

The IMA Schelling Group has developed a completely new solution for an Italian customer, enabling them to produce high-quality handle profiles in an automated manner using a custom edging system.
With handles or without? This is a decision for anyone buying a new kitchen these days. More and more buyers are new opting for handleless fronts to create clean lines and a modern, minimalistic look in their kitchen.
If a customer chooses handle profiles instead of handles, this places certain requirements on the production technology. Up to now, two techniques have traditionally been used: either with aluminium profile rails fitted to the edges, or fronts made of MDF boards into which the profile is milled and then painted over. "These are both very expensive and complex ways of producing the edge," explains Dennis Reddig, Product Manager Edge Processing at IMA Schelling.
The machine and plant manufacturer has now developed a special solution for producing handle profiles for an Italian customer. The client wanted an edge processing machine that could produce both straight and profiled edges in a fully automated manner. Four different types of profile needed to be made: J-profiles, C-profiles, angled and rebate profiles.
The IMA Schelling experts were faced with a particular challenge when it came to the edge banding of the J- and C-profiles. "We performed lengthy experiments with different edging materials and types of adhesive application until we achieved the best results," explains Reddig.
Softforming is the edge banding of fluid shapes for which edging manufacturers also offer special thin and particularly flexible edging materials. However, this was not suitable in this case, as the structure of the chips in the thin edging material was visible and noticeable, particularly in the core layer of the particle boards. This telegraphing of course had to be prevented.
"It became clear that we would have to increase the edging thicknesses," says Reddig. IMA Schelling now faced major challenges in terms of attaching the edging to the complex profiles. "Thicker edges have large retractive forces and push the edges out of the rounding of the profile," the edging expert adds. For this reason, the focus turned to the adhesive application.
On traditional edge banding machines from IMA Schelling, when processing straight edges the adhesive is first applied to the workpiece and then the edge is secured. However, this is almost impossible to do on J- and C-profiles. "First we tried only applying the adhesive to the edging material and then settled on a combination of both processes," explains Dennis Reddig.
The adhesive is now partly applied to the edging material, and partly – in specific areas – applied directly to the workpiece. To achieve this, IMA Schelling combined different adhesive application systems and integrated them into the plant.
But the IMA Schelling experts first had to test how much adhesive was needed. Too little would lead to poor adhesion, while too much would require a great deal of fine finishing to remove the adhesive residues, not only increasing the processing time, but also carrying the risk of damage to the surface. The IMA Schelling engineers set up a test machine in the test centre in Lübbecke and gradually worked their way towards the right adhesive application combination. "We finally worked out the ideal application after carrying out a number of tests," says Reddig.
However, it was not just the adhesive application that presented challenges, the malleability had to be considered too, as IMA Schelling uses material thicknesses between 0.6 and 1.0 millimetres. The client required a solution that cold apply material of this thickness at an angle of almost 90°.
Here too IMA Schelling deisgned an inventive process. The edging material is kept malleable in different places using heat guns. It is also mechanically processed in particularly challenging positions. "We use scoring units to weaken the material in the appropriate places so that it can be applied at the correct angle," explains Dennis Reddig. The engineers were faced with the question of how thick the insertion into the material could be before it would tear: another obstacle they overcame with the ideal solution.
The engineering specialists integrated the tailor-made solutions into a Combima format and edge processing machine designed for batch size 1 production. The customer now has an all-in-one machine for the fully automated production of furniture fronts both with straight edges and with four different complex profiles. "We met the requirements of our Italian customer by tailor making a high-performance machine that can produce furniture parts in five different edging shapes in fully automated rotation," highlights Reddig.
In order for the machine to be able to perform the numerous different work steps, it has access to differen tools and is also equipped with several fine finishing units, such as the I-KFA inside corner rounding unit, profile and flat scrapers, buffing units, and brush units. The machine for softforming with thick edgings extends across a total length of over 40 metres. "That's a fair size for a machine that processes furniture parts," explains Dennis Reddig. "But, having said that, this is a special solution, a real one-off."