Meeting individual requirements

Project engineers from IMA Schelling had a detailed discussion and exchange of ideas with the customer, and looked at the production conditions at the Villareal site. They planned, developed, and looked for creative concepts. And they finally found a solution that met all the requirements.

At the heart of the solution is the batch size 1 cut-to-size and machining system Performance.cut. This is fitted with milling units which can not only be used to cut boards to size, but they can also perform additional tasks such as grooving and drilling, as well as rabbeting and making diagonal cuts. Equipped with two main spindles, the system produces an above-average cutting performance of 1750 components per shift, that allows the total output called for by Gamadecor to be achieved with just one machine. "Which saves space, of course," stresses Schumacher. It also reduces the cost of investments in a suction system and operating personnel. 

GAMADECOR

Villareal-based Gamadecor is a renowned manufacturer of extremely high-quality kitchen and bathroom furniture that is also much in demand beyond Spanish borders. Which is why an increase in capacity was on the agenda for the company. The challenge they faced, however, was limited production hall space, and the high output and quality requirements of the production department. The company took their problem to plant experts IMA Schelling, with whom Gamadecor has enjoyed a close working relationship for almost 15 years. 

"This was actually a real challenge," says Ralf Schumacher, Sales Area Manager at IMA Schelling. "They wanted a fully interlinked, fully-automated batch size 1 unit for producing front panels and hollow ware, where parts or remnants could be manually added or removed at different positions." The system also had to be connected to the existing assembly line, and should achieve a capacity of at least 1300 to 1400 components per shift – and all that to fit in a space that could not exactly be described as generous.

IMA Schelling also found a creative solution to another challenge. Gamadecor wants to profile mill MDF front panels as well as particle board components, so it was necessary to have additional machining units. To save time when machining particle boards by way of compensation, the engineers developed a special solution for the particle board components such as shelves that are only given a glued edge on the long side. "We have incorporated a parallel milling station for these parts," explains Ralf Schuhmacher. Here the shelves, etc., are produced in only two edge processing passes, instead of the usual four passes. 

An original concept was also required at the end of the machining process, as Gamadecor needs the workpieces to be in an upright position for the subsequent assembly line. "We integrated a dynamic workpiece turner in front of the sorting unit, and a workpiece upending station after it," explains Schumacher. For the actual sorting, IMA Schelling developed two, highly-efficient sorting cells, each with a Robot.Sort robot and four sorting shelves, to take the maximum number of cut-to-size parts from a single shift.