Working with retail giants like Tesco, KFC and The Fragrance Shop, specialist architectural joinery company, Adams Joinery Ltd, knows all too well the importance of producing consistent, high-quality edging. When their old edgebander’s performance started to impact production, the London-based joinery invested in a Sprint 1329 edgebander from Holz-Her UK to increase efficiencies throughout the edging process.
“The right machine in any workshop should be a help and not a hindrance to your production,” begins Alex Adkins, Senior Production Manager at Adam’s Joinery. “This simply wasn’t the case with our old edgebander. We knew we needed more control over our edging. This meant being able to quickly and easily change glue colours when required, reduce the amount of manual set-up involved and eradicate the hand finishing of panels once they’d been edged.”
It was clear from the off that Holz-Her’s Sprint offered Alex and the team the complete package, thanks to its sturdy German build quality and wealth of automated features designed to simplify operation and guarantee repeatable, near invisible glue lines.
“We could see how it’s multi-function milling, fa.s.t (fast setting technology) and integrated finishing units could de-skill the operation for us, whilst its ability to apply veneer lippings, melamine, HPL, real wood coil and up to 15mm thick solid wood onto work pieces up to 60mm thick offered us the flexibility we were after.
“Then there was the Glu Jet system it came with,” adds Alex adds. “We’d read about its insanely quick heat-up times, its ability to switch between EVA and PUR and easy cleaning, but it all sounded a bit too good to be true. How wrong were we? When we saw the machine in action, we were immediately sold. No other manufacturer could offer anything like it. We knew it would be a game-changer for our business, and we were right.
“Due to the bespoke nature of our work, we can easily perform 20 different setups on the machine in a week, which, on our old edgebander, was difficult to say the least. Everything needed to be set by hand – requiring a certain level of skill and patience – and changing glue colours was one of the most painful experiences of them all,” admits Alex.
“With the Glu Jet, it takes just five Holz-Her’s sprint – a game changer in edgebanding minutes to change from one glue colour to another and only requires a 300g cartridge to complete the process. It was taking us three hours to change the glue on our old edgebander and 5kg of slugs to guarantee a good job,” explains Alex.
“Because the old machine would be out of action for so long, we’d have to make the decision to swap the glue the night before and be in a position to halt work on the machine. It was our biggest headache.
If we didn’t do it, we’d risk producing poor-quality edging and an ugly glue line. Now, we simply use the automatic cleaning function to purge the machine until the solution runs clear. This saves us three hours of downtime, as well as wasted labour and a potential production backlog.”
Then there are the automatic set-up functions. “Each job we work on may require a different panel type or lipping thickness, but the set-up on the Sprint is exactly the same. If you’re running a job and you’ve got 12mm, 25mm and 60mm thick workpieces, you can click a button and the machine will automatically change its settings to accommodate the different sizes in seconds, without you having to stop and re-set the machine. Plus, thanks to its smart premilling features, it compensates for any discrepancies on the board and allows you to make fine adjustments between 0.1–0.01mm yourself.”
The finishing units and automated anti-static spray on the Sprint have also eradicated hand finishing and, thanks to the machine’s buffers, it works effectively on even the most delicate veneers. “As well as buffers, scraper and four different cutter types, we opted for spray units on the front and back to avoid any additional finishing, especially on high gloss melamine. Not having to scrape off excess glue from every panel saves us two to three minutes per board, which soon adds up when you’re running thousands of pieces through it. It also means the risk of human error – like digging a chisel in too deeply and marking the panel – is no longer an issue. No glue spills on the face, no poorly cut edge, just a perfectly clean, flat board.”
On top of this, the Sprint also aids the operator in other ways. “It tells you how much glue you have left and how much edging you’ve used. It takes the guesswork out of the process and doesn’t lead to any downtime whatsoever. This is particularly handy when working on larger shopfitting projects where we might require 1,000m of edging at a time as you don’t need to stop the machine to check.”
Alex continues, “Heat-up times have also gone from anywhere between 30 minutes and one hour, to just five minutes. This not only saves on energy but production time, too. It also means we can be more reactive if an unplanned board needs to be run through. Now we can just turn it on and go. This level of flexibility cannot be underestimated in any joinery business.”
When it comes to labour, there is also no longer a reliance on skilled operators. “We had two primary operators on the old edgebander because of the level of skill required to use it. Now, we have eight people that can use the Sprint easily.
The difference is night and day and, if somebody retires or leaves, it doesn’t leave us in a vulnerable position to find an experienced replacement.” Alex adds, “Following the visual prompts on the screen and operating the machine really is child’s play.”
Following a smooth installation process and three days of training on the machine, the edgebander has now been in use for 12 months. “I started by saying this machine was a game-changer and it has been. The Sprint has given us the confidence to complete jobs to a much higher standard and has reduced production times,” says Alex.
“On the face of it, it’s not a cheap machine, but its build quality, speed, accuracy, and simple set-up will pay us back over and over again. All these areas positively impact our labour and material costs, as well as the ability to future-proof our business. These areas cannot get overlooked.”
Alex continues, “Some machinery manufacturers try and sell you a machine with this idea that it can do everything, but inevitably, you don’t end up using most of the features on it. It’s safe to say we useeverything on the Sprint, and everything it does, it does well. The ongoing service with Holz-Her has also been the best I’ve experienced from a machinery manufacturer, and their troubleshooting has been exceptional. The Sprint is really straightforward, but if I need help or support, I can WhatsApp one of the edgebanding experts in Abingdon, and within five minutes, he’s telling me what I need to do to resolve the problem. That’s unheard of in this industry. It’s actions like this that give us resounding confidence in Holz-Her and peace of mind in both the edgebander and the aftercare going forward.”
