Ahmarra Door Solutions, one of the UK’s leading fire door manufacturers, recently selected Homag as its preferred partner for woodworking equipment. The company invested in three new CNC machining centres and a new edgebander to replace and update some of its existing Homag equipment.
Based in Hampshire, Ahmarra has been manufacturing doorsets for over 25 years. The company produces doors for a diverse range of buildings, including airports, railway stations, schools, hospitals, luxury homes, student accommodation, social housing, offices and commercial properties.
The company’s core services include the design, manufacture, installation and project management of internal doorsets and glazed screens. It works closely with architects, interior designers, contractors and property developers.
Ahmarra sold on Homag’s build quality and performance
When selecting a supplier to replace the company’s existing wood-processing equipment, managing director, Tim Doran, reviewed the machines of three equipment manufacturers at the Ligna woodworking show.
Tim opted to replace the equipment with Homag machines as he preferred some of the distinctive characteristics of the Homag models to those of the other brands. This included the ease of use of the machines’ software. The build quality of the Homag machines, the brand’s long-standing reputation for producing technically advanced products, and the Ahmarra workforce’s operational experience of Homag equipment also helped to sway his final choice.
Following his initial model selection, Tim wanted to see and review the preferred equipment in operation. To this end, he visited Homag’s showroom in Derby, two of its manufacturing facilities in Germany and the production facility of a large woodworking manufacturer.
Commenting on the advice and support provided by Homag throughout the selection process, Tim said: “The specialist Homag sales representative was exceptionally knowledgeable; he was great at proposing good solutions to meet our particular requirements without ever trying to oversell.
“Contrary to popular opinion, I also found Homag’s pricing to be very competitive given the high specification and performance of the machines. They definitely offered great value for money.”
Four new Homag models increase efficiency
Tim invested in the Homag equipment for Ahmarra’s new purpose-built manufacturing facility with the objective of producing engineered fire doorsets more efficiently. He purchased two Homag Centateq P-500 5-axis CNC machines, a Centateq P-310 5-axis CNC processing centre and an Edgeteq S-500 edgebander.
Reliability and ease of use, along with good resale values, were also important benefits Tim required from the machinery. Commenting on the operational advantages the latest models have brought to the business, Tim said: “The new equipment is faster and more accurate than our previous machines, and they are much easier to programme and operate. With our new edgebander, we can lip-up 80mm thick doors, whereas the previous machine had a limitation of only 60mm.
“Our new CNC machining centres are 5-axis, while our former models were only 4-axis. Having 5-axis CNC machines means we can carry out more operations without the need to change tools.
“We now also benefit from being able to employ and train people with no experience to operate these new, easier to use models. We can train operators in-house within a week, something that would have been almost impossible to do with the older machines.”
For a demonstration or more information on Homag’s machinery or software, contact Adele Hunt at Homag UK on 01332 856424.
