Big breakthrough for small batches

IMA Schelling implements batch-size-1 production for EGGER in Bünde


The challenge:
production of small batches in quantities as small as 5, components with high dimensional accuracy and squareness, maximum production capacity and high automation level

The solution:
a fully integrated fully automated batch-size-1 processing plant for furniture front production from panel storage to product packaging, made by IMA Schelling

The EGGER Group with its head office in St. Johann in Tyrol, Austria, belongs to the leading companies in the woodworking industry on an international scale. The family owned and operated company, founded in 1961, today has 20 production sites throughout the globe with a total of 10 500 employees approximately. At the German production site in Bünde, EGGER has fabricated front elements for all segments of the furniture market since 1994 – so far, however, only with batch sizes greater than or equal to 50. Buyers are large industrial corporations, medium-size companies and contractors. Since customer demand for a great diversity of variants with smaller batch sizes is continuously rising in the furniture front niche, EGGER decided in 2019 to expand the furniture front production by installing a fully integrated fully automated batch-size-1 processing plant from IMA Schelling.

The new front manufacturing plant – a panel processing installation consisting of a vs 16 area storage system, an ls 1 panel saw, a Combima circular edge processing cell and a stacker as well as a buffering line for accumulating products before packaging – allows EGGER to efficiently produce also small batch sizes and cut delivery times. Plant control is carried out using IPC.NET, the plant control system made by IMA Schelling. In most cases, customers transfer part manufacturing data directly through a network. This eliminates errors due to manual data transfer.  

NUMEROUS CHALLENGES


“We had to bring the project into being in a very small time window because EGGER had fixed a date for the production start,” says Jochen Fink, project manager of IMA Schelling. Moreover, EGGER wanted a high-volume batch-size-1 processing plant with a very high level of automation. “One of the requirements was to automate the previously manual handling operations in order for the plant operator to be able to focus on what's important – i.e. product quality monitoring,” Günther Astleithner, Technology and Production Manager for finished furniture components at EGGER, explains. IMA Schelling achieved this goal by completely interlinking the machines of the entire batch-size-1 processing plant and designing a fully automatic stacker with automated supply of pallets and cover boards.

ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT: SEAMLESS EDGE WITH PU GLUING


In addition to the continuous circular material flow, which ensures a very high production rate, the high quality standard of the seamless edge is another highlight of the batch-size-1 processing plant. “The new plant produces not only melamine-surfaced components but also fronts from our highly demanded PerfectSense lacquered MDF panels with matt or gloss surfaces. A perfect seamless edge is essential for these parts,“ says Günther Astleithner. The new IMA Schelling edge bander meets the high quality standards of EGGER without any problems. This is made possibly by the specific spatial arrangement of the cutters in the sizing area and by two glue applicators which allow the production of visually optimal glue joints for the applicable decorative colours.

SOPHISTICATED LOAD CARRIER LOGISTICS


The special thing about this stacker, which is one of the highlights of the IMA Schelling plant, is its high level of automation. While the parts from the panel cutting cell are entering on the conveyor line that feeds them to the edge bander, the load carrier – i.e. the pallet with base board – is already automatically put together and carried to one of six available stacking positions. When the stack is complete, the applicable cover board is laid down on the stack and a conveyor line carries the finished stack from the stacking position to the automated packaging station. In this process, the stack may be composed either of equally sized parts or of chaotically arranged multi-sized components.

Finished part dimensions

min: 240 x 100 mm
max: 1.600 x 800 mm

Production rate

Combima circular edge processing cell: 1882 parts/shift (referenceless)
ls 1 panel cutting cell: 5.16 parts per minute (100 % efficiency)

Parts of the plant

vs 16 area storage system, ls 1 panel cutting cell, Buffering line of the panel cutting cell, Handling system of the circular edge processing cell, Combima edge bander, Stacker, Load carrier logistics, Buffering line to the packaging station, Packaging system (on site), IPC.NET plant control system

 

Conclusion


“Our focus for the development of new processing plants lies with fully automated and fully integrated production processes as well as constantly high quality,” Günther Astleithner explains. “With the new batch-size-1 production from IMA Schelling, we managed to achieve this goal without compromise.”

SOLUTION - THE FUTURE MAGAZINE


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