BB Trade Kitchens and Bedrooms is an expanding kitchen and bedroom manufacturer based in Wideopen, just off the A1 north of Newcastle. The business was started by Brian Burke 10 years ago and supplies kitchens and bedrooms to a wide customer base including the general public, councils and house builders in the North East and up to the Scottish Borders.
BB Trade Kitchens and Bedrooms is, in the main, a manufacturer of kitchen and bedroom carcasses, buying in their doors from a number of suppliers, primarily from Browns 2000 in Cramlington just a few miles down the road, and they have a large showroom for potential customers to view their extensive range of products.
In 2012, as sales were increasing, BB Trade Kitchens and Bedrooms needed to increase production by purchasing a second CNC machining centre for carcass production. Brian Burke comments: "We already had an SCM Pratix 48NST CNC, but to machine boards using the Nesting process, we had to cut 300mm each time off a full size sheet of
MFC, a costly additional operation and a waste of material. A CNC was available with immediate delivery, so we ordered it through a dealer and it was delivered to our factory extension.”
“However, this machine was a disaster and despite many promises it hardly ever worked on production over a 2 month period at a very busy time for our business. We also had major problems linking it to our existing Cabinet Vision CAD CAM system. After numerous visits from engineers and senior staff, we finally asked the dealer to remove the machine and give us our money back. Still desperately needing another machine, we contacted SCM Group's Area Manager, Ian McCarthy, who visited us without delay to discuss our exact requirements."
As BB Trade Kitchens and Bedrooms required a machine to nest panels from a 2800 x 2070mm Jumbo sheet of MFC, Ian McCarthy proposed a Morbidelli Universal 3622 CNC Machining Centre Cell complete with infeed and outfeed handling equipment. As it happened, a machine that suited the customer's requirements was in SCM Group's Morbidelli showroom in Rimini, Italy. An order was immediately placed and collection and delivery arranged with installation and commissioning without delay.
The Morbidelli Cell is essentially a one man operation. After a full load of boards is fork lifted on to the infeed loading platform, side aligners accurately position the panels, then three large diameter suction cups located on the rear of the main machine's gantry, grabs the top panel on to the slave board on the Universal 3621's solid aluminium multi-functional work table.
Two 250mc/h vacuum pumps ensures the MFC panel is securely fixed to the machine table. Tools are taken by the powerful 12HP routing head with variable 1500 - 24,000rpm spindle speeds from the rear 10-station tool changer. Nesting of the component panels takes place swiftly and at the end of the routing cycle, the F26 Drilling Unit (18 vertical and 8 horizontal spindles) drills all the required assembly holes.
The nested component panels and rails are then automatically pushed off the Universal's table by a pusher bar on the gantry and on to the outfeed table. The machine then processes the next full-size sheet from the infeed panel stack, as the operator manually removes and stacks the components from the outfeed table, with enough time to insert the Hafele assembly fittings into the vertically drilled holes.
Panels are then taken to an SCM S1000 Single-Sided Edge Bander for edging where necessary with 0.4, 1 or 2mm PVC or Melamine tape.
The Universal 3622 has an automatic panel thickness measuring device providing absolute precision when routing with the automatic measuring of the effective thickness of the panels being processed and the length of the tools.
Factory manager, Ian Findley, comments: "We are very impressed with the new Morbidelli Universal 3622 Cell from SCM and with the SCM Group's installation process. Programming with Cabinet Vision in the office enables the operator to call down programs to the CNC by hard line. If we do have a problem, SCM engineers are on hand in the office to provide immediate solutions. We also have our 6 year old Pratix for any remedial work or for drilling panels to avoid disrupting production on the Morbidelli Cell. After our previous bad experience we are now satisfied we made the correct machine purchase from SCM."
T 0115 9770044
www.scmgroup-uk.com
