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“The perfect assister and finisher”

23
Feb
2022

Manufacturers of wooden boards produce their materials in large volumes and convert high weights into their finished products. The IMA Schelling business unit Board provides these specialist customers with custom-designed systems. Just like in the sporting world, practiced patterns of play help the factories to achieve maximum precision and efficiency.

Every product one of a kind: IMA Schelling Board designs individual cutting systems for large board factories

Single-source solutions: The picking area for a cutting system provided by IMA Schelling Board

In expert hands: Stefan Hinterholzer is in charge of the IMA Schelling business unit Board

Mr Hinterholzer, you’re in charge of the business unit Board at IMA Schelling. What role does your business unit play when it comes to designing bespoke systems?
It’s similar to how things work on a football pitch. If everyone on the team works together in perfect harmony, success is guaranteed. We see ourselves as part of this team. The ideas and requirements of our customers are like passes or chances, and we’re the ones responsible for converting these chances into system concepts. High-performance systems that function in perfect harmony in board factories are the fruits of our joint efforts as a team.

How does the fact that Board is an independent business unit at IMA Schelling help your users?
Again, it’s like football. Everyone on a football team has specific tasks – defenders, strikers and so on. Here at IMA Schelling, we take the same approach – the requirements in the board manufacturing industry are different to those of furniture manufacturers, so we want to make sure each of the IMA Schelling Group’s customer groups has access to the best “players”. Having a separate business unit allows us to optimise our approach to cater to the needs of board manufacturers.

Sticking with the football analogy, how do you make sure your players are fit for the tasks they’re given? What do they need to be able to do?
A good team works together, and its members complement one another, cover for one another where necessary, and all pursue a shared goal. Those are the fundamental virtues we look for. On top of that, of course, we also need the individual skills of each of our “players”. Our most important player is the customer – they’re the captain, they tell us what we need to do.

What kinds of specialist tasks need carrying out at large board factories?
As in many other industries, the concept of automated processes is becoming increasingly important for board manufacturers. This includes topics such as automated transport, as well as storage, picking and packing, of course. Here at IMA Schelling, we possess all the right products for all these developments, and the expertise to implement our customers’ wishes.

How do you go about these tasks?
In addition to our well-known panel cutting solutions, what we also have at IMA Schelling is a large toolbox of conveyor systems, from roller and chain conveyors of all shapes and sizes to apron conveyors and custom conveyor elements to suit special requirements. We also offer a wide range of handling systems for loading, sorting and stacking – including robot technology. Our portfolio is rounded off by our horizontal and vertical storage systems, picking systems and automated packing systems.

On top of this, we also supply the necessary control and safety components for these systems – and the full range of software required for them, of course. Thanks to this comprehensive portfolio, we are able to design systems that are tailored to our customers’ individual needs in all sizes and performance classes.

Is there a typical type of customer for your systems?
Wherever wooden boards need to be cut, transported, stored, picked or packaged – whether they’re chipboards, MDF/HDF boards, solid wooden boards, plywood, or OSBs – that’s where we play our “beautiful game”. Every customer has their own, individual requirements, and we create individual solutions to suit them – while always maintaining our standards of maximum flexibility and performance combined with top product quality.