The greatest assets are the hardest to see

The intellectual property of a company, the inventiveness of its employees, are protected by patents.
As a leading innovator in its industry, IMA Schelling has been involved with parents since its inception.

A company’s land, production halls, machines: those are its visible assets. Perhaps even more valuable, though, is its intellectual property. The inventiveness of its employees, their inquisitive spirit which gives rise to new, faster, resource-saving solutions – those are the true assets of a company. Patents help to protect these assets and initially give the developers exclusive right of use, usually for 20 years. As one of the leading innovators in the development and production of plants for the wood, metal and plastics industries, IMA Schelling has been committed to research and development, and the patenting of its developments, since its foundation.

“IMA Schelling’s patents are a direct expression of our innovativeness, which in turn is the main driving force of the whole company,” emphasises Christoph Geiger, CTO of the IMA Schelling Group. Or as the former long-standing President of the German Patent Office, Erich Otto Häußer, put it: “Those who don’t invent disappear. Those who don’t patent lose.” IMA Schelling has lived by this motto ever since, applying for up to 20 patents per year. On the following pages you can find a list of some of the most important patents from recent decades.

A JOURNEY THROUGH IMA S CHELLING ’S MOST IMPORTANT PATENTS

1951
EDGE BANDING MACHINE

The utility model protected the IMA Schelling’s first edge banding machines. The glue was heated using a heating belt and the workpieces were edge banded by pressing the edge material. The utility model applies both to straight and to round or curved edges.

1973
TRANSPORT CHAIN

The rolling transport chain for reliable transportation of the workpiece is still a component of every IMA Schelling edge banding machine. Because the chain link bearing pin is also the roller bearing, the chain is always guided accurately and precisely.

1987
FORM BONDING

The original patent for the bonding on CNC machines protects the gluing of strip-shaped edging material with a vertical pressure roller on a movable boom.

1994
EVOLUTION DRIVE DESIGN

Owing to the saw motor fixed to the saw unit, the power is transferred to the saw blade via the patented belt deflection. This makes for a very compact saw unit for maximum cutting performance with a large usable saw blade overhang. There is currently no more compact solution with a comparable performance available on the market.

1996
HSK INTERFACE

Under a joint patent with the competitor Homag, the HSK interface offers a uniform, manufacturer-independent tool holder for woodworking machines. The tool is picked up by a stub shaft with a hollow cone and a truncated cone that can be pushed apart.

2006
CONTOUR MILLING UNIT

With the contour milling unit (KFA – Konturfräsaggregat), IMA Schelling was able to develop a top-class post-processing unit that finishes the front and rear edges. An extremely high machining quality is achieved even at high machining speeds owing to the weight-optimised structure and the optimisation of the rotary weight.

2012
SAW DRIVE WITH SHEET GUIDING

By developing the Evolution drive the fixed saw motor was designed with a low-maintenance two-pulley belt drive and a saw stroke along a sheet guide. This results a maximum cutting capacity of 70 kW and saw blade diameters of 800 mm, which could be built into machine tables with standard heights for manual operation without having to build in pits or platforms.

2015
SCISSOR LIFTING DEVICE AREA STORAGE SYSTEM

As the only patented lifting device on the market, the double scissors enable a very compact shaft dimension with stable execution of the work in the area storage system. The lifting height can be increased by installing additional scissor segments.

2017
ROBOT HANDLING ON THE STRIP MAGAZINE

The robot with a special multiple tool performs a variety of tasks in the bonding area,
and can do so completely unstaffed.

SOLUTION - THE FUTURE MAGAZINE

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