer in a woodworking trade fair in Britain offered an excellent opportunity to Lohmeyer and their British sales partners to enhance the contacts to existing customers and establishing personal contacts to prospective customers as well.
