Teamwork - The best solution for every task
IMA Schelling's Business Unit Board equips large board factories with tailor-made panel processing machines, together with individual logistics solutions.
The prerequisite? A close and trusting collaboration with the customer. The result? Maximum precision and efficiency.
Automated processes are also becoming an increasingly important topic in board factories. Not only does this mean automated transport processes, it also includes automated storage, order picking and, of course, manufacturing. In all these areas, IMA Schelling provides suitable products and the know-how to implement customer requirements. The starting point for designing customer-specific plants of every size and performance class is a comprehensive toolkit with a variety of different conveying, handling, and storage systems, as well as automated picking and packaging systems. The use of robot technologies has become a part of everyday life. In addition to this, the specialists at the Business Unit Board develop and create special solutions for specific requirements, and supply the necessary control and safety components, including a complete software environment.
"It is essential for our customers to be able to quickly supply their buyers with quantities that can be individually made and also produced in small batches, according to the order. One of the prerequisites here is suitably flexible logistics," explains Stefan Hinterholzer, Head of the Business Unit Board at IMA Schelling. Working together, his team developed a highly efficient logistics solution like this with and for a major producer of decorative boards for furniture making and interior furnishing.
AUTOMATICALLY SORTING RAW BOARDS FOR COATING
Sanded raw boards typically arrive in the storage area in stacks that are five meters high and weigh 50 tons. To store them in a high bay warehouse with around 1,450 storage locations for board stacks, the IMA Schelling order picking system disassembles these large stacks into smaller board stacks, one meter high. Conversely, the system takes boards from the high bay warehouse to assemble order-related stacks of master boards for the short-cycle press machines. Along with storing and picking raw particle boards, the warehouse is also used for MDF boards, and supplies the IMA Schelling cut-to-size system with board stacks.
AUTOMATIC TURNING AND ALIGNMENT OF IMPREGNATED PAPER STACKS
To make sure that the decorative boards and impregnated paper were perfectly aligned before pressing, IMA Schelling developed a semi-automatic order picking system for the decor paper. This is located in the front zone of the high bay warehouse for the paper and boards. A special drum rotator turns the stacks of impregnated paper for the underside of the decorative boards by 180°. During turning, the protection board is exactly aligned to the correct distance from the decor paper. The custom-produced stack of impregnated paper remains in the high bay warehouse until it is processed by the laminating presses.
INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED SYSTEMS FOR CUTTING THIN BOARDS TO SIZE
IMA Schelling Board also has convincing solutions ready for the special requirements of cutting thin boards to size. Stefan Hinterholzer and his team of specialists develop complete systems for processing HDF and MDF boards in thicknesses from 1.5 to 10 millimeters. At the heart of the new cut-to-size plants are high-performance saws from IMA Schelling. With a power rating of up to 75 kW and a cutting height of 225 mm, they are perfect for efficiently cutting high-strength thin boards to size.
These cut-to-size plants are usually right next to the sanding line in the material flow, where they process the cut books formed from the individual boards. Alternatively, you can equip the plant with a special thin board infeed. In both cases, exact quantities of thin boards are fed in. A cut-to-size plant with rip-cut and cross-cut saws cuts the books to size. For an individual cutting pattern design, it is also possible to install a turntable in front of the rip-cut saw, where the head cuts can be made.
BEST PREPARED FOR SENSITIVE SURFACES
The variety of sometimes very sensitive surfaces is steadily increasing for thin boards as well. For tasks like this, IMA Schelling uses a new, powerful saw table with an exceptionally finely machined and hard chromed table surface. Thanks to its integrated microjet air nozzles, the book of boards can glide over the machine table without contact. Roller tables with precision-turned polyamide rollers positioned throughout the plant ensure that sensitive materials are gently transported.
After they are cut to size, the plant sorts the partial books into stacking patterns, and sets them down with a gripper stacking device. The stacking places are equipped with pallets and/or protection boards fully automatically. IMA Schelling also uses hard chromed gripper forks and material-friendly polyamide roller tables for boards with sensitive surfaces in this procedure.
Stefan Hinterholzer | Head of the Business Unit Board
IMA Schelling Group
We consider our playing field to be anywhere that wood boards are cut to size, transported, stored, picked to order, or packaged, regardless of whether these are particle boards, MDF/HDF fiberboards, solid wood boards, or plywood and OSB boards. Every customer has individual requirements, and we create the individual solution for them with our commitment to maximum flexibility and performance combined with ultimate product quality.