Soukup MD, Jaroslav Soukup (right) with the Blairs team on site at the Soukup factory
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Established in 1913, Blairs Windows & Doors offers has tremendous experience designing and manufacturing window, door and conservatory based on delivering unrivalled client service with continuous commitment to quality and price from its three factories in Scotland at Greenock, Inverclyde and Hillington near Glasgow. With a need to upgrade its manufacturing capability, Blairs went looking for a replacement of its 36-year-old Harbs machine.
Blairs designs and fabricates timber, aluminium and PVCu products for commercial and domestic projects across the UK. In terms of the timber options, the company portfolio includes, sash and case, casement, double swing, tilt and turn, external doorsets, and bespoke windows to suit all situations and performance criteria.
The sash window is one of the most recognisable window styles throughout the UK, and Blairs design naturally features the classic, stepped, vertically-sliding upper and lower sashes. This product is of course widely specified and selected for Conservation areas and Listed Buildings applications. Blairs has two options – its Victorian and Georgian designs – with options of single- or double- glazing with a range of hardware choices. It is available with the sashes counterbalanced by either traditional cords and weights, or spiral balances. Optional simplex fittings are also available for the cords and weights version to assist with cleaning from within. All Blairs’ products are produced to the highest certified industry standards and come with a 10 year guarantee.
The Blairs Casement range provides a modern, tailor-made replacement for the traditional casement style of window. This range includes: top swing reversible, side hung, top hung, deadlights and fixed sash designs.
Joe Boyd, operations manager at Blairs Windows and Doors, was clear in his search for a replacement for its long-served Harbs machine: “We were looking to replace a 36-year-old Harbs machine which mills our profiles for double swing and enhanced casement windows. We extensively researched the machinery market and entered into dialogue with all the major manufactures but only one appeared to match our particular and special requirements,” explained Joe.
“The only credible option was proposed by Ian Brown at International Woodworking Machinery (IWM), who is the UK agent for Czech company, Soukup.”
It was clear to Ian that a Soukup solution would be ideal for Blairs, and following an initial outline, he introduced Joe to Jaroslav Soukup, the MD and CEO of Soukup.
“Ian and Jaroslav’s proposal was the impressive Wizard 4L CNC machining centre, which, with its unique technical features to manufacture our window sections with greater accuracy and increased productivity was ultimately a straightforward conclusion to arrive at,” explained Joe.
Blairs went to the Soukup factory to appriase first hand the capabilities of the Wizard 4L
In order for Joe and his team to be totally confident with their selection, Ian organised visits to several sites in the UK already using the Soukup solution before visiting the Soukup factory in Czech for themsleves.
“We travelled to the Soukup factory in Prague for see first hand what their set-up was like and see machines in various stages of production,” says Joe. “During the pre-delivery inspection we saw our machine fitted with Zuani tooling milling our large double swing window profiles, and this only confirmed that we had made the correct supplier so we duly signed off the machine before it was immediately shipped to our factory.”
Having made the investment into the Wizard 4L – the results were clear to see says Joe: “The big improvement for us is that we now have a new, highly efficient machine which is fully supported by IWM, and we are of course now much less dependent on a 36-year-old machine that was becoming difficult to source parts for ultimately meaning significantly less down time and much greater productivity.”
The Wizard 4L CNC machining centre
The Wizard 4L machining centre comprises two independent machines, one each for tenoning and profiling. The machine can be controlled as an integrated working centre or as two independent machines by an industrial PC running specialised control software with an operator interacting with the machine via a touch screen panel.
The machine can be controlled as an integrated working centre or as two independent machines by an industrial PC running specialised control software with an operator interacting with the machine via a touch screen panel. The capacity of the machine is about 30-40 one leaf windows per shift using the traditional technique of outside milling of sashes. The Wizard 4L machine can produce about 60 knock-down windows using the left working spindle for milling from both sides.
The Wizard 4L model, with its unique configuration, enables pre-squaring production. The tenoning operation is carried out by spindles long enough to accommodate all types of tenoning tool. Soukup’s unique tenoning cycle tenons and mills the outer shape of the timber end in a time efficient manner. The duality of the left and right profiling spindles ensures what is essential on this system – precision. As only one single machine operation is involved, the process is incredibly fast and precise. All units are driven by high-speed brushless motors and the long gear feeder guarantees smooth surface finishes.
Blairs machine was only commissioned at the end of January, and therefore Joe and the tema is only able to offer testimony to what it has observed in the brief time since then. “Quality of the product is second to none!” says Joe, “ and we are now working volumes and experiencing growing efficiencies. We have only had the machine operating for four weeks, but in terms of our experience to date, I would certainly recommend Soukup window machinery to any prospective IWM/Soukup clients.
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