First Holzma HPL530 for Havelock Europa

The first ultra-high capacity Holzma HPL530 beam saw has been installed at Scottish shopfitting experts Havelock Europa with a second HPL 530 due to be installed shortly afterwards. Both saws have been sold by Homag UK’s Scottish agents Deral.

The Holzma HPL530 model features Holzma’s unique “Speed Concept” system which optimises and increases all saw component movements to yield faster cycle times and greater capacity.

Havelock Europa are contract shopfitters for many of the UK’s leading retailer chains including familiar names like Boots, M&S and Primark. The company employs around 500 people and Production Director Alan Thomson says that their workshops have to be equipped with the latest and most high-tech, reliable equipment to enable them to react immediately to a wide variety of new designs and short order lead times.

The new Holzma HPL530 replaces a smaller Holzma saw that was struggling to deliver the capacity Havelock needed. “We are now cutting boards on a 24/7 basis” explains Alan Thomson, “and we went back to Holzma because we know that they are the leading international experts in beam saws. We also were very aware of the importance of having local engineering and technical support from Deral which is ably backed up by Homag UK and Holzma.”

The HPL 530 is designed to give high speed cutting of board and panel products with a chip-free edge and dimensional accuracy. The HPL machines delivered to Havelock have rear lift/feed configuration and the books of panel are fed onto the rear machine table where a cross alignment device ensures that there are no offset panels in the books before they are moved over the cutting line.

The positioning of the panels or books by the program fence is exact as the fence is rack and pinion guided and positioned by a magnetic contactless encoder. Once in position the panels are aligned to the side fence by Holzma’s patented side alignment “shark’s fin” device which is pressure sensitive for very thin boards and is operated optimally by the saw’s CADmatic control to reduce cycle times by up to 25%.

Other aspects of the “Speed Concept” are dynamic acceleration of the saw carriage and programme fence as well as electronic height control of the pressure beam.

The saw carriage itself is of mineral/cast steel design weighing 450kg, the heaviest in its class, allowing higher cutting speeds and vibration free operation. It is guided on Holzma’s patented mono-rail guidance system which ensures absolute alignment of the main and scoring blades for a perfect chip-free cut. It also features fully automatic optical setting of the scoring saw using the latest in camera technology.

The saw blade projection is 130mm while the back and forward speed of the saw carriage is 150m/min along with a powerful 30kw (40hp) main saw motor. On the program fence the back speed is 90m/min while the forward speed is restricted by European safety rulings.

Deral equips Hunter Clark for flexibility

Hunter Clark is one of Scotland’s best and longest established building companies – now in its 108^th year. The company has been developed into a  Building, Public Works and Masonry Contractors and currently employs 300 skilled craftsmen and specialists in various fields.

In the 1980s Hunter Clark established an internal joinery department to supply high quality products initially for internal consumption. The department produces and supplies a high quality of manufactured joinery work especially for restoration projects. Today the joinery department has expanded to the extent that they now supply to external customers and contractors. The Hunter Clark Joinery Department  is Managed by David Winning who has extensive experience in this sector.

As part of an ongoing program of investment in high-tech equipment to “move the company on”, David recently oversaw the installation of a Weeke Venture 3 CNC machining centre supplied by Homag UK Scotland agents Deral.

The Venture 3 will greatly enhance Hunter Clark’s capacity and flexibility while greatly improving product quality. Deral was the leading choice of supplier as David has previous experience of their expertise and professionalism: “I know them very well. Deral are first class for back-up and engineering”.

David worked closely with Deral’s John MacKay and Brian Johnston on the machine’s specification so that it would have the capacity and flexibility to comply with their requirements curtly and into the future. They were also looking for excellent engineering standards and reliability. So, the Weeke Venture has the heaviest machine frame in its class while Weeke, the manufacturers, have 60 years of experience behind them. The machine working table is 3200mm x 1250 and benefits from the Homag patented system of fast LED cup positioning.

The machining head has a patented quick change drill and spindle clamping system with 7500 rpm spindles. A second Z axis has been specified for the drill unit.

The highly user-friendly Woodwop software which David describes as “excellent” and his operators attended a 3-day training course at Homag UK and also enjoyed the benefits of training on-site.

By investing in Homag Group technology with backing from Weeke, Homag UK and Deral, Hunter Clark have taken a major technological step forward.