Malcolm Allan Housebuilders is a family owned and controlled business based in Aberdeenshire. Over the years it has built up a reputation as a high quality housebuilder in the north east of Scotland.
The company has been recognised nationally in the NHBC Pride in the Job awards, winning the UK supreme award four times, the Scottish award six times and numerous Seal of Excellence and Quality awards. Other awards gathered along the years include Daily Express Housebuilder of the Year award and Aberdeen Civic Society awards.
Therefore, last year, in an effort to maintain and possibly improve quality levels, Malcolm Allan's director, Bruce Allan, decided to look at the possibility of installing a CNC machining centre to manufacture its own joinery including internal doors and stair components. The Saw Centre was having an in-house exhibition, so Bruce Allan attended for a demonstration on an SCM CNC machining centre as well as looking at competitors’ machines.
Bruce says: "I was very impressed with the demonstration at The Saw Centre and with the quality of the SCM machine and the service back-up by both SCM and The Saw Centre, so I had no hesitation in placing an order for the Tech Z2-27C exhibition machine.”
SCM’s Tech Z2 provides an ideal solution for the dynamic woodworking, joinery and panel sectors, setting a new benchmark for those markets. It is designed to produce top performance and set new standards of user-friendliness. The machine is suitable for the production of customised furniture and panel machining and it can also be equipped with devices suitable for solid wood machining for the joinery market. It has a vectorial positioning speed of 83 m/min (X and Y axes).
High performance is due to the latest Photobumpers safety protections – a patented solution – avoiding light cells or floor mats. Also, to save valuable floor space, the electrical cabinet and pneumatics are installed within the machine base. Customisation and flexibility due to the wide choice of equipment pre-settings, with the high performance worktable with bars and vacuum pods and the PENTA function.
The worktable consists of six 1300mm TV aluminium bars with pneumatic locking after positioning along the table. Various suction cups are located along the bars to hold the components to be machined with alignment against two rows of pneumatic stops. Four pneumatic loading assistance devices help the operator to position components on the table especially if they are of large dimensions.
The mechanical fixing of the vacuum cups provides the certainty and guarantee of quality results by utilising a powerful mechanical grip that locks into position the vacuum cups instead of the widespread vacuum system. It is unrivalled when working in heavy duty conditions and unique in being free from dust – an SCM patent.
The machine's cantilever structure is unique and very easy to use. It is the only structure that allows the loading of components along the Y axis far larger than the standard working capacity of the machine which is 2700 x 1300mm.
A powerful 11kW electrospindle running up to 24,000rpm enables the Tech Z2 to machine heavy duty materials and timber without any problems. The electrospindle is fitted with a Vector Axis with Penta Digital Control which provides automatic rotation at 360° in the X and Y directions when angular heads are fitted.
Tooling is supplied to the electrospindle by either an R8 rapid tool changer with eight tooling positions or a TR10 automatic tool changer with a capacity of 10 tools or machining heads and is located at the end of the machine’s table. There is an F18 boring head with inverter and 12 vertical and six horizontal independent spindles, including an integrated sawblade for grooving completes the high specification.
Programming of the Tech Z2 using SCM's Group's Xilog Maestro has the advantage of simple and intuitive features and is very easy to use even for the most inexperienced operator. Various modules, such as Maestro Cabinet for complete cabinets and furniture and Maestro Nesting can be supplied.
The standard remote control allows the operator to fully manage the machine intuitively. The commands are always close to both the machine and the operator who can look at the machining cycle as it happens through the window in the front guard. Automatic centralised lubrication is included.
The Saw Centre's director, David Stevenson, says: "We were very pleased to obtain an order for the high specification SCM Tech Z2 from Malcolm Allan Housebuilders as a result of our in-house exhibition and consequently we have supplied and installed a number of SCM CNCs in Scotland."
TR10 automatic tool-changer on SCM Tech Z2 CNC machining centre
