Buffering on the infeed side with three cross-cut lines in the background.
The glulam specialist Bampton (Skoczów/Poland) is one of the most efficient producers of solid pine glulam timber and high-quality furniture components. With renowned customers such as IKEA and JYSK, Bampton stands for reliability, consistently high quality and sustainable production. According to their own information, only FSC-certified material that meets the highest quality standards is processed. The company recently invested in a fully automatic cross-cut system from Paul Maschinenfabrik (Dürmentingen/Germany).
The system takes the workpieces produced in several strips from a planer and singulates them reliably, ensuring a consistent and safe material flow. Depending on their cross section, they are turned by 90 degrees, aligned and fed to the scanner at a rate of 42 to 45 pieces per minute. The scanner detects all wood characteristics at a feed speed of about 240 m/min. The powerful, custom-designed software provides the basis for optimised further processing and high added value per workpiece.
After scanning, the boards are distributed to one of the three cross-cut lines with optimised material flow. Each cutting station of the C11 model series is equipped with state-of-the-art servo technology, and optional functions such as ‘Gap Close’ or ‘Kick-Out’ ensure impressive acceleration values and extremely short cutting times. Depending on the optimisation result from the scanning operation, the three cross-cut saws produce fixed lengths for finger jointing.
Afterwards, the workpieces are sorted at different ejection stations according to quality and length. Cross conveyors underneath the three sorting lines bring the workpieces together again. The majority of the cut lengths is put down by two automatic stackers in a fully automatic manner. The use of stacking sticks or the targeted offsetting of layers creates particularly stable and safely transportable packs. Pallet feeders and integrated removal systems complete the high degree of automation of the system.
All of the system's user interfaces are clearly displayed on the central master terminal with its large screen. Thanks to intuitive menu navigation and direct parameter settings, the operator can easily adjust and optimise processes at any time – without any awkward intermediate steps. Supported by the integrated IP cameras, he keeps an overview of the entire system. This makes operation not only convenient, but also safe and efficient.
“With this cross-cut system, we have developed a productive and future-proof solution that optimally combines efficiency, precision and cost-effectiveness,” says Manfred Buck, Sales Director at Paul. “Throughput and process reliability increase, while manual intervention and downtimes are significantly reduced.”
