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“Made in Italy” for the Wood and Woodworking machinery Industry WorldwideMARCH-APRIL 2013 N. 2
FOCUSSurfaces: materials,ideas and technologies
LIGNA AND INTERZUMThe first highlightsfrom “made in Italy”
“Made in Italy” for the Wood and Woodworking machinery Industry WorldwideMARCH-APRIL 2013 N. 2
FOCUSSurfaces: materials,ideas and technologies
LIGNA AND INTERZUMThe first highlightsfrom “made in Italy”
IN THE WORLD 3Trip to Brazil, part two
Giardina Finishing, leader in wood coating techno-logy, with a wide range of finishing machines and plantsfor panels, doors, windows, profiles, turned parts, par-quets etc. is able to ensure high productivity, flexibili-ty and quality of the painted crafts and reduction of en-vironmental impact.The growing demand for high-gloss finishing on custom-made orders can be easily satisfied by the spray robotfor panels mod. Gs25, shown in the picture, which al-lows, in a controlled room, to perform a flexible pro-duction with high quality standards.
Ica: “Supercare” range▼▼39Zetagì: water based E coats and top coats “Retron”
▼▼39
Nerli: technologies for brushed brightglossy paints
▼▼44
Superfici: automatic spraying machine“Magnum”
▼▼44
Sherwin Williams Italy is born▼▼45Pandolfi with Viet: two machines in one for a perfect finishing
▼▼47
Read our magazines online
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lease apologize the informal approach, but weneeded to draw your attention. With the Janu-ary/February issue, we made an experiment: be-sides shipping the usual number of copies, we
sent the interactive contents of Italianwoodtech to over54 thousand industry people around the world by e-mail. With just one click, we enabled 54 thousand people, com-panies, organizations, importers, exhibitions, engineer-ing offices, joiners, furniture manufacturers, technologydealers and many more categories to take a look at our ar-ticles about made-in-Italy products and solutions, and de-cide whether it was worth reading or not. Just one click,and they could view the selected article, ready to read orprint out in high resolution. All of this, starting from the com-plete table of contents they received in their e-mail box.
Let us make things clear: with the current prices for postalservices, especially to international destinations – and con-sidering the trend of the advertising market – this experi-ment was inevitable and the results were really positive:many readers – though less than we hoped… – asked toreceive the magazine in pdf format, not “on paper”…
Many international publications, much more important andrelevant, not only in the industrial domain, are showing thattoday it doesn’t make sense talking about circulationmeaning “printed copies”, but rather “readership”, i.e. how
many people are reached directly by a clear, convenientand useful message. Independently of the vehicle. This iseven more true for actors like us, who produce a publica-tion to promote the activity of Italian companies.Each Italianwoodtech issue currently reaches a bit lessthan 60 thousand people, a constantly growing audi-ence. They receive it. They don't need to visit our web-site, they don't have to look for us: all they have to do isopen the table of contents, browse and decide what theywant to read. We reach them, providing what they prefer. Always.
A wider, much wider audience. An innovative, modern ap-proach that we will increasingly complement with our Face-book and YouTube channels...
If you are fond of your printed magazine, don’t worry: youwill still receive it. Maybe not each and every issue, be-cause we have a large audience and we cannot print 54thousand copies. So, we will take turns. Of course, if youmake a subscription – on page 72 you will find instruc-tions to subscribe easily and quickly – you will always re-ceive Italianwoodtech on your desktop.Otherwise go online, free of charge: take a look athttp://www.xylon.it/riviste.asp.And, please, let us know what you think and if you feel atease with digital... ■
this m
onth
PNOTICE TO READERS
news
MARKETSTrends for pulpwood and biomass
Global supply, demand, pricing and lo-gistics of pulpwood and biomass will bethe focus at the 6th International Wood-fibre Resource and Trade Conference inIstanbul, Turkey on April 9-10, 2013.Worldwide trade of wood chips fell in2012 and prices for pulplogs and woodchips were down in most regions of theworld. But change is ahead. Global de-mand for wood fiber for both pulp man-ufacturing and renewable energy is ex-
pected to increase during 2013 and 2014.China bucked the trend and importedmore wood chips in 2012 for an ex-panding pulp industry and Vietnam con-tinued to be the largest chip export in theworld.Trade of wood pellets has gone updramatically the past few years, partic-ularly from North America to Europe. In2012, the Us and Canada increased ship-ments to energy facilities in Europe by 62percent over the previous year. ■
MARKETSWood fiber costs
Wood fiber costs for pulp mills fell in bothNorth America and Latin America in the4Q/12 because of weaker pulp marketsand an increased supply of sawmillchips, reports the “Wood ResourceQuarterly”. Wood fiber prices trendeddownward in the local currencies in manyof the key pulp-producing countries ofthe world in the fourth quarter. Howev-er, as a result of the weakening US dol-
lar, wood fiber prices actually increasedin US dollar terms in a number countriesand the Softwood wood fiber price in-dex (Sfpi) was up slightly (+0.1%) in the4Q/12 to $100.13/odmt. The biggest in-creases from the 3Q to the 4Q oc-curred in Eastern Canada, Finland,France and New Zealand, according tothe Wood Resource Quarterly(www.woodprices.com). ■
AHECAhec endorses EU to eradicate illegal timber trade
As the representative trade associationof one of the world’s largest hardwoodexporting industries, the American Hard-wood Export Council (Ahec) has a con-siderable stake in eradicating illegalwood from trade. A major concern forAhec is that neither the value nor the rep-utation of legally harvested products isundermined in world markets by com-peting products from illicit sources. For this reason, Ahec was a leadingsupporter, through membership of theU.S. Hardwood Federation, of the U.S.Lacey Act Amendment of May 2008.This makes it an offence within the U.S.to possess any plant (excluding agri-cultural crops but including wood and
derivative products) "taken, possessed,transported, or sold" in violation ofany relevant foreign or state law.Ahec has also been closely involvedwith, and fully supports, the efforts bythe European Union to enforce the EuTimber Regulation from 3 March 2013.This regulation imposes mandatoryrequirements on companies that “firstplace” forest products on the Eu mar-ket to implement a “due diligence sys-tem” to minimise the risk of illegalwood entering the Eu. Any such com-pany failing to demonstrate due dili-gence, or found to have placed illegallyharvested wood on the Eu market, issubject to legal sanction. ■
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CONTROL LOGIC
.l.s.rr.CONTROL LOGIC
Trend survey figures for the 2012 October-December pe-riod indicate a significant reduction of orders. The re-sult is in line with preliminary 2012 final balance figures re-cently published by Acimall, the Italian woodworking ma-chinery and tools manufacturers’ association, indicating a10 percent reduction of production. The fourth quarter 2012shows a clear trend reversal compared to substantial sta-bility that had characterized the past three years: orders fromabroad are slowing down, a variation that can be consid-ered physiological in view of the satisfactory trend record-ed in the past three-year period; the "painful spot” is the do-mestic market, that remains at hardly encouraging levels.Let’s come to figures. In October-December 2012, wood-working technology and tools recorded a 9.5 percent re-duction of orders compared to the same period of 2011. Thedrop of orders from foreign countries amounted to 10.5 per-
cent, while Italian demand slightly increased by 0.8 percent.The book of orders is close to two months, while priceshave been growing by 0.8 percent since the beginning ofthe year. The quality survey reveals that 14 percent of intervieweesindicate a positive production trend, 39 percent a stablesituation, and 47 percent a decreasing trend.Employment is stationary according to 75 percent of thesample and further decreasing for 25 percent. Availablestocks are stationary according to 43 percent, decreasingaccording to 53 percent and growing according to 4 per-cent.The forecast survey provides a picture of the trends wecan expect in the short term: the domestic market showsno encouraging signals, while on the international scenariowe are waiting to have a clearer vision.
FONTANOTLABNew solutions of accessories for stairs
FontanotLab is a creative laboratory ofdesign realized by Laura Fontanot,Head of design Fontanot, a leading Ital-ian manufacturer of spiral staircases.The purpose is to collect innovativeideas and design to get to the pro-duction of accessories for the stairs toenter the market.The project focuses on two basic prin-ciples: optimizing space scale inside ahouse and the aesthetics of the prod-uct and its design solutions. Fontanot-
Lab has also launched an ongoing col-laboration with designers from differentbackgrounds who will take turns in cre-ating new solutions, including: Alessan-dro Marelli, Folco Orlandini, ValentinaDowney, Marco Vantusso, Giulia Mel-oncelli, Laura Brivio, Alessandro Stabileand Davide Mazza.The projects selected by Fontanot willnot be prototypes, but will follow the pro-cedures necessary to see the item pro-duced and placed on the market. ■
ASSOCIATIONSMmfa association keeps growing
The Mmfa – Multilayer modular flooringAssociation, which had been foundedat the end of October 2012 only, is tak-ing up its operational work full of vim andvigor. The association organized its firstfull working session in Munich from 28February to 1 March. On this occasion seven new memberswere welcomed to the association.The two working committees “tech-
nics“ and “market development“ gath-ered for their first meeting and definedtheir topics and the working schedulefor the months to come. ■
SIEMPELKAMPSiempelkamp presents 2012 results
2012 was an importantbusiness year for theSiempelkamp Group:important sales suc-cesses were achieved,special milestones cel-ebrated and the coursefor the future set. The results in num-bers. The total order value amountedto 594 million Euros and group sales to-taled 795 million Euros – an all-timerecord! The current order backlog to-tals 930 million Euros. As of December31, 2012 the Siempelkamp Group had3,154 employees and 120 trainees.With these results Siempelkamp con-
TECHNOLOGYScm Group in Kazakhstan
The Alstom plant in Bologna will producethe first 1,500 switch machines (equip-ment that is essential in railway signallingsystems) for Kazakhstan Temir Zholy(KTZ), the company that manages thenational rail network in the former Sovi-et Union republic of Kazakhstan. This important contract – the first part ofan order that includes the manufactur-ing of 10,000 switch machines over a ten-year period that is worth over €90 million– also involves Scm Group - FonderieScm who will supply the raw compo-nents for equipment that is vital to thesmooth operating of any rail network.A repeat order is likely in 2014. “Weshall do everything we can – AlfredoAureli, Managing Director of the Rim-ini-based group, added – to continueour involvement in KazElectroPrivod –a joint venture between Alstom e itsKazakh partner, Kamkor, to manufac-ture switch machines – even when pro-duction is transferred from Bologna toAlmaty, in Kazakistan, in 2015”.This is not the first time that the groupcontinues to be a key supplier evenwhen production has been transferredelsewhere and not only demonstratesthe quality of its products and its ownknow how, but also its ability to continueto be competitive in highly complex sit-uations. ■
STOSA CUCINENew marketing director
Stosa Cucine, Tuscan company with al-most 50 years of history in the world ofkitchens, announces the appointment ofFrancesco Manfredi with the position ofmarketing director. Class 1974 and a bril-liant business education, Manfredi hasextensive experience in the furniture in-dustry and furniture industry, havingheld similar roles in other important Ital-ian companies. ■
tinues the positive trendfrom 2011. The ca-pac-ities of all production lo-cations are committeduntil mid 2014. Siem-pelkamp's machineand plant engineering
business unit (SiCo) contributed majorlyto these results. In 2012 SiCo achieved a total order val-ue of 388 million Euros. The order back-log of approx. 634 million Euros ensuresthe capacity utilization of our produc-tion locations. Compared to the previ-ous year, sales increased by 12.6 per-cent to 589 million Euros. ■
FAIRSWoodEX for Africa
The second edition of the timber trade ex-hibition, WoodEX for Africa, which washeld at Gallagher Convention Centre inMidrand from 21 to 23 March, was wellsupported by exhibitors and visitors de-spite the event being held over a longweekend. Stephan Jooste, director of theexhibition, says that, although there wasa slight decrease of ten per cent on vis-itors numbers compared to last year, theexhibitors were very happy about thequality of visitors. Highlight during Wood-EX this year was the Timber Talk sem-inars by industry leaders and the TimberGames held on the last day of WoodEX.The tentative date for WoodEX for Africa2014 is from 5 June to 7 June 2014. Thefinal date will be announced soon. ■
FAIRSClosed the third edition of Delhiwood
It was held from 31st January to 3rd Feb-ruary, the Delhiwood fair, exhibitiondedicated to technologies for the pro-cessing of wood and supplies for thefurniture industry. The event was or-ganized by Pda Trade Fairs, and co-or-ganized by Eumabois. The event was located in the exhibitioncenter India Expo Centre in Noida,about 50 km from the metropolis NewDelhi. The fair, now in its third edition,has shifted after recent editions havebeen held at Pragati Maidan in NewDelhi. About 360 exhibitors, includingdirect investments and agencies. There are no official data on the flow ofvisitors, even if the organizers assumea 30 percent increase over the previ-
ous edition. The event covered a totalarea of 20 thousand square metersgross, half of them occupied by tech-nology for woodworking.Acimall, the association of Italian man-ufacturers of machinery for the wood-working, organized an area of 273square meters Italian group covered byabout ten companies.The performance of the event can beassessed globally good, because theflow of visitors was satisfactory, espe-cially in the middle days. The main seg-ment of the operators was the smallbusiness user, whose demand for ma-chines covered products of a techno-logical and cost medium-low. ■
THE ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE WOOD INDUSTRY
XYLON.it
MADE-IN-ITALY IN THE WOODWORKING MACHINERY INDUSTRY
Early information for better decisions…Centro direzionale Milanofiori - 1° Strada - Palazzo F3 - I-20090 Assago (Milano)
With the best impressions for the development of the woodsector, Wood Show Creta was successfully completedon 2nd and 3rd of March 2013 in the Heraklion ExhibitionCenter (www.woodshow.gr).The visitors registered belong exclusive to the furniture in-dustry and its worth noting that over the 40 percent of themwere part of the architecture, designers, hoteliers and civ-il engineering sector.During the event, visitors had the chance to be informedfor new materials from wood such as: doors, wooden frames,decking, flooring and to participate in the seminars with Eu-ropeans Speakers from the field of Architecture and scientistfrom technological institutes of Greece and abroad.More specifically presented the features of wood as a ma-terial, the behavior of wooden construction in relation tofire, the restoration of wooden structures using new tech-nology, new wood products and innovation applicationsfor both indoor and outdoor use.The main priorities of the speeches aimed to promote theadvantages of using wood.The same event will be organized in Cyprus on 25th to 27th
of May 2013. ■
FAIRSStockholm Furniture&Light Fair
The recently held Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair con-tinues to strengthen its position as the world’s leading meet-ing place within Scandinavian design. Many exhibitors arestarting to notice signs of an economic recovery and thepercentage of visitors and journalists from other countriescontinued to increase. This year’s Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stock-holmsmässan’s major furniture and lighting trade fair, heldfrom 5 to 9 February, was a huge success. It’s temptingto add ‘as usual’ because the fair is well-established andis generally considered to be one of the top two furniturefairs in Europe.In spite of the current recession, both visitor and exhibitornumbers were very close to last year’s. During the industrydays, the fair was visited by 31,150 people, which is onlyslightly below 2012’s figure of 31,793. There were 729 ex-hibitors this year compared to 747 last year. The next Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will be held on4-8 February 2014 at Stockholmsmässan. ■
14 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
NEWS
FAIRSReinventing Zow Turkey
Zow in Istanbul was the businessevent of the Turkish supply industry atthe start of the year: from 17 to 20 Jan-uary, the organizers Clarion EventsDeutschland registered 246 national andinternational exhibitors at the Cnr ExpoCenter, as well as more than 16,000trade visitors from around the world, in-cluding high-ranking decision-makers,architects and designers from the Turk-ish furniture industry, as well as numer-ous international purchasers, also fromhitherto unknown African countries.With a new approach to exhibition plan-ning and marketing, Clarion Events im-plemented the exhibitors' wishes per-fectly: a thoroughly convincing suppli-er platform with Turkish flair was realizedin Istanbul in 2013. And the exhibitorswere correspondingly satisfied withboth the number of visitors and the qual-ity of their exhibition contacts at thisyear's Zow in Istanbul. ■
Cepra spa and Fiera di Milano spa signed a new agree-ment a few days ago; the next two editions of Xylexpo,the biennial international exhibition of wood technologyand furniture industry supplies, will be held again in thetraditional fairgrounds in Milan. According to the agree-ment – signed by Acimall and Cepra president Ambro-gio Delachi and by Enrico Pazzali, managing director,Fiera Milano spa – the FieraMilano-Rho expo center willhost the exhibition in 2014, from 13 to 17 May, and in 2016,again in May, with exact dates to be identified later on.Cepra spa also placed an option for 2018.
“This agreement is the natural consequence of the de-cisions made by most Acimall member companies andthe feedback we got from several exhibitors and indus-try professionals attending our event”, Ambrogio Delachisaid. “The association of Italian manufacturers – which isthe owner of the exhibition – opted for continuity and con-sidered the central position of Milan and easy access to
the city ensured by an excellent infrastructure includingairport, railway and roads, plus efficient logistic operationsthat make the Milan trade fair system one of the most mod-ern and efficient worldwide”.
“With Fiera Milano spa – Delachi added – we have alsodefined a plan for co-marketing actions, to be comple-mented by an extensive promotion campaign and invi-tations to leading industry actors from all over the world”.
“We will keep doing all we can, just like we have done sofar, to attract the top representatives of the Italian and glob-al industry to FieraMilano-Rho. The past five years havebeen a tough test and we believe that, today more thanever, we have to show strong and clear determination towork together, in perfect harmony, so that our exhibitioncan reaffirm its role of international meeting point and valu-able showcase for the best Italian and international tech-nology”. ■
XYLEXPOXylexpo signs new agreement with Fiera Milano spa
FAIRSZow 2013: the key to the German market
For furniture suppliers looking for a di-rect way into the important German fur-niture market, the 19th Zow internationalsupplier fair for the furniture industryand interior design proved to be theideal platform for presenting theirwares and making contacts and itcame at just the right point in the year.From 18-21 February 2013, 402 com-panies from 27 countries exhibited atthe Bad Salzuflen exhibition centre, in-
cluding 60 first-time ex-hibitors from 15 differentcountries. The ratio of German tonon-German exhibitorswas 63 percent to 37percent. Suppliers fromthe important furniturecluster in Ostwestfalen-Lippe made up 39 per-cent of the German and25 percent of all ex-
hibitors. The exhibition covered around24 000 m2 in halls 20, 21 and 22. Pro-visional figures show that around 11 800visitors came to the Bad Salzuflen ex-hibition centre over the four days, a thirdof whom travelled from outside Ger-many.The next date for the annual Zow hasbeen set: the 20th Zow will run from 10-13 February 2014 at the Bad Salzuflenexhibition centre. ■
Eurobois 2013, that tookplace from February 19 to 23,seemed to us a well-struc-tured exhibition, with a strongappeal. And, above all, weheard many exhibitors talkingabout it in a positive way, sat-isfied of their presence in, let’ssay, the only place in Francewhere the woodworking in-dustry has a significant im-portance. The “challenge”with Paris is still running, butmany people say that, if theyhad to choose... For sure, twoexhibitions for this market, es-pecially in the current situa-tion, are definitely too many.
Our curiosity increased whenwe found the biennial exhi-bition of wood and furnitureindustry technology and sup-plies in an extremely partic-ular context. We are talkingabout “be+", an event that
gathered one thousand ex-hibitors over a surface of 80thousand square meters, di-vided into eight “exhibitionsinside the exhibition”, dedi-cated to different but inter-connected topics: from“EnR”, dedicated to renew-able energies,to “Flam’Expo”,about woodstoves and fire-places, from“Enéo” (energy,climate controland manage-ment of waterresources) to “SmartgridExpo”, the event dedicated tonetwork intelligence, and then“The Electric Event”, “Expo-biogaz”, “BlueBat”, the exhi-bition for low energy con-sumption constructions, fi-nally arriving in Hall 6, host-ing “Eurobois”, officially “the
exhibition for constructionwood, woodworking tech-nology and components”.
Pier Goffredo Ronchi is theowner of Promoevents, LyonTrade Fair office in Italy.“This year, Eurobois was setin a peculiar context”, hesaid. “For the first time, it hada dedicated entrance fromthe outside, in addition tothe access through theDome, the central foyer of theexhibition center”.“Hall 6 – continued Ronchi –is dedicated to the woodsupply chain in its wholecomplexity, an event that hasa strong link to the territory, theRhone-Alpes region, which iscertainly the part of France
where the woodresource ismore vital andrepresents animportant ele-ment for econo-my, as well asits processing.Rhone-Alpes, in
other words, is the French re-gion with the biggest woodharvesting volumes and thehighest number of companiesprocessing wood and wood-based products”.Arnaud Wigniolle is themanager of “be+”. He is sat-isfied with this “conglomerate
of exhibitions” and with theresults. “If you come to Lyonyou will have a complete vi-sion of all you need to buildan efficient building; you canfind products and all thenecessary know-how, fromenergy management to in-sulation, from wood featuresto the best technology toprocess it, with higher effi-ciency and cost-effective-ness. Eurobois may seem abit farther from the main top-ic of the event as comparedto the other seven exhibi-tions” he continued. “We consider it as a basic el-ement of the puzzle for aspecific reason: joiners usingtechnology or buying semi-finished products and sup-plies to produce a furnitureitem today enter a house, ashop, an environment to ren-ovate, refurbish or redesignnot only with their specificskills. The most attentive and pre-pared ones cannot do with-out skills and tools enablingthem to deliver not only awell-designed environmentwith furniture, but also acomfortable place, maybewith low energy costs, with aparticularly efficient insulationor next-generation manage-ment and environmental con-trol systems” (l.r.) ■
EUROBOIS, SURPRISES FROM LYON
Arnaud Wigniolle.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 17
FAIRS
Everything is ready. From 9thto 14th April, Milan will be play-ing host to the Saloni 2013,ready to unveil their panoplyof previously unseen home fur-nishing, lighting and officesolutions, along with the bi-ennial shows Euroluce, In-ternational Lighting Exhibi-tion, and SaloneUfficio, In-ternational Workspace Exhi-bition. These will be accom-panied, as usual, by otherevents linked to the worlds ofdesign, art and culture, in thefairgrounds and in the city, ad-dressed both to the large au-dience of the Saloni and to theMilan citizens in general. Withone great keyword: innovation!Cosmit’s President, ClaudioLuti, said: “The key to oursuccess is ensuring that theSalone is the hub of innova-tion par excellence. It retainsits position of leadership byensuring that the trade fair issynonymous with innovationand offers a real preview ofupcoming solutions. Pre-senting new products is notjust exciting for the generalpublic; it also helps motivate
sales teams”. This remarksunderscore the prestige of theSalone Internazionale del Mo-bile and the key role it playsin the furnishing design world:over 300,000 visitors from160 different countries areexpected at this upcomingedition. Figures that may beincredible, but that the Milanrendezvous has taught us toconsider as standard, con-sidering that these are the re-sults that the exhibition hasreached in all recent editions.
Key industry players will in-clude over 2,500 exhibitorsshowcasing their 2013 prod-uct ranges inside the Rho Mi-lan fairground halls. Severalhistorical brands are back tothe Salone Internazionale delMobile and SaloneUfficio,sited directly opposite, in 2adjoining halls (22-24), with12,500 square meters of ex-hibition space. Euroluce,strategically located in 4 halls(9-11 and 13-15) between thePorta Ovest and Porta Sud(West and South Gates), willcomprise 38,000 square me-
ters of exhibition space. The16th edition of the platformfor designers under 35, Sa-loneSatellite is geared to thetheme: “Craftsmanship & De-sign: Together for Industry”.As always, the event pro-vides visibility and network-ing opportunities for emerg-ing young designers. This year too, there will be acompetition for the three bestprototypes conceived andshowcased with particularrelevance to this edition’s bi-ennial exhibitions, Euroluceand SaloneUfficio.
A highlight of the Saloni 2013is Pritzker Prize 2008 winner,French architect Jean Nouv-el’s “Project: office for living”.The exhibit will be set outover a 1,200 square meterspace inside the SaloneUfficiohalls, illustrating several dif-ferent scenarios that give full
rein to the main strands of hisvision of the workspace: mo-bility, conviviality, pleasure,fun, with offices opening ontoboth the inside and the outsideof the building, a rejection ofthe cloned spaces, enclosedspaces and the serial repeti-tiveness that so often char-acterizes offices and their to-talitarian nature.The Saloni are taking on an in-creasingly virtual persona andare an established presenceon the social networks and theinternet. As well as its blog, of-ficial Facebook and Twitterpages, dedicated YouTubechannel and Flickr gallery,they will be boosting their pro-fessional profile on LinkedInand posting a profile on Pin-terest, a social network ded-icated to quality images.
Another news that we hopewill inspire soon other events:thanks to an agreement be-tween Cosmit, Fiera Milanoand ATM (Milanese TransportCompany), another com-pletely new departure forthe Saloni 2013 will be an all-inclusive ticket, valid forpublic transport on Milan’s ur-ban network and for accessto the trade fair. ■
I SALONI ARE BACK!
Some pictures of the 2012 edition.
FAIRS
18 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
The first new thing is thatopening dates have beenswitched: this year it will beLigna’s turn, not Interzum, toopen the “German May”, witha gap of two days betweenthe Hanover rendezvous, fromMay 6 to 10, and the Cologneexhibition, from May 13 to16. Thus, it will not be possi-ble to benefit from overlappingor contiguity, and this meansless time and expenses for allpeople coming from far away.We will see.There is no doubt about thehuge appeal of the twoevents we are talking abouton these pages: Ligna is theundisputed reference point in-volving mainly all manufac-turers of the industry, fromforestry to wood productpackaging. You can take it forgranted. And it goes withoutsaying that with such an ex-cellent exhibitors' offer therewill be a wonderful andcrowded audience of visitorsfor sure. For pity’s sake, thecrisis is still having a strong in-fluence and a bit of pes-simism is not bad, butHanover has all it takes to re-peat the success at which theexhibition is used, even if ithas encountered some diffi-culties, recently.
Over 1,700 exhibitors, morethan half of whom come fromfifty different countries, willbe presenting their innova-tions in Hanover. An “impor-tant” international profile, thatalso applies to visitors which,in 2011 – do not forget that
Ligna is a biennial event –were 90 thousands, of whichmore or less one third comingfrom 90 countries. In Hanoverthey expect a similar turnoutthis year as well.The different national “teams"have booked a total of around130,000 square meters of ex-hibition space. The top-10countries among the partici-pating nations include as usu-al Italy, close to 300 compa-nies, followed by Austria,Spain, Switzerland, Sweden,Denmark, Turkey, Taiwan, Chi-na and the Netherlands.
This year’s show has a sen-tence recalling the 2011 mot-to as a keynote theme, with anenrichment of three morewords. From “Making moreout of wood”, this year thereis a second part added, that is“Innovations, Solutions, Ef-ficiency”. We like it and itmakes sense for the mission ofthis great exhibition, i.e. puttingthe whole industry value chainunder the spotlight – fromforestry economy and woodprocessing and transformation– starting from basic conceptssuch as “innovation”, “solu-tions”, “efficiency”.
LIGNA 2013 KEY TOPICSSo many topics, and it could-n’t be otherwise: from the ob-vious dualism between bigplants for industry and in-creasingly smart machinesfor craftsmen and small com-panies, to “sustainable and in-telligent production”, that is
producing more and better,but with reduced consump-tion, from all points of view.Another key topic is repre-sented by flexible produc-tion modes, now a kind of“prerequisite” also thanks tothe pervasive presence ofnumerical control that hasbeen paving the way for twen-ty years or more. A particularfocus will be dedicated to fin-ishing technologies, in a worldwhere the consumer has to bealways strongly attracted,since spending money onfurniture is no longer a prior-ity. And so design, style maybecome the final factor toeliminate any doubts and buy
a new furniture item. Well, asto functionality and quality,there should not be nothing tosay: It would be impossible tothink that – except for somespecific cases that our read-ers can imagine – the cus-tomer will not be provided withworking furniture solutionswith a guaranteed life cycle.
We will soon talk about theseaspects and many more in thenext issue... ■
LIGNA AT THE STARTING LINE!
On the top, a moment during the speech of Bernhard Dirr. Above Andreas Zuege, General Director of the Italian subsidiary of Deutsche Messe, who held the welcome speech.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 19
FAIRS
Italians do like Interzum.The exhibition is appreciatedby visitors – there are moreand more people coming fromour country – as well as ex-hibitors. We will give you moredetails in the next issue, wherewe will publish an interview toThomas Rosolia, ManagingDirector of Koeln Messe Italia,but we can tell you in advancethat, right now, there are 250representatives of “madein Italy”, against 210 at theprevious edition, in 2011. Andif there were other availablespaces – hard to find, espe-cially in some halls – theywould sell like hot cakes. InCologne they are trying tofind solutions to this prob-lem, but it is not easy.Well, the growth continues forthis exhibition that, after ashort “time for thinking”, hasbrought important Germanbrands to team up and ithas started over at full sail.Just as it happened for allCologne exhibitions focusedon “living”, from Orgatec toImm, from LivingKitchen toLivingInteriors, from Interzum
to Rooms Moscow that, con-sidering its debut schedulednext May, seems to be asuccessful concept. Withoutmentioning other exhibitions.But let's take a step back…
AFTER HANOVERThis year, as we were sayingin previous pages, Ligna willbe first to open the doors andInterzum will follow after acouple of days. There is nohuge worry in Cologne for theimpossibility to benefit of thetwo events with continuityand the agenda is clear:opening four days, from May13 to 16, from Monday toThursday, this is somethingnew as well.Another element that wehave forgotten to focus ontalking about Ligna is that thetwo exhibition companies,however, continue to findcontact points, a cooperationthat has to be particularly at-tractive for visitors. For thisreason, this year, they havedecided to sell one singleticket for both exhibitions.Yes, with one ticket you will
be able to visit Ligna and In-terzum. Not a bad idea…Exhibitors, about six weeksbefore the inauguration, are1,480, fifty more than in 2011.70 percent of them comefrom sixty countries. Also inthis case, Italy brings thelargest national team, (aswe said, with 250 compa-nies), followed by Turkey –yes, we wrote Turkey – andSpain. On the whole, about160 thousand square me-ters will be covered, a fewhundred meters more com-pared to the previous editionof the biennial exhibition.Also in this case, as duringLigna, everything suggestswe will reach the same fig-ures recorded for visitors,53 thousand in 2011, 60 per-cent of them from 147 Coun-tries. Indisputable evidenceof internationality.
TOPICSWe do not know how manypeople will agree with us, butwe have really appreciatedthe idea of simplifying thenumber of “topic areas” sig-
nificantly, unlike the previousstructures of Interzum. Thisyear, there will be just threetopic areas, against seven in2011. Halls 5.1 and 6 willgather companies operat-ing in the wood industry, ve-neers, parquet flooring, dec-orative surfaces, decorativepapers, laminates, wood-based materials, plastic-lam-inated sheet materials, min-eral materials, edgings, sur-face treatments, etc. Theflag characterizing this seg-ment will bear the slogan“Materials & Nature”: the ref-erence is so clear that wecan move on.The second topic are is“Function & Components”.It will cover Halls 3.2, 4.2, 5.2,7 and 8 and there will beroom for lighting systems,semifinished products, Hard-ware, elements, seals, locksand components. “Textile &Machinery”, in Halls 9 and10, the renowned segmentdedicated to materials andtechnology for upholsteredelements, mattresses, coat-ings and leather wares… ■
NEW RECORDS FROM INTERZUM
20 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
THECNOLOGY
Evolved craftsmen – who know their job very welland, at the same time, have acquired the capaci-ty to keep up with technology evolution – are the ref-erence customers for Vitap Costruzioni Mecca-niche in Poggibonsi (Siena), a company special-izing in the production of boring machines for small,medium and big productions, high-flexibility NC so-lutions, semi-automatic contour and automatic sin-gle side trough-feed edge banding machines. In or-der to reach this target, you need a team of skilledresellers, culturally prepared and expert in the in-novation path taken by the company. The event thatopened the doors of Vitap facility from January 21to February 15 was dedicated to them, offering theopportunity to discover and get in touch with “his-torical” and next-generation products.
Founded in 1954 by two skilled mechanics, PietroTanzini and Franco Viciani, Vitap is a companywith deep roots in the Tuscany hand-made furni-
ture production area and counts on about seven-ty employees. It operates on the internationalmarket with an export share reaching 90 percentof production, mainly towards Russia, China andSouth America, regions that have been affected toa lesser extent by the crisis which is still bringingthe Italian market to a standstill.The open-house was an important opportunity toget in touch with the recent production by Vitap, withsome previews on products that will be exhibitedduring the next edition of Ligna. This was confirmedby Franco Tanzini, co-owner and sales managerof the company.
“We invited our resellers from all over the world tomeet them in a different context, taking all the timewe needed. Our “Vitap Lab” is a space that is al-ways ready for this kind of purposes, we use it asa training place and as a showroom that is also atest laboratory... the ideal place to show new de-velopments of the machines that we are going toexhibit at next Ligna”.
VITAP: OPEN DOORS FOR INNOVATIONDuring the open-house held last February, Vitap presented the best of its production in the panel drilling and edgebandingdomain. An opportunity to define new sales strategies with resellers from all around the world, waiting for Ligna.
Franco Viciani, Franco Tanzini and Ambrogio Delachi, president of Acimall.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 21
chine – that we presented in a brand new “design”– and “Smart 3” that carries out gluing, edging,butting and refilling operations, besides “Forma 3”that features a new 3-unit system for panel boringwith eccentric mounting. We exhibited also “Point2”, with further enhancements, and “Point 3”, a ncmachine with a higher automation level andequipped with a laser system to detect the work-piece sizes allowing to install also loading/unloadingsystems to process pieces of completely differenttypes and sizes. With a limited investment it is pos-sible to implement unattended operation of the ma-chine for an hour, for a production of 70-80 pieces,improving the productivity and ensuring significantsaving. Basically one single operator can feed upto three machines, that means that it is possible toprocess two thousand pieces per working shift, onedifferent from the other. I want to add that we have always thought of pro-ducing a single-side edgebanding machine forsmall craftsmen: today, with the problem of cost re-duction, we have simply produced the “universal
A strategic meeting in an economic scenario thatis still difficult...“Definitely, yes. The woodworking world is experi-encing a period of transition and it is increasinglydifficult to approach different markets correctly. Itis not easy to find available resellers: many of themhave disappeared or have strongly reduced dueto the crisis; then it is also difficult to find peoplethat ensure effective after-sales service. Standardresellers are no longer enough, as they cannot han-dle modern technologies where mechatronics is fre-quently found, they are used to spindle molders orbelt saws. We have to find the way to provide ourpotential customers with an effective and aggres-sive technical sales support, in order to obtain themaximum results in a market that does not offer thereseller the opportunity to make big profits.Exhibitions, Ligna first of all, still represent impor-tant elements in this respect, and we intend to lever-age them in the best possible way".
Let’s go back to your open-house: which machinesdid you exhibit?“We presented the two solutions that are giving usgreat satisfaction, starting from “Point” through-feedpanel nc boring machine, featuring developmentsin terms of technology and design that we will pro-pose in Hanover as well. After overcoming the firststages of technology consolidation, this product fea-tures an innovative design, marking – in our opinion– a milestone in the woodworking machinery industry. The second one is “Eclipse”, a contour edge-band-ing machine for curved elements that has reachedits full technology maturity, after constant im-provements. But the event gave also the opportunity to see mostof our machines in operation: single-head and mul-ti-head automatic boring machines and contour andsingle side trough-feed edgebanding machines, thelatter currently going through a significant devel-opment stage.Excellent feedback for NC “Bridge 2” boring ma-
Some pictures from the open house.
A new design for Vitap solutions.
22 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
TECHNOLOGY
machine” allowing to process curved and straightelements, with an unbeatable price and the high-est reliability. And let me say that we are talkingabout a “machine for craftsmen”, but in fact per-formance and productivity bring it far beyond thisdefinition. Craftsmen, small and medium compa-nies, do not only represent the most important partof the reservoir of our potential customers, but theyalso are part of the world we feel closer with, thecustomer we know better”.
Mr. Tanzini, which is the concept that inspires yourproduction?“I would say the development of alternative systems
to obtain the same results, even better, with moreaffordable costs and the same production capacity.From a technical point of view, we offer different in-novations that have allowed us to reach excellentlevels. I think, for example, of the patented systemallowing to move a piece on X axis with a belt with-out continuity solutions and idle times.In more general terms I can say that there is a de-creasing demand for more traditional machines tothe benefit of working centers, a dynamic that alsoinfluences resellers, more willing to propose solu-tions ensuring a higher flexibility, more affordableinvestments”.
“More sustainable” solutions with reduced costs andconsumption… “We need to pay more attention to all opportunitiesand challenges that the market offers. There arecompanies proposing technologies for other ma-
terials, but I believe that there isstill much to do also in the worldof furniture. We process heavypanels, whose production re-quires a lot of energy, obtaininga furniture item or an object oftenwith definitely higher perform-ance as compared to the stan-dard usage. It will not be alwayslike this: in the future different ma-terials will emerge – wood-basedmaterials, composites, plasticsand also metals – that will allowto process with creativity. Moreenvironmental-friendly productsthat will require less energy andresources”.
Has the crisis helped you think in a different way,understand that the world is changing? We need to leverage available resources, improve,not sleep at night. Maybe also Vitap, after twenty-two years of constant growth, “indulged” a little bit.Today, we are clenching a knife between ourteeth, hanging in that space between passion andthe need to hold on tight to our jobs. And we likeit so much that we often wonder where we wouldbe if we did not have such deter-mination...”. ■
Hall 25 - Stand B20.
24 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
IN THE WORLD 3
While referring our readers to the article publishedin the previous issue, we carry on with the reportof our long, intensive and fascinating journey inBrazil, to the discovery of the wood and furnitureindustry. After visiting some of the most interestingsites operating in the Rio Grande do Sul state, wereached the States of Sao Paulo and Parana.Four enlightening meetings, which helped us iden-tify the different "souls" of the Brazilian furniture in-dustry, with a bit of nostalgia for the mixture of Ve-netian-Italian-Portuguese language we had foundin Bento Goncalves, a land where Italian immigrantsfound their new home in the nineteenth century.The language sounds gradually change as youmove up north, suggesting different ancient origins,different people, different roots, but still the same sto-ries of poverty and desire to find new ways to go.
GILBERTO ANTONIO ANCESKIThe first meeting was a man with a Polish name. Hisfather came from Poland, but his destiny broughthim here to meet Mrs. De Gasperi, an Italian woman.Gilberto Antonio Anceski is proud of this doublelink with lands across the ocean. He is one of thegurus – if he allows this expression – of Brazilianfurniture, one of the most reputable engineers andmanagers, a guiding character for his experience,which led him to become the general manager ofMoveis Bartira (www.moveisbartira.com.br), animpressive factory from all points of view, huge, with
hundreds of machines and scores ofmanufacturing lines. The factory pro-duces furniture for a total turnover in ex-cess of 250 million Euros annually,which is a real mountain of furniture con-sidering the average price in Brazil. Theorganization, celebrating its fiftieth an-niversary in 2012, was founded bySamuel Klein, 87 years old, also from
Poland, escaping the horrors of World War II toreach this land of opportunities. In Brazil, he cre-ated an empire, introducing his furniture businessinto the "high spheres" of Brazilian economy.
“Samuel Klein is an extraordinary man”, Anceskisays. “He started as a salesman and realized thathe needed full production control in order to grow.So he purchased Moveis Bartira, a small businessat that time. Investments, determination, a flair forbusiness and effective partnerships turned him intothe owner of the biggest furniture business in Lat-in America, number three worldwide.We are talking about 110 thousand square metersof manufacturing areas, with 1,700 employees work-ing in two shifts. Monthly production amounts to 6thousand wardrobes, 30 thousand bedside tables,30 thousand living room furniture items... Every day,we process about forty trucks of panels and we load65 trucks with finished furniture, to be shipped todistributors”.
The price range is medium-low, volumes are huge.“Out of 200 million people living in Brazil, 170 buy thiskind of furniture. We make 15 thousand pieces per
FROM SAO PAULO TO ARAPONGAS,ON THE TRAILS OF BRAZILIAN FURNITUREA new stage in our journey across Brazil – hosted by Scm Tecmatic – to discover a market that has brought and is still bringing great satisfaction to Italian companies in the wood technology business.
Gilberto Antonio Anceski.
A view of the Bartira showroom.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 25
PART 2SAO PAULO
month of our tv cabinet, for in-stance. The best selling prod-uct in Brazil is small and mul-tipurpose furniture, with a tvcompartment, a door, a cou-ple of drawers, ideal for hous-es that have an average sur-face of 50 square meters.We make regular market sur-veys to identify market de-mand, we transfer informationto our designers, we combine visual requirements withtechnical specifications related to our manufacturingtechnology, and the mix is ready. Our greatest skillis that we can make a Fiat car as beautiful as a Fer-rari, strong furniture, well crafted, durable, with an ex-cellent visual impact, we take inspiration from the mostbeautiful collections we see around the world”.
Anceski also confirms a trend we have seen before:“All furniture is shipped in flat packs, in order to min-imize shipping costs in a very big country, wherelogistics must be kept under strict control. Ikealearned from Brazil”, he adds, laughing. “Each packincludes all you need to assemble: parts, screws,handles, dowels etc.”.
Facts and figures are amazing, such as 12 thou-sand people moving around in Brazil to assemble
Bartira’s furniture, 3,600 trucks for deliveries, onemillion square meters for seven distribution cen-ters in the country.A business with huge figures, obviously based on pan-els and accurate process engineering, relying on lead-ing-edge technology that ensure the productivity lev-els required by Bartira. Here, Scm Group is at home: “I suppose Bartira is the biggest customer for ScmGroup worldwide”, Anceski says. “I can hardly
count the machineswe have purchasedfrom Scm. We haveScm boring machines,18 Scm edgebandinglines, all equippedwith quick loading andunloading systems".
In the giant factory,we could see Barti-ra’s process: a ware-house with 140 thou-sand panels, cover-ing material require-
ments for ten production days; robots loading partsonto “Zenith” boring machines by Morbidelli, de-signed to operate simultaneously on the same el-ement, so as to optimize very complex boringschemes. We saw at least 27 Morbidelli boring ma-chines, all equipped with loading and unloadingsystems “Brush” by Mahros. The edgebanding lines by Stefani have a footprintequal to a couple of football arenas, including eightlines with two double-side “Major” machines by Ste-fani, also equipped with Mahros automated load-ing and unloading systems.
Anceski gently suggests that our interview is over:three hours have gone by since we arrived in the sub-urbs of Sao Paulo, and we didn’t even realize it.He says goodbye: “I worked for several manufac-turers in Bento Goncalves, all quite famous. Then
I moved here in Bartira. In myprofessional life, I have al-ways relied on Italian tech-nology. Today, I am proud ofworking in Brazil’s biggest fur-niture factory, but this is alsoa great responsibility…We have great expectationsfrom the football world
Two pictures of the huge warehouse.
26 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
IN THE WORLD 3
championship in 2014, which add up to theBrazilian government's commitment to support thedevelopment of real estate assets that, especiallyin the suburbs of big cities, are terrifying. But thingsare changing very quickly, opportunities for furni-ture in Brazil have increased and keep growing athigh speed".
ROBERTO CAETANO “… a twenty-year story, startingfrom agriculture, as my businesspartner Irineu Munhoz and I comefrom that area. From agriculturalequipment, to be precise, becausein the Parana State there are manybig farms. At a certain point, we de-cided to invest in a small furniturefactory, looking for a new business.Initially, I continued to sell tractors,while my business partners dealtwith furniture”.
That’s Roberto Caetano about the origins of Caem-mun (www.caemmun.com.br) in Arapongas, anotherbig furniture district in Brazil, in the Parana State, whereapproximately 200 furniture factories are located.“We started off with the production of chests ofdrawers for bedrooms. Those were not easy times:we had a dozen employees and a turnover closeto 40 thousand Euros. We did not let it bring usdown and we started to invest, and luckily thingsstarted to go well, to the extent that two years lat-er, in 1994, I also joined the company".
“Our big shot was the production of embossed Mdfpanels. We were the first to use this material andtechnology in Arapongas, the first to paint and em-boss it with a surface grain impressed by means of
cylinders and dies, and the first to usemodern faster assembling systems.So, we created a good product with asuitable pricing for our market target,which in Brazil is called “Class C”, rep-resenting 50 percent of Brazilian pop-ulation, who demand affordable prod-ucts, easy to assemble, but still withgood quality and a pleasant look”.
Squaring-edge-banding line by Stefani.
“Author” by Morbidelli for special operations.
Roberto Caetano.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 27
PART 2ARAPONGAS
“With embossed Mdf – Caetano continues – wetripled our turnover, acquiring a competitive edgethat allowed us to stay ahead of our competitors fora certain period.In 1996, we entered the living furniture business,which is now our core business, with solutions de-signed internally or by our consultants. Everyyear, we test approximately twenty sets, six or sev-en of which get to the market”.
Caemmun is relatively known in Brazil, with 400 em-ployees and two manufacturing sites, one in Ara-pongas (14 thousand square meters), opened in2011, and another one in Sabaudia (16 thousandsquare meters), a few kilometers away, to becommissioned in 2013.In this region, there are several descendants of Ital-ian immigrants; Caemmun’s production is shippedfrom here all over Brazil, to be sold in big stores andretail chains. Turnover is close to 40 million Euros,15 percent of which from export to Latin and Cen-tral America and Africa.
“We invested a lot and we keep investing”, Cae-tano said. “In 2014, we will start manufacturing ina new site, which we are completing in the Per-nambuco State, in the North-East of the country.This is a strategic region for us, because we get23 percent of our revenues from this area, there-fore it is strategic to produce there, instead of ship-ping goods.For sure, the economic situation is not favorable:crisis is having an impact also in Brazil, though Imust say that 2012 was a very positive year for us,closing with 20 percent turnover increase.We are proving with facts and investments that webelieve in our business.
As I said, we were the first to adopt specific tech-nology and we want to be the first ever... also intechnology and in automation. It is not easy to findqualified and reliable staff, so even in Brazil, in-novative technology is essential to work with a lim-
A partial view of the Caemmun factory in Arapongas.
Inside the showroom…
An office area.
28 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
IN THE WORLD 3
ited number of employees. Especially for organi-zations like ours, which have to deliver several tensof thousands of furniture every year: I can tell youthat we produce some 120-130 thousand "flatpacks" every month.For peace of mind, continuous production and con-sistent quality, we have implemented leading-edge technology, most of which by Scm Group. WithScm Tecmatic, their Brazilian subsidiary, we havealways had excellent relationships, they are skilledpartners, they understand our requirements andhelp us identify the best solution. Capable people,effective technology, excellent after-sales service,not to mention that it is easier when you have to dealwith one single supplier...When we started, we looked around to see what themarket could offer, we watched our colleagues, theirworking methods and the choices they had made.We saw Scm Group machines in operation and werealized they responded to our needs...”.
The secret of success? Caetano has no doubts:“In Brazil, just like in other regions, the secret is toproduce bug volumes with advanced technologyand sell products at fair prices.Look around: we have an “Axioma 125” by Gab-biani for panel cutting, double edgebanding lines“Activa Sb” by Stefani, single edgebanders “So-lution” and boring machines by Morbidelli. In thenew Sabaudia factory, all machines are new, in-cluding one Stefani “Evolution C” and one single-side edgebander “Level Hd” by Idm. Accurate se-lections that, we are confident, will help us carry onour projects successfully".
Furniture ready to be shipped in flat packs.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 29
PART 2ARAPONGAS
DALVO MAROSTICADalvo Marostica is the co-owner ofDJ Moveis (www.djmoveis.ind.br),located in Arapongas, Parana State,with a second factory in Sabaudiaand a distribution center in the North-East.“Our story began with the production of elastic beltsfor upholstered furniture – he says – until 1992, whenwe approached furniture production and decidedto take the challenge, taking over a factory that hadjust closed down and launching the production ofbunk beds made of wood coming from Paraguay… A few years later, the Japanese arrived, desperatelyseeking wood, so raw material was hard to find. Wedid not let them bring us down, we just changedproduction, switching to living room furniture, whichare still our core business today”.
“We took our first steps in this industry – Dalvo Maros-tica continues – usinglaminated panels,then we moved to Uvpainting, in order toproduce and sell atmuch lower prices.We were able to findused equipment,long used... we didnot even have a
sanding machines, and Scm Tecmatic began to pro-duce them exactly in those years. We volunteeredas testers and that’s how our collaboration started.Things went well and in few months we purchasedan even bigger and more powerful sanding machine!We employed up to thirty people and we created ourown sales network... Today we have more than 400employees and we sell throughout Brazil; in addi-tion, we export 25 percent of our production, one halfin Central and South America, one half in Africa, avery promising market… Export has enabled us to overcome periods ofshrinking demand in the past two years, after verypositive trends in 2009 and 2010".
“We could overcome this difficult period – addsMarostica – thanks to investments in technology,especially automation, which is the only way toguide the growth of a company. We have alwaysopted for imported machinery, because we find itmore efficient in ensuring the quality and finishingof the final product; they require less maintenance,
they are more reliable and last longer... We haveestablished a tight relationship with Scm Group”.
Mr. Marostica, what’s your vision of the Europeancrisis?“I must say it made things “easier” for us in termsof sales, because European companies are moreinterested in finding partners in Brazil or in coun-tries that still have significant growth trends…”.
Dalvo Marostica.
Offices.
Two pictures of the showroom.
30 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
IN THE WORLD 3
DJ Moveis is an interesting company, with a pro-gram consisting of two product families addressedto two different market areas. Good quality prod-ucts, with clean and elegant lines, enhanced by thecreativity of internal designers and external con-sultants who take care of the entire creativeprocess, collaborating also at the definition of man-ufacturing methods.The two factories are equipped with two Morbidelli“Zenith A” boring machines, a single-side edge-bander and an “Hd” model, both by Idm. These ma-chines are deeply involved in production, config-ured to achieve rates of 6 thousand “flat packs”,equal to a 30-day stock that represents DJ Moveis’standard, namely 40 thousand different pieces ap-proximately.
IRINEU BORRASCAThe final stage of our journey wasagain in Arapongas, Parana State.We visited a furniture factory spe-cializing in kitchen sets, actually oneof Brazil’s most famous kitchen producers: Nicioli.Irineu Borrasca, executive manager, was ourhost during the visit, illustrating the organization.The hall features a painting of Sant’Antonio da Pado-va, a sort of “certificate” of the origins of this com-pany, and a pleasant conclusion for our journey. Af-ter all, we started talking Italian-Venetian-Por-tuguese and we finished with the flavor of ancientstories of Italian immigrants...Sant’Antonio is the company’s patron saint, and his
sketched picture isthe corporate brand.The first name of thecompany founded in1961 by Marco Nici-oli and his wife was“Industria del PioSant’Antonio”, maybea bit too serious, so itwas replaced by the
family name later on. The business was the pro-duction of sinks and prefab concrete lavatories.Years passed, needs changed and wooden furni-ture emerged, a new business that was ap-proached with the support of an expert partner, Se-bastiao Palmari, joining the company in 1982.There was market demand, there were skill, and alsoinvestment capacity. They started over fromscratch, signing an agreement with Palmari: hewould help them launch their business and, in re-turn, they would support him in the creation of hisown company. Easier said than done, today Nici-oli – as we said – is an established furniture man-ufacturer and Palmari has its own factory.
“The first product – Borrasca says – could only beunder-sink furniture for the kitchen. Then we movedon to wardrobes and, only recently, kitchen sets,which is the current specialization of Nicioli. We havea rich and variegated catalog, ranging from low-costsmall kitchen sets fitting along a single wall, to morecomplex, modular “design oriented” solutions. Thelatter range has nothing less than European pro-duction. Two collections to meet the requirementsof very different customers. Recently, this produc-tion was complemented by a range of wardrobes andfurniture for children bedrooms, with the “Qmovi”brand, a company where I have shares together withSebastiao Palmari and two more people”.
Italian technology in the forefront at Nicioli.
Nicioli's rich offerfor different market segments.
Irineu Borrasca.
32 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
IN THE WORLD 3
Review our January/February issue
In the first part published in the January/Feb-ruary issue of Xylon/Italianwoodtech, we in-troduced Scm Tecmatic with Marcos Mueller,Eko Ambientes and Movergs with IvoCansan, Multimoveis with Ivo Cusin, MoveisVideira with Rogerio Dalla Costa and Bertoli-ni Group with Artur Bertolini.
From foundation until today, things have changed.Quite a lot. Today Nicioli has 260 employees, 55 in“QMovi”, in a factory that covers 26 thousandsquare meters indoors, with over 32 million Euro rev-enues and an export share around four percent.
“Today, good quality furniture also have a marketin Brazil”, Borrasca says. “The basic price rangeis the most important, but this does not mean thatthose customers accept poor furniture or don’t lookfor superior quality products. With Nicioli we wantto satisfy both categories. Our company has cer-tified the quality of production process and prod-ucts, which is not common in this country…Also in the popular segment, as I said, we pursuethe best possible quality. It is not easy, competitionis tough, but we believe this approach is payingback”.
“We address final consumers through an extensivenetwork of shops and stores, which we servethrough a network of independent agents. We havevery loyal customers, who know and appreciate ourquality. Let me be very clear: our kitchen sets cost25 percent more than an equivalent solution, on av-erage. This might be a problem, because in a storeyou have to sell... but if you are looking for a “dif-ferent”, better solution, you know what you have torequest: Nicioli is a synonym for quality, superiorproduct from several points of view”.
Mr Borrasca, can we talk about technology?“To support the quality I mentioned, technology isessential. The selection of highly automated equip-ment, ensuring productivity and consistent quality,
is critical, as it allows to be more competitive andhave a better control on final product price. We areinvesting in machinery and production systems, be-cause it is not easy to find people willing to work inthis industry. There are not enough human resources for all thecompanies in our district! So, automation is the key-word: select faster machines with higher perform-ance, attended by two workers instead of five or six,as required by previous machines.Our latest investment responds to this requirement,it’s a powerful squaring-edgebanding line “Evolu-tion Ssb” with turning device by Stefani and fourboring machines by Morbidelli. High technologywith excellent performance, reliability and pro-ductivity. To tell the truth, this is a direction we tookfew years ago, but as soon as we made the firststeps, we immediately realized it would give us anedge! When we saw how easy it was to managethe huge number of codes that make up our pro-duction, we realized it was a decision we shouldhave made long before…”.
by Luca Rossetti ■
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and maintenance of the wooden and glass parts of doors and windows,
capable of guaranteeing beauty and durability.
The Evergreen Kit comprises: Bi-clean, a single product for cleaning
wood and glass - Re-vive, to revive wood - Ri-nova, paint for
touching up - Abrasive sponge - Microfiber cloth for cleaning -
Paintbrush.
Bark protects the wood and lives with it.
Kit Evergreen protects the beauty of wood.
Holzfreund prolongs the life of wood!
Zetagì Srl - Olmo di C. (VI) ItalyPh. (0)444.228300 - Fax (0)[email protected] - www.zetagi.it
The economic crisis is not slowing down researchand innovation activities by manufacturers and suppliersof products and technologiesfor wood surface finishing.They are focusing on high performance and custom solutions to increase their business in Italy and abroad.
The Italian market, from furniture to doors and win-dows, is slowing down or, at least, is following theslow trend of the construction industry. But manu-facturers of wood surface finishing products andtechnology – from painting to edgebanding, fromsanding to abrasives up to decorative papers – con-tinue to invest in innovation, because even in an en-during economic crisis the final customer consid-ers high quality finishing as one of the most im-portant added values to make a purchasing deci-sion. With an eye (or maybe two) wide open on theinternational situation, where also emerging coun-tries are looking for high performance and, aboveall, custom solutions.
TOP QUALITY AND COSTS UNDER CONTROLAs a manufacturer of automatic spraying ma-chines and robots, as well as painting systems foredges, with 130 employees and a 90 percent ex-port share to China, Russia, Northern Europe andthe USA despite the crisis, Makor in Sinalunga(Siena) – with a production site also in Pesaro forthe Tecnolegno brand – meets the demand – inItaly, first of all – of suitable technology for just intime production, with high flexibility and quick col-
or and set-up changes,according to theprocessed workpiece.The goal? Deliver thehighest quality whilekeeping costs undercontrol. The Italian market has
Focus ontechnology and materials for finishing
Carlo Dolciami.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 35
PERFECT FINISHING UNDER THE SPOTLIGHTS
been stagnating for 3-4 years, but this does notmean it is standing still”, said Carlo Dolciami, SalesDirector of Makor Group. “The most important com-panies, not only big ones but also small businesses,are oriented towards innovation in a market that hasshrunk due to the crisis. The focus is on versatili-ty and quality. Generally, all the people looking forstandard machines, today, prefer to save moneybuying a second-hand machine that can be eas-ily found in the market. The element that boosts innovation is cooperationwith the most significant organizations of retail, look-ing for targeted technology solutions. “Flexibility isthe predominant trend not only for big orders, butmostly for make-to-order strategies. We are work-ing on simplification of machine managementand automation supporting the operator, with theuse of robotics, automatic color change and nu-merical control, targeted solutions to be applied stepby step according to the customer’s needs”. Another point to consider as to research and in-novation is the increasingly widespread use of MDFpanels and particleboard which – for high qualityapplications – require edgebanding operations withfillers and paints. In this case, thanks to the synergybetween Makor and Tecnolegno (i.e. betweenpainting and sanding), the Makor Group is recog-nized as a leader in this industry. Interaction withcoating product manufacturers and final cus-
tomers is daily and constant. “With them, we car-ry out painting cycle tests or we try and test theideas we are thinking about”. Among the next innovation steps, the most signif-icant projects include “...a machining process thatreduces handling operations on workpieces andcombines the different stages on one single ma-chine or several integrated machines, and just-in-time production with competitive costs for batch 1as well as batch 1000”. One of the key strengths of Makor is synergy amongall production departments: Panels, edges, profilesand windows, “…right now, the doors and win-dows business seems to be an area where we stillhave a lot to say, starting from painting operationson dismounted and then assembled windows”.
AUTOMATION AND FLEXIBILITYFiniture, based in Saonara (Padua) and special-izing in the construction and installation of paint-ing plants for doors and windows, furniture, chairsand tables, has no doubt: looking abroad, today,is the only viable solution. And wooden windowsis the area to bet on for the next wave of innova-tion. Matteo Baruzzo, marketing manager,explains that “the Italian market of woodpainting plants has experienced a downfallin recent years, affected by the negativeeconomic situation and investments stag-nation, and, at the same time, by theequipment purchased by most compa-nies in the past decade, resulting into a pro-
Matteo Baruzzo.
The Makor site in Sinalunga (Siena).
The Finiture site in Saonara (Padua).
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duction capacity that largely exceeds market de-mand. Markets like France and Germany contin-ue to invest in wood coating instead”. About 30 employees for a turnover of around 5 mil-lion Euros, sales operations in almost every coun-try of the world through a network of agents/mar-ket watchers, in recent years Finiture has reacheda leading role in the production of doors and win-dows painting plants, “but our know-how allows usto meet the requests for painting operations onturned parts, chairs and children beds”. Technology evolution is oriented towards au-tomation without neglecting flexibility: “Modernplants are equipped with anthropomorphous robotsthat eliminate the need of labor, while ensuring quickproduct changes and adaptability for all products,allowing the company to automate its painting linewithout having to install big plants, respecting cur-rent demands from architects that have forced doorand window manufacturers to propose a great va-riety of shades and colors”. Also certification has brought doors and windowsmanufacturers “…to equip themselves with paint-ing lines to make sure that their windows pass moreand more restrictive quality tests. Plants are de-signed to offer the best technology to meet qual-ity requirements of the workpiece”. And they arelooking beyond the crisis. For the future “woodendoors and windows will still be the products onwhich Finiture will be targeting its technology de-velopment. In the next years, we will focus on theenhancement of our current offer, and we will alwaysbe attentive to catch new needs and develop newtechnology to meet new requirements”.
MORE ELECTRONICS FOR SANDINGWith thirty-year experience in the woodworkingmachinery industry, De Stefani in Birone di Giussano(Monza Brianza) produces single-sided edge andprofile sanding machines, double-sided edge(shaping) sanding machines, edge buffing machines,machines for hot stamping foiling on panel edges,automatic profile sanding polishing machines, topand bottom calibrating/sanding machines as well asloaders and unloaders for profiles, door and angleprofile gluing and assembling machines and dou-ble end profile cutting machines. The key strengthsof all these machines include great technological flex-ibility, ease of use and low maintenance.Almost ten employees, with export markets main-ly concentrated in countries with expanding econ-
omy. “Today the mainexport markets thatare offering interestingopportunities and per-spectives belong tothe Eastern Europeanarea including Rus-sia, Belarus, Polandand Lithuania”, ex-plains Alessio De Stefani, partner of the family-ledcompany. On the contrary, “…the national marketis still experiencing a stagnation stage unfortunately,without signs of improvements or recovery. Weneed real measures for growth, providing compa-nies with the opportunity to invest and people to startspending money again, instead of bank-saving orEurope-saving policies”. Surface finishing is an evolving process. “Our keystrength is to meet the requests of each customerby designing and developing tailor-made ma-chines conceived for the product that the customerwants to sand, an aspect that we fulfill thanks to thesupport of new operating units that meet speedrequirements without affecting final quality”. The most critical aspect in the production processof sanding machines is the achievement of perfectsanding that leaves the product unchanged in allits parts. “Finishing should not cause damage, onthe contrary, it has to improve quality. For this rea-son, design has to be made to measure, respect-ing the material and the shape of the product tosand. Custom mechanics and advanced electronicsare our passwords to beat competition”. The company‘s research activities are focused on ma-chine control and on maximum simplification to in-crease performance. “More intuitive electronics is whatwe are trying to develop in order to obtain operatingcontrol panels that offer easier setup management”.
SOLUTIONS FOR HANDICRAFTEdgebanding is the new challenge that Maggi En-gineering from Certaldo (Florence) – fifty employeesapproximately – hasbeen tackling since2009, combining theproduction of singleside edgebandingmachines for straightedges with the stan-dard offer of NC semi-automatic boring ma-
Alessio De Stefani.
Stefania Maggi.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 37
chines, automatic feed and radial arm saws. Ste-fania Maggi, sales manager, explains the reasons forthis choice: “Our project aims at completing our range,because our products are addressed to craftsmenwho require also edgebanding machines. We pro-duce “entry level” edgebanders, suitable for all thosewho want to approach this kind of processing”. Theproposal has been welcomed by Maggi’s cus-tomers, even in a difficult period affected by the cri-sis. Mostly abroad. As far as the market is concerned,actually, “...in Italy it is difficult to figure out future de-velopments, currently we do not see significant op-portunities or improvements. In general, this trend hasmade us lose some market shares”. Export is doing better, accounting for 90 percent ofturnover today: “We are working to increase this per-centage further. We export all over the world, 60 per-cent into the European area - both West and East,Russia included - then to Turkey, the Mediterranean,North and South America, Australia and India” The guiding principle is to differentiate fromcompetitors. “We have worked to give our machinesuperior features avoiding price wars. The en-hancements include a round rather than rectangularglue tank that avoids the deposition of glue in edgesand its burning, which might prevent correct glu-ing operations; the innovative tank cleaning systemfrom the bottom rather than from the top simply tak-ing lukewarm glue out from a hole; the presenceof two specific motors for each drilling machinerather than one motor; the system of edge trimmingsrecovery in a small tank to ease cleaning operations;the opportunity to move the unused material hold-er into a secondary position to reduce its footprintand save room when the operator is not workingon the machine. Small details that are important tosupport the sales activity of our resellers”. The staff of the company’s technical office contin-
ues to work on this added value. “Our key goal isto be able to offer the reseller a high-end product,for this reason we are producing new types of mod-els for an increasingly complete machining range”.
AD-HOC ABRASIVEA wide vision on the market – from wood-furnitureto metal, from tanning to plastic materials and com-posites – allows Nastroflex, the company from Lev-ada di Ponte di Piave (Treviso) specializing in theproduction and processing of flexible abrasives forsurface sanding, to catch all different dynamicscharacterizing the current scenario. “We have started the year 2013 with positive per-spectives”, said Gianluca Pellicciari, CEO. “Thewood and furniture industry recorded a negative trendin 2012, but there are positive signs from several Ital-ian companies that are facing the crisis and that wesupport to improve their production processes”. The facilities in Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milan) and Pontedi Piave have one hundred employees, with an ex-port share that reached 40 percent in 2012 and thatis expected to grow further in the current year, in par-ticular in Central and Northern Europe and in SouthAmerica. “Our customers are manufacturers expe-riencing strong growth or willing to improve their pro-duction processes, and they ask for high quality prod-ucts and skills to leverage them most effectively”. The selection criteria for abrasives vary accordingto geographical areas. “In South-Central Europewood has been replaced by film-coated panels,while Northern Europe and South America prefersolid wood and veneers. To the former, we offer highfinishing quality abrasive papers given that the thick-ness and the need to limit painting costs do not al-low to have margins for multiple processes, while for
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the latter – operating in markets with strong growthrates – we are focusing on products ensuring highdurability without compromising on performance.The use of high quality abrasive belts allows to ob-tain a perfect finishing result, while reducing theamount of paint that has to be used. Another keyelement is customization. “According to the type ofpaint and production process, we offer different so-lutions in terms of substrate (paper or film), con-struction (open or closed), anti-static or anti-clog-ging formulas that protect abrasive surfaces fromadhesion of sanding dust, improve performance aswell as the healthiness of the working environment”.Dialogue with paints manufacturers and paintingtechnology suppliers is vital. “We regularly organ-ize technical meetings with the leading paint andmachinery manufacturers. This is very useful to catchnew trends and develop combined solutions, for ex-ample for water-based paints that are increasinglywidespread but have specific sanding problems”.
HIGH QUALITY MEETS ELEGANCEHeadquartered in Thansau, Germany, with an Ital-ian branch in Rosate (Milan), 140 employees for na-tional and international business, especially in theMediterranean countries where the export volumeof decor papers and/or melamine or finish foils ac-counts for 40 percent of production, Schattdecoris one of the leading manufacturers of decor papersfor wood and furniture items worldwide. Decor printing is a process involved in the productionof decor paper; i.e. paper printed to reproduce wood
or other materials andthen laminated to a rigidsubstrate of furnitureitems (surface of work-tops, cabinet fronts, fur-niture frames, etc.) orother general elements(boiserie, laminate floor-ing etc.). Decor paper
designs can be divided into the following three cat-egories: wood reproductions, reproductions and in-terpretations of stones, fabrics, tiling and metallicsurfaces, and fancy and abstract designs. According to Franco Lozza, Sales Director ofSchattdecor Italia, in Italy “…the furniture marketcontinues to experience a period of strong difficulty,mainly due to complex financial situations with sig-nificant delays in payments. We see companies col-lapsing every week, and the conditions of the Ital-
ian economy where the construction industry is stillstagnating are worsened by the bigger problemsof the Mediterranean region, an important referencemarket for our products and for the production ofour customers. It is difficult to forecast the trend ofthe next months”. Innovation is not only based on quality but also onelegance and look, according to latest designtrends, combining décor papers with new printedpapers with glossy solid colors, and digital print-ing solutions on décor papers using rotogravureprinted colors. Since 2011, the market has been of-fering digital printed products with specific and cus-tom patterns based on customer specifications. “Be-sides all these product/design innovations, we con-tinue our research activities in the field of impreg-nation, to discover increasingly innovative tactilesurfaces and resistance features”. Going beyond simple pattern development, thecompany is focusing on “the need to study the work-piece as a whole. This means that, when we ap-proach a new design, we look at the finished prod-uct and we address research and production ac-cordingly, providing our customers with a widerange of solutions that are constantly updated andin line with design trends and their technical re-quirements, without compromising on technical andquality performance”.
by Olivia Rabbi ■
Franco Lozza.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 39
Zetagi (www.zetagi.it) is a well known historicalbrand for the water based coatings used to protectthe outdoor and indoor wood structures, with a widerange of high performance coatings, among whichis the “Retron” line of products designed for thetreatment of indoor wood surfaces.It is a line of bi-component water based poliure-tanic products, using acrylic resins and a specif-ic alifatic hardener (code 730030).The product line in-cludes base coats,clear insulating andpigmented insulat-ing water basedproducts that pro-tect the wood with aflexible but highlyresistant film easyto sand, as well asclear top coats (20gloss) and pigmented top coats for the best finishing.The top coats “Retron” – water based − aremade from a poliuretanic base with a peculiar for-mulation that is very suitable for furniture and in-door wood products.The resins used, together with the other compo-nents of the formulation of the top coats “Retron”(water based), give the coating film its characteristicflexibility and resistance to the oxidizing agents aswell as to the yellowing caused by the sun rays;moreover the surface of the wood products treat-ed becomes particularly resistant to scretches orerosion caused by cleaning chemicals. ■
ICA“SUPERCARE” RANGE
ZETAGÌ“RETRON”: LINE
Ica's R&D laborato-ries have developeda series of top coatsthat not only meetthe requirement toachieve surfaces withhigh levels of opaci-ty but that also offerexcellent perform-ance and have mini-mal environmentalimpact.These were the three
objectives of the “Supercare” range, which is com-posed of extra-matt top coats with high levels ofchemical/physical resistance and extremely low Voccontent. These products feature high levels ofscratch resistance, chemical resistance and mar resistance. Moreover, they are able to endowthe object to which they are applied with a perfectmatt finish, and to do so in a way that respects theenvironment.The technologically advanced “Supercare” range,which encompasses both transparent and pig-mented coatings, is available in various configu-rations: water-based bicomponent, water-based Uvand high solid content Uv. The range has been de-signed to meet an array of different requirements,even taking in different application technologies,since the range contains products for spray androller application.Ica has been developing wood-coating productswith low levels of environmental impact for morethan two decades, and so can leverage a greatdeal of practical experience, allowing it to selectthe most appropriate raw materials and formula-tions for the intended use. ■
Ligna
B12 – Hall 12
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 41
Among the top products offered by Nastroflex(www.nastroflex.it) to all customers, “431RA” is anabrasive with E-wt paper backing (235-245gr/sqm), widely used to provide a steady grip onsurfaces coated with melamine paper and de-signed to be painted with acrylic or polyester paints. Its peculiarity is the consistent finishing qualitythroughout its lifecycle, ensured by a decay curvethat remains basically flat until the end of useful life(Chart 1).This avoids frequent machinery adjustments, withsignificant time saving for the operator.This abrasive product is very popular in the furni-ture industry, having been optimized over the yearsto achieve excellent technical features. Perform-ance in the preparation of surfaces for finishing andpainting operations is clearly represented incharts, showing that, throughout the processing cy-cle with a “P400” grain wide belt mounted on abuffer sanding unit, “431RA” achieves roughnesslevels much lower than competitive products,and consequently, much smoother and consistentsanding (Chart 2). ■
GIARDINA FINISHINGADVANCED AND RELIABLE TECHNOLOGY
NASTROFLEXLATEST PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENTS
Giardina Finishing is engaged in the coating of wood,glass and plastic materials with a wide range of tech-nologically advanced and highly reliable plants.The type of Giardina products answers all paint-ing requirements ,including lines for coating of flator shaped panels, doors, windows, assembled fur-niture or three-dimensional pieces, turnings, pro-files, parquet flooring and building materials , etc. The attention paid to the demanding market of thewood industry has in fact pushed Giardina to seekand to apply new industrial technologies to ensurehigher productivity systems even for small productionbatches, the high quality of the painted pieces andthe reduction of the environmental impact.Environmental protection is in fact one of the maintargets of Giardina, amply demonstrated by thesuccessful introduction of the revolutionary patent-ed “selected microwawe drying system Mos”for drying of industrial water-based paints.Furthermore ,in the field of Uv drying, the series of“Gst” ovens enriched with the introduction of theenergy-efficient electronic power control system “UvPlus”, which allows considerable energy savings,and increased lamp life. ■
Microwawe oven “Mos”.
”Uv Dryer Gst Plus Albatros”.
Chart 1 – Abrasive decay
Chart 2 – Rugosity achieved from 431RA and from competing product
(belt on top – group with pad)
Shea
rM
axim
um ru
gosi
ty in
…
Competing product
Competing product
Working hours
Worn beltNew belt
Nastroflex 431/RA
Nastroflex 431/RA
Detection phase
42 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
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www.xylon.it
Un click per tuffarti nella filiera legno
Based in Pradamano (Udine), Cma Robotics (www.cmaro-bot.it) stands out for the innovative, reliable solutions it hasbeen providing to the painting market. Besides ensuringclearly higher product quality compared to manual appli-cations, the company’s plants not only guarantee remark-able paint saving, but also environmental safeguard.Two of these solutions are represented by plants for theautomated painting of doors, windows and cabinet doors.The doors and windows system is able to ensure out-standing painting qualitywith no need to program therobot, and this thanks to theuse of an optical readingsystem which detects theworkpiece shape and size,consequently generatingthe program for the robotbased on parameters thatcustomers may choose ac-cording to their specific re-quirements. The painting of cabinet doors is carried outby robots assisted by 2d and 3d vision systems for pro-gramming, which is completely automatic. Customers canadapt application parameters to their needs or the typeof gun and/or paint. The final product quality has no com-parison with other automatic plants, most of all with highgloss paints. These systems incorporate a software for au-tomatic gun cleaning and quick color change; in addition,they comply with different standards, including Atex forthe use of inflammable products. ■
CMA ROBOTICSQUALITY IN INNOVATION
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 43
Makor (www.makor.it) willexhibit at Ligna 2013 the lat-est generation of cn roboticsprayer for flat finishing ofpanels and volumetric com-ponents for furniture. Thenew “Robospray” has beendesigned to achieve the bestfinishing quality both withmatt and high-gloss coat-ings, at the same time en-suring maximum flexibilityfor small series and just-in-time production. The solution adopted byMakor with cn anthropomor-phic arm outplays the tradi-tional cartesian coordinate ro-bots. The new version whichwill be presented at Lignacombines high quality finishwith high productivity. Themachine has two arms, thefirst one is the anthropomor-phic cn robot arm alreadyadopted for the previousmodel, while the second armis an oscillating unit. Thiscombination allows the ma-chine to be very versatile as
it can work both in robotmode (first arm on as cn ro-bot, second arm off) and re-ciprocating mode (both armsoscillating in a big volumet-ric cabin, hence high vol-umes of paint can be appliedat high speed). But the most interesting fea-ture will be the possibility towork as through-feed robot-oscillating mode, that is –with panels moving forwardwithout stopping inside thecabin like traditional robotsrequire, the first cn arm willbe coating the edges of pan-els as they are moving for-ward, while the second armwill be coating the top face ofpanels, thus matching highquality finish on edges withhigher productivity.
With regards to edge sealingtechnology, a special appli-cator mounted on the “Gem-ini” machine, patented byMakor, makes it possible toseal chipboard panel edges
by using a clear Uv putty ma-terial. This process is addressedboth to producers ofwrapped panels who use in-creasingly attractive thinnerfinished papers and to clientswho must produce lacqueredpanels from melamine-facedchipboard panels. Thanksalso to the expertise andsanding solutions of the sis-ter company Tecnolegno,several installations havebeen made by Makor Groupin the last few years for seal-ing edges in Mdf and/orchipboard. On top of this, a new ink-jetprinting application has beenadded to make the edge
coating process always morecomplete and attractive topanel manufacturers, as itopens a new possibilities tocoating the edge in line withany kind of matt or highgloss color after its sealingand sanding preparation,basically a new step towardsa fully finished edge. ■
MAKOR, QUALITY AND FLEXIBILITY
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“Magnum” is thetop level machineamong Superfici’sspraying machines;the machine guar-antees the highestquality level thanksto the large cabin and the wide distance betweenthe spraying arms together with high feed speeds.“Magnum” has these main technical features: in-dependent driven reciprocators with offset ad-justment to optimize the spraying path of one armwith respect to the other (patented). This achievesan optimal lacquer distribution even in the most crit-ical applications.Multiple lacquer reclaiming and belt cleaningunits allow to have the possibility of a differentialreclaiming of the different lacquer materials and thequick lacquer change from one lacquering prod-uct to the next one. A colour change software isintegrated in the machine control.Equipped with patented pressurization systemwith air flows at the machine infeed and outfeed.The automatically changing filter is optional. Thesystem achieves the automatic filter change with-out stopping production and with no need for theoperators to enter the spraying cabin and to han-dle dirty filters. The dirty filter automaticallychanges on operator request or automatically af-ter a certain amount of production has beenprocessed. In this way the spraying machine canguarantee the same suction quality for a very longtime; avoiding production losses, keeping constantthe quality of the sprayed pieces and preventingthe operators from executing un-healthy jobs. ■
SUPERFICISPRAYING MACHINE “MAGNUM”
Nerli (www.nerli.it), technologies on its own designfor furniture finishing and execution of a completecycle for brushed glossy paints at the highest lev-el with special sanding machines, new conceptbrushing machines “Grotos” and polishing ma-chines for kitchens, wardrobes, doors, musical in-struments and others with finishing on polyurethaneand polyester, glossy, opaque and transparentpaints, Wengè, Zebrano, walnut Daniela, bleachedand coloured durmast and others.The new brushing machine “Grotos 18000” givesthe paints the best finishing with high gloss bright-
ness, without scratchesor damaging of the out-side edges of panelsthanks to the newest andinnovative technologiesthat allow to machinepaints with the highestsoftness : with two com-bined, contemporary and
adjustable rotating motions and rotation reversalthe highest brightness is obtained.The Transversal sanding machines are specificallymanufactured to carry out the sanding of panelsto be polished besides other kind of workings onwood and paints. In fact, any top quality polishingcan be obtained without a perfect and soft sand-ing, especially if directly compared with finishingwithout shadings and undulations or if testedagainst the light with “mirror effect”. We also produce modular wide upper belt sand-ing machines equipped with the newest innova-tions and special heads for super finishing of ourown design that allow original solutions and thebest qualitative performances. ■
Sanding line “Corian”.
“Grotos 18000”.
NERLITECHNOLOGIES FOR BRUSHED BRIGHT
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 45
It’s official: few weeks ago,Sayerlack became a brand,a name that we will continueto use for an organization thathas been operating in theworld of wood for decades.That’s ok for us, as the corehas not changed substan-tially. Only the companyname has changed, the or-ganization, the sign of a spe-cific strategy, a season of fur-ther renewal and stronger de-termination to be leaders.Last January, Sherwin-Williams Italy srl was found-ed from the merger of Say-erlack srl and Sherwin-Williams Italy Coatings srl,both belonging to The Sher-win Williams Company, theAmerican corporation whichrepresents one of the mostimportant international groupsin the coatings industry. TheSherwin Williams Compa-ny, we say it for the few peo-ple who may not know it, isspecializing in the production,distribution and sales ofpaints and coatings for in-dustries, professionals, dis-tributors and shops; it oper-ates all over the world, with
facilities located in 30 coun-tries and more than 30 thou-sand employees, managing– in fact – about fifty differentbrands, for a total turnoverexceeding 9.5 billion US dol-lars in 2011.A highly reputable organi-zation that is giving a strongsign to the sales networkand its customers throughthis operation, aiming at in-creasing integration of theseveral resources providedby the American giant. Forthe Italian market as well.Sherwin-Williams Italy, thus,will produce and distribute
Sayerlack, Linea Blu, Oeceand Becker Acroma prod-ucts and paints.The first “official show-up” ofthe new company occurredat the end of February inBologna, during the pres-entation of the operation tothe sales force. Reactionswere definitely positive andthe official announcement –even if news had spreadamong the attendees longbefore – took place in an at-mosphere of general enthu-siasm and curiosity, with theclear awareness of the hugeopportunities that this new or-ganization may offer to thenetwork and to the customersabove all.
Agents and resellers met themanagement of the compa-ny to analyze the sales re-sults, define new goals for theyear to come and celebratetogether the brand new com-pany. The event was also at-tended by Dennis Karnstein,Sr. Vice President & Gener-
al Manager - Europe, ProductFinishes Division; AlbertoElli, vice president and Con-troller Global Finishes Group;Ivan Costantini, Marketingdirector Europe , togetherwith a representative groupfrom Spain, led by StefanBuzzi, General ManagerSpain.Alessandro Pirotta, Man-aging Director South Eu-rope, had the task to illus-trate the “changes in conti-nuity” and the spirit withwhich the markets should beapproached, also thanks toan excellent offer of techni-cal products for wood, whichremains the core businesscombined with a completerange of products for glassand an interesting approachto plastic supports. But we will talk about it in thecoming issues of Xylon,when we will publish an in-terview to Alessandro Pirot-ta who will help us under-stand the details of the op-eration. ■
SHERWIN-WILLIAMS ITALY
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 47
TWO MACHINES IN ONEFOR PERFECT FINISHING
In order to be competitive in an industry such asfurniture, and kitchen sets in particular, where fin-ishing represents a basic part of the productadded value, it is vital to have suitable and inno-vative technology to ensure high results reducingcosts and processing times. This is the strategyadopted by Pandolfi in Pesaro, a company of Or-namobil Group, with a story of over thirty years inone of the most important manufacturing areas ofmade-in-Italy furniture. The historical specialization lies in the productionof brushed glossy furniture doors, that today areone of the key-products of the industry in Italy as wellas abroad and the ace in the hole of a company pro-ducing customized furniture items, complete andcontract solutions, with a strong focus on the ship-building industry. The integration of Pandolfi with-in the Ornamobil Group, in 2004, brought the
company to carry out new investments for tech-nology equipment in order to improve the per-formance level in an increasingly demanding mar-ket, leveraging next-generation machines developedin partnership with some of the most important Ital-ian brands, including Group Cefla of Imola (Bologna)for painting and Viet (based in Gradara, near Pe-saro Urbino) for sanding and brushing. Viet – a company that has recently joined BiesseGroup – has developed a brand new machine forsurface brushing and polishing, integrating theprocesses previously carried out by two separatemachines, with a single feed-through plant that re-leases a fully-finished panel. Not a minor change,for a company with about twenty employees and aturnover that - only for furniture doors - reaches twomillion Euros and that, above all, allows to look atthe future with program expansion projects, thanksto the opportunity to offer new kinds of finishing.
We have talked to Orlando Magi, ProductionManager of Group Ornamobil, about the featuresof this new plant and the benefits that it offers forthe machining process.
Mr. Magi, you have acquired advanced tech-nologies to process brushed glossy ele-ments ensuring also flexibility so as to car-ry out other painting operations as well: thisallows you to face an economic seasonwhich is not easy...“In fact, we have integrated two machines
Less processing steps, quick operation and flexibility for just-in-time is equal to higher competitiveness and high-qualityfor demanding markets. The idea stems from Pandolfi, Ornamobil Group, that has developed this new technology with Viet.
Orlando Magi.
Two pictures of “Lacc System”.
48 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
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in one, a system we have enhanced with Viet. Theneed to carry out just-in-time doors processing,brushing and buffing without production fromstock, has led us to this new technology. There areseveral benefits. This set-up allows us also to diversify customersthanks to a higher resistance to market's ups anddowns. With this machine we can deliver completekitchen furniture doors within three weeks, fi-nalized and shipped to any customer, in 160 col-ors from our catalog, half of which are glossy andthe other half matte”.
How is it possible to manage all this options alsofor small batches and orders?“… with extremely quick color change. For this rea-son, manufacturers have developed solutionssuitable for “just in time” processing, thanks to whichit is possible to reduce costs and wastes, while fororders of two, three pieces we work with booths.Currently we produce from 10 to 15 thousandpieces per month, we receive three orders permonth and – as I was saying – we process themwithin three weeks. This means that a delivery isscheduled every week. Very short times, without
HIGH TECHNOLOGY FOR QUALITY
“Lacc System” process by Viet is anautomatic continuous cycle solution,based on machines with a modularconcept for sanding, buffing andpolishing panels, processes that un-til now required various machines andconsiderable labor resources. This solution completely eliminatessetup times, resulting in big timesaving in the selection and position-ing of panels to be placed onto theworktable. The line concept of the sys-tem ensures operation continuity,avoiding idle times waiting for thecompletion of the previous batchbeing processed. The adjustment parameters allow theuser to maintain uniform qualitystandards regardless of the wear oftools or different panel types. Thesesolutions preserve the edges andsharp corners of the panels ensuringthat they remain intact without the needto use special protective elements. The cycle speed allows the cus-tomer to obtain high production vol-umes maintaining constant qualityparameters. The modular system also allows todevelop customized machines meet-ing specific production require-ments. According to the differentconfigurations, it is possible to pro-vide customized solutions aimed at
satisfying the important work load ofbig companies as well as smallerproduction outputs, suitable for smalland medium companies that want toobtain optimal finishing results withlimited budget and labor. The mostsophisticated “Lacc System” in-cludes: unit with two separate cottonbrushes, oscillating and inclined inopposite direction one from the oth-er; station with six rotating and os-cillating brushes with Rham glosscotton rollers; “RhamGloss” rotatingbuffing unit. All the func-tions of the system aremanaged through aTouchSreen 15” interfacesimplifying the activitiesof less expert operators.
Viet also produces “S4”industrial sanding cen-ter which allows to carryout sanding and cali-brating operations inhigh-productivity auto-matic lines, thus ensuring constantquality performance also for thetoughest processes. The machine in-corporates roller working aggre-gates with up to 400 mm diameter,ideal for the pre-sanding of ve-neered and/or painted panels and forthe finishing of solid wood panels; a
cross unit with 8.700 mm actionrange, available both at the inlet andat the outlet; and finally, a super-fin-ishing “Ipp" unit - Viet patent1979 – which, thanks to a larger con-tact surface than traditional pads anda laminar belt between pad andsanding belt, ensures excellent fin-ishing quality on any product type.The cross unit, the pad and super-finishing units are equipped with“Hp” and “Hp Duo” patented sys-tems (“High Performance Duo”).
The new mechanics of “Hp” pad al-lows to use minimal pressure valueson pneumatic cylinder pads, keep-ing unaltered copying capacity, in-creasing the sensitiveness to surfacevariations and reducing the ob-struction of abrasive belt with con-sequent life extension. ■
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 49
considering requests for out-of-size options, but any-way we have to adapt to market changes. Considerthat big customers ask for certain costs and pro-cessing times; if we cannot meet the customer’srequests, we lose the job”.
This has driven you to buy more flexible and quick-er technology: have you found answers to yourneeds?“Sure. Times are not easy, but today we can lever-age the results of the efforts for a project that hastaken us four years of hard work. The collaborationwith Viet has led us to define machines that haveproved to be absolutely perfect and strongly prof-itable for huge orders. But the demand for this kindof supplies is rather limited and we have to face ahuge demand for highly complex small batches.Exactly the opposite. For this reason, we have triedto think of a way to leverage a technology suitablefor big productions also to carry out small batch-es ensuring the highest quality. It has not been soeasy but with specific changes and cooperation withViet we have succeeded in doing it”.
Thus, advanced technologies for high productivi-ty and maximum flexibility, always considering hand-made orders. How can you manage all this? “With patience and professionalism. We need ac-curate and expert operators, mainly for manual pro-cessing. The rest is represented by machine fea-tures, with automatic color changes without pumpreplacement and with automatic cleaning, the op-portunity to have two catalysts with two, three, fivedifferent color types allowing to cut processing times. Mdf panels, particleboard and laminated panels aretaken to the production site and stocked in the bufferwarehouse according to their sizes, ready to be se-lected for the order. The first sanding operationsof raw wood are carried out with Viet “S4” cali-brating sanding machine. We cut the panels,mainly Mdf and we stock furniture doors in the ware-house with a base made of white sanded polyester.
When we get an order we create the different BOMsaccording to the colors and we start to sand piecesand paint the inside part, then the same operationis carried out in the “nice” side. And then outerbrushing, buffing and cleaning processes are im-plemented as well as delivery. Beyond kitchen setsand furniture in general, we also process doors foroffice furniture, pressed mdf and pvc, we produceveneered wood and we paint panels using Uv prod-ucts that we can brush in a second stage.As I was saying, until recently we were forced tocarry out the last stages of the process with two ma-chines, a brushing and a buffing machine. Now weuse one single plant, “Lacc System”: we load thepieces and the process can start. In the first ma-chine there is a longitudinal brush that brushes andfinishes the piece, while for the second machine wecan chose what we need, thus rotational or longi-tudinal system according to the finishing result wewant to obtain. At this stage, disks areused for buffing operations and wehave just to take our furniture doorsfrom the outbound table. We takethem in the packaging department,where they are protected with specificfilms and labeled according to the or-der and that’s it.We have a color control room that al-lows us to check the color resultsthanks to the simulation of the differ-ent kinds of lights available, and that allows us toobtain the highest quality, so that only perfect fur-niture doors will be produced in our site”.
Finishing is the last stage of the cycle, what the fi-nal customer perceives in a stronger way…“Exactly. The quality, the aesthetic value of a fur-niture item significantly depend on our job. For thisreason as well we have decided to deal with thewhole cycle, leaving external operators and man-aging the whole process independently. Of coursewith suitable technologies…”. ■
“Viet S4” in operation.
50 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
THECNOLOGY
“A presence that intends to illustrate what the ScmGroup is today: a large, strong industrial group, en-gaged in conceiving and creating innovative tech-nologies that give substance to ideas, that make pro-duction more simple, efficient, economic and com-petitive”. That's how Raphaël Prati on 5 February inBerlin, during a preview dedicated to the Germanpress, described the themes that will characterisethe presence at the forthcoming Ligna in Hanover.
“In recent years we have governed a new evolutionof our sixty-year history”, continued the Group Com-munications Director. “In a difficult economic situ-ation we have refocused on our business approach,on our constant search for a more effective part-nership with our customers: from the small crafts-man to the large corporation which needs to pro-duce in large volumes. With the utmost attention towhat we believe to be the true, essential revolution,that is, to make complex things simple…”.
Technological expertise, production capacity, processknowledge, closeness to users: all this will be sum-marised in three stands of over 2,600 square me-tres in hall 25 (industrial solutions), hall 11 (car-pentry solutions) and hall 26 (industrial compo-nents), whose image has been designed in collab-oration with BloomLab, a prestigious architecture anddesign firm that boasts many and well-known part-ners. Hiteco, the brand focused on production of elec-trospindles, drilling units, robotic units and worktops,offering optimal performance for both group solutionsas well as for the most prestigious Italian and inter-national industrial companies, will be in Hall 26.
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONThe presentation during the Ligna will first of alldemonstrate the ability of the Scm Group to gen-
erate technological innovation. Continuously andin all sectors in which the thirty brands of the groupare active.Hiteco, the brand focused on production of elec-trospindles, drilling units, robotic units and worktops,offering optimal performance for both group solu-tions as well as for the most prestigious Italian andinternational industrial companies, will be in Hall 26.There will be many innovative machines, systems andnew or profoundly renewed work cells on show withthe possibility to see them at work. Solutions designedto deliver real benefits to users, able to collaboratein the production of improved objects and elements,more easily, with lower costs and in less time.
LEADERSHIP IN PRODUCTION PROCESSWith this pay-off the Scm Group emphasises its vo-cation in the “Industrial” field, that is, “high end”solutions for large-scale production.From the “Housing” division – technologies for thosedealing with the home as a “shell” – like the new ver-sions of the “Accord” work centre series for windowframes and solid wood in general, of particular in-terest, in addition to the “Dogma” angular work cen-tre and the powerful “Superset” moulder.For the first time, the Scm Group will present a num-ber of work cells, true “factories” at the Ligna.Among these, the innovative cell, whose name will
SCM GROUP, ONCE AGAINPROTAGONIST AT LIGNAIdeas and technologies, innovation, passion and design will be the keywordsthat will mark the participation of the Italian group in the forthcoming edition of Ligna in Hanover from 6 to 10 May 2013.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 51
be revealed at the event, dedicated to the pro-duction of window frames and solid wood ma-chining, able to work without supervision, to the ben-efit of increased productivity. A highly automated solution for batch production,but with which it is also easy to manage specialpieces, particular shaped window frames, one-offpieces. Productivity and at the same time total flex-ibility, small working dimensions and the opportu-nity for a rapid return on investment also make thisincredible solution accessible to small and medi-um-sized frame makers.These principles characterise the three work cellspresented by the “Furniture” division, designed fora market seeking more integrated production sys-tems. Not to be missed are the cutting cell proposedby Gabbiani, the boring cell by Morbidelli and the“Easy Order Az” by Stefani, a “smart” one-batchedgebanding cell which checks a thousandstimes per second all the operations being carriedout, reaching unthinkable levels of efficiency andversatility: whatever the daily production volume –from three kitchens to a living room, a single shelffor furnishing an office – using the “Easy Order Az”is always cost-effective.An example of the possibilities that are common tothis segment of the Scm Group offer.
CARPENTRY SOLUTIONSGreat commitment also on the “historic” side of theItalian group, that is, further evolution of the ma-chines identified by the red logo. Minimax proposesrobust, compact, safe and easy to use classic ma-chines, created for the demanding hobbyist but alsochosen by wood professionals.Scm offers “stand alone” solutions, dedicated tomade-to-measure production but designed forsmall batches, for the evolved craftsman, machinescapable of high performance thanks to the signif-icant technological content, for maximum finishedproduct quality and easy and intuitive operation. Be-cause it is important to make simple even the most
complex operation or machining …In the forefront are the new developments on the“L'Invincibile” range, a brand that distinguishes thehigher end of classic Scm machines. At Ligna, inHall 11, as many as 28 machines, including com-pletely new solutions or solutions with new aggre-gates will be on show, demonstrating that evenwhen demand is less “stimulating”, the Scm Grouphas continued its commitment to research and in-novation in all sectors, from panel sizing to classicmachines, from edgebanding to boring, from fin-ishing to work centres.The “Olimpic K 660” edgebanding machines, the“TI 145 Ep Class” electronic spindle moulder withprogrammer and tilting shaft and the new Scm“Tech Z1 pro space boring and milling work cen-tre will certainly be the talk of the show. Ligna willbe the baptism for this work centre, “designed forall carpentry workshops”, which requires limitedspace and has technical features enabling greaterproductivity, with extremely short set up times and– once again – great ease of use.The common denominator of all the technologiespresented at Ligna by the Scm Group is its com-mitment to make every operation absolutely sim-ple and intuitive; thanks, for example, to the“Watch” line supervisor, to the “Tecpad” remotecontrol Cnc console and to the new functionalitiesof “Professor Pappagallo” which enable opera-tors to manage every process with great ease. Be-cause, we repeat once again, the challenge lies inmaking complex things simple!
“ECO”, CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT,ECONOMIC ADVANTAGEThe Scm Group at Ligna 2013 will provide a furtherdemonstration of its ability to create solutions withmaximum respect for the environment, in all itsforms, with the desire to provide concrete economicadvantages for users.Particular attention will be focused on the poten-tial of the “Savenergy” packages which charac-terise all group machines and solutions. A set of in-novations, components, aggregates and expedi-ents which - specifically applied to individual ma-chines and for different production processes - willallow a reduction in consumption (energy and ma-terials) and less wear of parts. Measurable savings,therefore, perfectly quantifiable. ■
Halls 25, 11 and 26.
52 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
THECNOLOGY
The woodworking machinery market in Italy includesseveral excellent actors that can face global com-petition. Masterwood in Rimini (www.master-wood.com) is a fully fledged member of this com-munity and a reference supplier for the wood in-dustry. “Masterwood is an Italian-German al-liance”, says Giancarlo Muti, founding member ofMasterwood. “Our success basically results fromtwo factors: the first, typically Italian, is the capacityto understand the needs of our target market andto translate them into woodworking machinery; thesecond, typically German, enables us to developsolutions with recognized quality, flexibility and re-liability, also using components and subsystems forwhich Beckhoff is surely a reference brand”.
Masterwood was created in 1990 from the techni-cal and cultural heritage of Muti (a manufacturer ofchisel and mortising machines) and Zangheri &Boschetti, specializing in the production of automaticmultiple drilling machines.“Since then, there have been several marketchanges – Muti says – which also brought innovationin our company. Focused on product, we had tochange our design and production approach to
meet the requirements of our customers, while con-tinuing to generate the necessary profits to guideand develop product innovation”.Over time, the company had to solve the classicalequation where the variables are functionality andflexibility requested by the market, production costsand number of product units.“To move into the right direction – Muti says – weimmediately realized it was essential to act on theproduct development and manufacturing cycle. Costoptimization forced us to switch from make-to-order,where each machine is a different story, to make-to-stock, where most machines are built on a stan-dard block and customization is based on additionalblocks, which can be installed at a later stage byservice centers, directly at the customer’s site”.“A continuous challenge with different stages – Muticontinues – whereby we are committed at hardwareand software level, we had and wanted to deploya strategy of openness and standardization, ensuringsustainable costs and the necessary flexibility”.At the beginning, all products were equipped witha numerical control manufactured in-house for allcomponents, both hardware and software. “We believed that, in this way, – Muti explains – wecould succeed in implementing and controlling thosefunctionalities to differentiate from competition. Agreat intuition that has boosted our growth, but overtime it showed its limits in the cost/unit ratio, plusthe complexity and variety of devices to be driven,and their management in the long term. For all thesereasons, we decided to reconsider the method todevelop and support the features that representedour key success factor, exploring what could befound in the industrial market”. A system with high-end functions can be produc-tive over time, provided it can be built on a com-mercial platform. In this case, the development andpreservation of basic functions is transferred to theplatform manufacturer.
STRATEGY, MECHATRONICSAND INNOVATION
Masterwood, a leader in the woodworking business, has adopted Beckhoff’s German technology.
Giancarlo Muti (left) and Pierluigi Olivari.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 53
according to the needs of each customer. The stan-dard machine has all the electric and pneumaticconnections required to install the different kits ei-ther at the original purchase or later on, with thesame ease and low cost. A large set of fixed or tilt-ing angular heads complete the configurationand make these working centers ideal for the pro-cessing of panels, doors, windows, stairs and anyspecial application. The vacuum system allows the quick positioning ofclamping devices, strongly reducing the configu-ration time for the worktable; the continuous side-wall helps position several pieces without wastingtime and money. The new gantry construction, de-signed with the finite element method, delivers su-perior machining accuracy and quality, also thanksto brushless motors and linear guides with ball cir-culating blocks on each axis.“We had a specific goal: design machines to sup-port our business model, where each basic machinecan and must be customized in four to eight hoursdirectly by our reseller at their site, or at the finalcustomer’s”, Muti says. “With the help of Beckhoff’sproducts, we can state that the goal has been def-initely achieved”. ■
Masterwood Hall 25 - stand B55.Beckhoff Hall 17 - stand A40.
The working center “Project 350”.
“Our intuition, supported by continuous contactswith our customers, first led us to evaluate a virtu-al cnc in laboratory, and then we tested a standardcnc with increasingly complex functionality. Welooked for a product supplier that was as completeas possible to build our software platform on. Con-sidering the quality of products and the technicalservice in Italy, we opted for Beckhoff, which pro-vides all we need for our working centers”.
“It’s a relationship built on mutual esteem – says Pier-luigi Olivari, Country Manager of Beckhoff in Italy(www.beckhoff.it) – based on the awareness that,to make quality solutions at affordable prices for themarket, you have to work with innovative products,though already proven, and standard platforms sup-porting custom product configurations. We ensuredthe availability of safe, reliable and state-of-the-artcomponents and technology for Masterwood. Serv-ice and support with solutions based on Beckhoffcomponents: industrial PCs, I/Os, from series“EL10xx” to series “EL4xxx” and modules “EL6751CanOpen Master”, and last but not least, the com-munication bus “EtherCat” open to the external worldand to the “TwinCat-Cnc” architecture, a real con-trol room for Beckhoff-branded automation. A powerful and flexible numerical control, with allthe functions required of modern working centers,featuring a high number of axes, different splines,gantry axis functions to have multiple coordinatesystems. All of this to meet the different needs ofcustomers with one single product, simply adjustingconfiguration parameters during startup”.
“Project 350” and “Project 365” are an example:performance, flexibility, modularity and cost-ef-fectiveness, packed into a three-axis and a five-axismachining center. With a new mechanical design,following the adoption of Beckhoff Cncs, and en-hanced overall performance, flexibility has been in-creased with eight kits that are always available toconfigure the machine even at the last minute,
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 55
TECHNOLOGY
Biesse – the renowned com-pany based in Pesaro, spe-cializing in the wood, glassand stone machining busi-ness – will certainly be one ofthe top players at the next edi-tion of Ligna, where the com-pany will exhibit several tech-nology innovations, includ-ing products and software.According to the companyheadquartered in Pesaro,“...the investments carriedout by Biesse in recent years- aimed at renewing and ex-tending their product ranges– will allow the company toattend one of the most im-portant exhibitions in theworld with solutions providingtargeted answers, increas-ingly oriented to customerneeds, ensuring the highquality, finishing and designstandards of “made inBiesse” machines”.
“We are happy to come backto Ligna with big news – saidCesare Tinti, director of the
Wood Division – becausethis shows that, even duringa difficult period, Biesse con-tinues to invest in Research& Development, proving tohave strong innovation ca-pacity in the field of ma-chines and software. Wemeet the needs of our cus-tomers not only by offeringnew technology, but alsowith the introduction of aunique software in the mar-ket, designed to simplify themanagement of NC ma-chines, an ambitious projectthat we have been develop-ing for years and that we willbe proud to present at the ex-hibition”.
This will be the new launchfor Ligna, a new softwaresolution, developed in-houseby Biesse, which will be themain focus. An intuitive andinnovative solution that de-livers maximum user-friend-liness and that will enableusers to accurately simulate
the cycle that the machinehas to carry out, providingsimplified process manage-ment through improved per-formance and reduced pro-cessing times.
The Biesse stand at Ligna2013 will show several inno-vative solutions for solidwood processing, mainly fordoors and windows; newtechnology with high inno-vation content and extremeversatility. Revolutionary tech-nology, including new solu-tions for doors and windows,in terms of technology, easeof use and productivity. Significant space will bededicated to edgebandingmachines, with a spectrum offlexible solutions rangingfrom edgebanding machinesfor handicraft businesses toautomatic lines for industrialcompanies.
The stand will also featureworking centers conceived,
designed and developed fordifferent applications, deliv-ering highly competitive per-formance; drilling, cuttingand – last but not least –sanding, a process for whichthe company will present a“finishing center” that canperform all kinds of opera-tions.
An opportunity for all visitorsattending the big German bi-ennial exhibition to watchdemos on fully operatingmachines, getting a hands-on experience of all the fea-tures characterizing Biesse’stechnology: high flexibility,ease of use and great pro-ductivity. Distinctive elementsthat today are consideredas mandatory for anyone in-volved in wood and wood-based products processing.
Hall 25 - Stand B46 C45.
BIESSE, PASSWORD: INNOVATE!
56 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
SUPPLIES
Coplanar sliding systems, sliding systems, furnituredoors handles, sliding doors, rack-support pro-file/hanging doors, paneling systems, all made ofaluminum: this represents the specialization areaof Mixal, headquartered in Anzano del Parco(Como) and with a production facility in San Bia-gio di Callalta (Treviso). Approaching the world ofaluminum for the furniture and design industry atthe end of the Nineties, today Mixal plays a lead-ing role in the Italian and international markets,thanks to the professionalism and experience of thetwo current owners – Giuseppe Arnaboldi and hisson Massimo – and to the energy, skills and opti-mism brought by Antonio Caimi, eighty years oldand no intention to play the “retired”, together withhis son Buby.
Anzano is the brain of Mixal production activity, ful-ly redesigned in the layout of production plants, witha site covering 23thousand square meters as awhole, of which over four thousand are in-door and
with the opportunity to extend the area with other10thousand meters. The facility in San Biagio diCallalta, a surface of 1500 square meters, is the lo-gistic bridge over a strategic area where the de-mand for just in time production, assembling sys-tems, coating of aluminum profiles with papers andwood veneer – as well as distribution – is particu-larly important. With aluminum among the key materials of “madein Italy” design, Mixal’s business ranges from theproduction of furniture components to the walk-incloset with rack support uprights, outdoor tablesand furniture, up to couches; customers includesome of the most renowned names of Italian andinternational design.
“From basic systems we have passed to specificproducts for furniture – told us Giuseppe Arnaboldi– starting to extend the operating field and, as aconsequence, also the size and the number of theproduction facilities and we have moved in this
BEAUTIFUL (AND FUNCTIONAL)USEFUL ALUMINUM…From a metal – wrongly – considered as a less noble material, to the big of design, aluminum is the selected material for Mixal, one of the reference companies among the big brands of "made in Italy” furniture in the sliding and handling system industry.
From left: Giuseppe Arnaboldi,Antonio Caimi, Massimo Arnaboldiand Buby Caimi.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 57
of the project. Sometimes, however, we only have aninput, an aesthetic will and that is our turn to transformit into a result that is also functional. A gratifying job,that has many elements connected to creativity.During the last years aluminum has experiencedsignificant changes and it has become an in-creasingly used construction element, alsothanks to its important mechanical-physical fea-tures that – if correctly evaluated – ensure excel-lent and, at the same time, functional results. Justthink that to meet our customers’ requests today wehave a set of about 1300 dies, from which we getas many different profiles, many of which are spe-cific and exclusive”.
We are asking you out of curiosity: how many prod-ucts, how many objects do you have in your cat-alogue?“We currently have seven product series, and thenvariants and at least four-five hundred “cus-
brand new site in Anzano, that we inaugurated fewmonths ago. We have organized the production, rationalizing ourprocesses and renovating the assembly departmentfor opening sliding systems that have become ourkey-strength, our ace in the hole. We produce themechanism for overlapped or coplanar slidingdoors’ wardrobes and the coplanar mechanism forwall cupboard or hanging units, for the kitchen orother living or working environments, systemsthat complete a very wide range of products andthis allows us to meet any of our customers’ re-quirements. An offer that ensures important rela-tionships on the international market allowing us toface this difficult period in the domestic market inthe best possible way”.
Aluminum has always given birth to solutions thatwould be impossible with other materials…“We are talking about a very pliable material, thatcan be transformed also with special dies allow-ing to create different shapes, and dimensions thatwould be difficult to obtain with other metals. Ex-truded aluminum profiles arrive to our site, the start-ing point of our work. Once extruded, aluminum is machined with tech-nologically advanced working centers to meet cus-tomer’s requests and design before passing to theanodic finishing stage or painting, coating. State-of-the-art equipment that allows us to carry out all pro-totyping stages of new products on-site, for our rangeas well as for special solutions for our customers”.
How does customer relationships works, how doyou get the product definition?“We have a highly skilled technical staff; we grasp theneed of customers, architects or designers and wecooperate with them in order to get to the definition
58 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
SUPPLIES
tomized" items. Butthese figures are notenough to get fright-ened.As I was saying beforethe coplanar furniture-door sliding system isour ace in the hole, avery appreciated sys-tem because it offersthe opportunity to pro-
vide a furniture item with aesthetically lined-up slid-ing doors, ensuring simplified access to perfect-ly exploitable furniture sections.Do not forget that for each product type we producedifferent versions as to lengths, assembly and fin-ishing, from anodized to coated and lacquered alu-minum. An aspect on which we work daily is thesearch for innovative solutions, keeping always sys-tem quality, reliability and noiseless operation asour main focus. Our production is one-hundred per-cent “made in Italy”.
“I like to focus on the creativity of our job”, addedMassimo Arnaboldi. “We are technicians that cansupport the designer in the development of highlyfunctional products, with improved performances.Today furniture functionality is vital, the developmentof new mechanisms is important and it has to be car-ried out together with architects, we tend to preferthe mechanical features of aluminum to give struc-ture to the object, moves and the aesthetical featuresthat pure wood cannot always ensure”.
How do your customers ask you today?“Mainly convenience, they ask us to combine alu-minum with hidden structures and elements withhuge load capacity, resistance and motion ca-pacity. By using aluminum it is possible to obtainlightness but also pliability and, thus, the opportunityto “better understand” the implementation of the sys-tems. The identification, design and research of han-dling mechanisms lead us to be no longer sub-contractors for furniture manufacturers but inno-vative and proactive industry partners".
Increasingly involved in the early stages of a proj-ect…“Yes and this has led us to become a referencecompany. The cooperation with bigger companies,very active in developing new ideas and solutions,
has offered us growth margins as well. The re-search and development activity carried out to-gether with top customers - not only in Brianza orVeneto areas, but all over the world - have been agreat motivation. The production oriented to the design industry iscombined with the industrial production for “bigbatches”. It’s not mere chance that the company’score business in the last three years has focusedon mechanisms and motion covering all market seg-ments and every application, from kitchen, tobathrooms, day and night living areas".
Has the customization trend in the world of furni-ture - increasingly strong – brought you to thinkabout the topic of small batches as well?“We have made virtue of necessity and we work alsoin this segment because the market goes in this di-rection. Having a catalog of standard product is afortune that allows us to still talk about hugequantities. It is a part of our business that is record-ing particularly positive results in foreign markets,where there are still important numbers...We cannot deny that our heart is in Italy but dur-ing the last three years the weight of foreign mar-kets has become important. In international mar-kets we find those opportunities that the Italian mar-kets often hides and most of our turnover comesfrom export, also form emerging countries such asTurkey, India and Brazil".
“Tailor-made” products for foreign customers?“Foreign customers ask us less customized han-dling solutions and mechanisms and this allows usto work easily. They are also indicators of the greatcapacity of the Italian design to create real trendsthat in many other countries are a paradigm, an ex-ample to imitate, maybe using simpler solutions butwith the same functionality”.
The future challenge?“We continue to look at the furniture, with an in-creasingly strong push towards new developing mar-kets. A sales challenge, rather than technical-cre-ative, because technology challenge evolve day af-ter day and it is strategically better to anticipatewhere we want to arrive from a sales point of view…”.
by Luca Rossetti ■
in collaboration with Olivia Rabbi
Hall 08.1 - Stand E057.
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 59
SUPPLIES
Practicality, functionality and aesthet-ics are fundamental considerationsfor furniture manufacturers and de-signers engaged in the search for im-proved solutions in the areas of formand materials for their furniture.In furniture production, the needs,coming from the modern design solu-tions, aim at maximizing the aestheticsand have required the development ofsuitable fittings.The new hinge made by Salice(www.salice.com) stands out with acompletely revised finish, to better integrate into thecabinet, thus gain in discretion and give an ap-pearance at the same time warm and technological.The colour, new and different compared with thetraditional blued and nickel-plated finishes, is lessinvasive and has a muted sheen. The titanium re-flections make this hinge ideal for darker interiorsand for the numerous shades of wood available.The good reflection properties and the techno-logical aspect of the hinge allow a perfect inte-gration with the place where it is to be inserted, alsosuitable in the lightest interiors.The development of this new product has been,as usual, undertaken by Salice’s Technological Cen-tre and it was subjected to rigorous testing; the fin-ish is even more resistant to the aggression of ox-idizing agents both for more considerable thick-nesses and for typology of treatment. The corro-sion strength is considerably increased com-pared to the classic nickel-plated finish. ■
Hall 08.1 - Stand A028,C021.
SUEDDEKOR“D.FIN® THERMOFORM”
SALICETHE HINGE WITH A TITANIUM FINISH
Melamine and finish films reach their limitations whenit comes to enveloping front panels and trims or cre-ating three-dimensional shapes, melamine and fin-ish films. For these requirements and for applicationswithin the flat-pack sector – such as drawer interi-ors, for instance – manufacturers today resort to film-based solutions such as Pvc and PP, for example. And Süddekor has now also expanded its as-sortment to include polypropylene films, which /areprinted using water-based dyes. The latest prod-uct from the southern German surfaces specialistis called “D.Fin® Thermoform”. Vis-à-vis con-ventional Pvc films, PP films have the advantagethat they are completely free of harmful soft-eners. Süddekor can exploit its many years of experienceduring production. The films are multi-colour print-ed at the Laichingen-based Plant 1, where the man-ufacturer is able to draw on comprehensive décorexpertise and a huge stock of décor structures.These can even be manufactured in a width of 2700mm at Plant 2. Subsequently, the PP films are lac-quered using water-based or electron-beam hard-ening pro-cesses. Hence, Süddekor is able to of-fer a décor package from a single source, as thesame dye system is used for melamine products,finish films and PP films – all completelymetamerism-free. The surfaces specialist is alsoplanning to introduce “D.Fin® Thermoform” with astructured surface. With this development, the in-novative southern German company continues to setthe tempo when it comes to bringing design and sur-faces together. ■
Hall 04.2 - stand B067. Hall 06.1 - stand A050-B051.
SUPPLIES
Jowat AG with headquartersin Detmold is one of theleading global suppliers of in-dustrial adhesives. Beyondthe development of innova-tive adhesives, Jowat AG isconsistently drawing on itsprofound cross-industryknow-how to integrate a wideadded value spectrum intothe bonding processes ofits customers.The Zow 2013 is the platformto highlight the outstandingperfor-mances of the Jowa-coll® dispersions, the Jowat-Toptherm® and the Jowat -herm-Reaktant® hot melt ad-hesives. Added functionalproduct values like reducedflammability, degree of gloss,surface hardness, breatha-bility and sustainability arethe key words.
The topic of fire protection isextremely complex, which isreflected in the numerousregulations that differ widelyaccording to the respectiveareas of application and leg-islations. In many applicationswhere products with flame-re-tardant properties are re-quired – on water and on land
60 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
JOWAT: INTELLIGENT BONDING SYSTEMS
– Jowat adhesives are used.Customers not only benefitfrom the product perform-ance but also rely on a com-petent advisory service. Ad-hesives from the Jowacoll®product family are used tomanufacture flame-resistantdoors, walls and ceiling ele-ments in marine interiors, butalso for interior finishing op-erations in buildings. Theseare applications where theadhesive not only functions tosupport the general strengthproperties of the structures,but above all, it providesadded value with regard toflame-resistance respective-ly low flammability.
High gloss furniture frontsare more than a trend inmodern furniture design. Thedegree of gloss of the com-ponents is additionally en-hanced when a colourless,transparent, and crosslink-ing hot melt of the productgroup of Jowatherm-Reak-tant® is used. This hot meltalso offers a wide adhesionspectrum, multiplying thepossible material combina-tions and decors.
Modern production tech-nologies for furniture sur-faces create new challengesfor the performance of a hotmelt adhesive. One of themarks of quality is the sur-face hardness of a coating.Adhesives of the Jowat-Toptherm® product rangehave outstanding impact re-sistance (Shore hardness) –even at elevated temperature.Surface indentations, for in-stance when freshly laminat-ed components are stacked,are clearly reduced withthese new hot melt types.Modern vehicle seats repre-sent a combination of er-
gonomics and comfort. Forupholstery and seat covers,innovative technical textilesare used which are frequentlycomposed of breathablemultiple-layer compoundlaminates. The polyurethanehot melts of the Jowatherm-Reaktant®PUR Tex productgroup are specifically de-veloped for this purpose andoffer an optimum “breatha-bility“ for these textile com-pounds. They provide su-perior ventilation and regulateheat and moisture of the tex-tile-covered seats. ■
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 61
SUPPLIES
that is pressing the accelerator towards targeted prod-ucts and small production batches. Angelo Mauritold us the story of Maco, its present and future.
Mr. Mauri, how has your business evolved, from yourdebut up to now?“Maco was founded in 1954 as a cuttingcompany for the furniture industry, initially lo-cated in small premises and with basic el-ementary tools and equipment: a smallcutting machine, a little drill, a belt turningmachine... The name was chosen becauseit is a combination of the first two letters ofthe surnames of Carlo Mauri and Virginio
FURNITURE HARDWARE:FROM CATALOGUE TO TAILOR MADE
From the debut in Brianza, the “mother country” of furniture, toan international and competitive dimension. Maco keeps lookingat the future, betting on a production flexibility that starts fromstandard but often develops into custom executions.
The story and evolution of Maco – a company lo-cated in Seregno (Monza Brianza) specializing inthe processing of hardware for the furniture industry– started during Brianza’s economic boom in thesecond post-war period. Today, it is one of the com-panies that – in the made-in-Italy galaxy – has beenable to pass from the processing of small metalparts to next-generation products in the world of fur-niture hardware and accessories, with differentcolors and finishing, combining the processing ofplastic materials with the most traditional metal pro-cessing, always with a great capacity to meet man-ufacturers’ and resellers’ requests. The production cycle includes all the different pro-cessing stages: turning, milling, threading, stamp-ing, cutting, assembling and packaging. Today thecompany is led by the sons of the founders of Maco,Angelo Mauri and Roberto Confalonieri, who tookover the management of the company in 1983, andwho are in charge for sales-accounting and tech-nical-manufacturing operations respectively.
Besides production and products sales, Maco car-ries out also design and customization processes ac-cording to customer requests. A flexibility in line withthe deep transformation that the market is experi-encing due to (or thanks to) the economic crisis, and Angelo Mauri.
62 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
SUPPLIES
Confalonieri, the two founders, with previous ex-perience in local mechanical companies and astrong will to start their own business during an in-dustrial revival stage, linked to furniture that – inBrianza - was having great success. The first decade of Maco was focused mainly onmetals and, as to product type, on hinges, pivotsand pins installed in furniture; plastics was intro-duced in the mid-Sixties, as well as the turning de-partment. Today, for our production, we processiron, brass and aluminum, besides plastics. In recent years, we have also targeted our attentionto the production of special articles based on cus-tomer’s request and design that, sometimes, are out-side the furniture world and are addressed to thelighting, mechanical, taps and fittings or electron-ic industries. We have a special department, quitewell-equipped, that allows us to be appreciated sup-
pliers also beyond the wood and furniture business.Our headquarters have always been in Seregno,though we have changed our premises severaltimes. The first facility was a small laboratory ofabout 30 square meters, then we moved to a smallwarehouse of 450 square meters and, in 1968, toa second warehouse of two-thousand square me-ters. In 1982, we built a small building close to itfor offices. In 2006 we moved into our current head-quarters, more than 6 thousand indoor square me-ters over a 10 thousand sqm area: an extension thatallows us to work with all the space we need andsuitable logistics.Currently we have 30 employees and a turnover of4.5 million Euros, more than 30 percent comingfrom export to 58 foreign Countries”.
A significant business: what’s the current share offurniture on your turnover? “95 percent of the turnover is linked to the pro-duction of furniture hardware from catalogue; theremaining 5 percent is provided by custom pro-duction. A figure that is not that high, though con-stantly increasing, but that – keeping in mind thatit is tailor-made production, not for big batches –witnesses to our versatility, our capacity to makevery different things".
What’s your position in the hardware industry? Whoare your customers?“Our customers substantially belong to two cate-gories of companies. On one side, the sales pointsthat can be represented by specialized wholesalersor retailers, on the other side, the industrial world,furniture manufacturers, the “direct consumer”. Our products are exclusively addressed to furnitureassembly and they are not part of the "decorative"hardware, such as knobs, handles or others. We pro-duce everything that is placed inside the furnitureand it is not seen, but that is vital for its construction:mounting elements, shelf supports, wall-mounted unitsupports, magnetic closures, push-latches fordoors opening and closure, cable glands, furniture,chairs and armchairs wheels and so on. In our pro-duction facility – besides plastic materials, that to-day cover 50 percent of our production – weprocess aluminum, iron and brass; we have an areaof semi-finished products that we produce and thatare ready to be assembled internally or externally.. Despite the crisis we continue to invest: our mold-ing department for plastic materials is definitely the
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 63
most up-to-date production environment from a pro-cessing technology point of view.The cutting area is our “historical” department; inthe turning department we develop most of the so-lutions we produce to order, thanks to machines suit-able for any process, ready to create a custom prod-ucts also for small batches. We also have an equipment and tools room wherewe create new molds, and, above all, where we car-ry out maintenance for the correct operation of ourtools”.
You also work for retail, if I am not wrong…“Indirectly, that’s true. We do have several customersin retail that re-package our products in blisters andsell them with their own brands to big DIY retailchains”.
You have been a direct witness of the furniture in-dustry for several decades: what has changed?“Furniture has evolved for sure over the years, justthink that pivot pins are no longer available and thatnew hinges and guides have been developed fordrawers; in the past, furniture items were assem-bled with glue and nails, now it is no longer like that;knobs and handles are disappearing because ar-chitects want to design clean furniture solutions, withpressure opening and closing system. And theseare just some examples of the thousands revolu-tions we have seen in sixty years of career.We have specific technology, that we often developourselves. We are not talking about spaceships ofcourse, but also in this field we have used our ex-perience, our creativity, our know-how. Always withthe same goal: provide the best answer to meet ourcustomers’ needs. Some products are created andproduced also according to their suggestions; inother cases, we push and promote an idea, a par-ticular innovation. Consider that an extremely im-portant share of what we produce is sold to “dis-tribution corporations” that sell the products to join-ers and furniture manufacturers”.
What about Chinese competition?“We felt it stronger in the early 2000 decade, dur-ing the Chinese economic boom; today things havechanged. It no longer cost-effective to rely on thesesuppliers because the gap with Western Countrieshas been reduced progressively. There are no moredemands for huge supplies, quantities that madeChina particularly appealing, because when you talk
about a few thousand pieces, and not millions orhundred thousands, it's no longer worth.The benefit that remains is low labor cost, but also fromthis point of view they are getting close to our levels. On the other side, I also want to say that today weare compared to German hardware but in the Sev-enties somebody thought we were the “EuropeanChinese" and that our success came from “inspi-ration” and from a production that leveraged fa-vorable exchange rates and labor costs. Now weare at the same level and we struggle with creativity,design, material and process quality, service”.
What can we do to react to the crisis?“There is no magic wand. The crisis is affecting allof us in all industries and markets, not only the fur-niture sector. Some machining processes that weused to outsource are now executed internally, sothat we can fully leverage the working day of ourstaff: we are one among the few companies thathave never asked for redundancy funds duringthese years. I believe that it is important not to reston your laurels and continue to proactively designnew products to launch on the market: For a com-pany, renovating today is tomorrow’s guarantee”.
by Luca Rossetti ■
in collaboration with Olivia Rabbi
64 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
SUPPLIES
CAMAR AND THE IMPORTANCEOF LOAD CAPACITYThe indication of a load ca-pacity value, especially foritems designed to supportwall-hanging units, has beenalways requested by themarket, even claimed, butpeople all too often rely onlyon this figure excessivelyand wholeheartedly, out ofcontext, and this makes ithardly significant and ac-countable.The method to calculate thisvalue varies significantly ac-cording to the reference stan-dard, too. Just think about thecriteria fixed by “Din68840”standard, which havechanged from the 1984 edi-tion – still in force – to the new2004 edition, up to the latest"En15939” European regula-tion, still under discussion.The weirdest thing is that, if
we test the same product us-ing different standards, weget different values for loadcapacity!Camar, a world leader inthe design and production oftechnical fittings for the fur-niture industry, is determinedto clarify this very importantbut too nebulous topic. Thecompany has launched an
important information cam-paign addressed to all furni-ture manufacturers focusingon the safety of wall-hangingunits, with the publication ofthe new website sectioncalled “Warning” (www.ca-mar.it/warning) dedicated toall hanging brackets, plinthlegs, panel supports, railsand levelers of its range. Byselecting the relevant prod-uct family and entering thecomplete product number,you will get important infor-mation relating to the maxi-mum load capacity of thatproduct.Visitors can finally find also allthe conditions of the testcarried out on that product:reference standard, mount-ing conditions and featuresof the furniture item where ithas been installed (size andmaterials); all these variablesare extremely important forthe final result.A safe product, like the so-lutions designed and pro-duced by Camar, is critical
for the construction of wall-hanging units, but it is alsoimportant to keep in mind allother factors affecting thesafety of the final product.That is why the new websitepage continues with a seriesof important informationabout all the factors affectingthe actual load capacity andthat are partly specific foreach kind of product, in orderto guide customers throughthe selection of the mostsuitable solutions for theirfurniture and to provide themwith suggestions to increasethe safety level.A great effort of awarenessand information from Camar,that will continue with thelaunch of the new catalog inthe coming months. It will in-clude a section completelydedicated to this topic, be-sides many other innovativesolutions for hanging units,base cabinets and panels. ■
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 65
Thanks to the research ac-tivity of the ICA group in Civ-itanova Marche, specializ-ing in the production andsales of special wood paints,the company has presenteda new software for the virtu-al treatment of wood withhigh-definition colors and ef-fects. Its name is “WoodLook” and it allows to choosethe color of wooden furnitureitems. It is a real-time con-
figurator that has been de-signed by the group to proj-ect its innovative colorsand effects directly ontothe 3D image created andused by furniture produc-ers. In other words, the cus-tomer can view and selectthe color of its own prod-ucts in a highly realisticway, more instantly thanever before. There are sev-eral benefits: first of all, it en-
a b l e sthe client tosee the final re-sult of the appli-cation of a coatingwithout requiring the pro-duction of prototypes andthen it offers architects andinterior design profession-als the possibility to see re-alistic colors, effects andcombinations. During this first stage thenew software will be distrib-uted by Ica sales force andthen it will be provided to dis-tributors.
The “Wood Look” system alsoensures the virtual applicationof the brand-new “NaturalMatter” range, composed ofall-new Ica stains designed tobring out the naturalness ofthe wood grain. The range en-compasses 15 new shadesthat fit in perfectly with the cur-rent trends in the finishing ofmodern furniture, which are in-creasingly geared towards
highlight-ing the natu-
ral beauty of thewooden surface.
The tones of the NaturalMatter range draw their in-
spiration from the colors ofcereals and spices and theyhave been specifically de-signed for application to se-lected wood species, suchas knotted oak, in order to al-low the natural grain of thewood to come to the fore. In addition, by applying the“Naturwood” water-basedtop coat to the new line ofstains it is possible to protectthe treated surfaces withoutaltering their natural ap-pearance.
The tones of the “NaturalMatter” series complementthe well-established “MyLab” system, which enablesusers to create unique com-binations with the 70 metal-effect coatings of the “LiquidMetals” range. ■
“WOOD LOOK” BY ICA
66 XYLON INTERNATIONAL March-April 2013
FAIRS
JULY 2013
2-6 JulyFitecmaWood industry and furniture exhibitionwww.fitecma.com.ar• Buenos Aires (Argentina)Woodworking technologies
Postal money order on the postal account No. 27117209 (only for Italy) of:Cepra spa - Centro Direzionale Milanofiori 1a Strada - Palazzo F3 - I-20090 Assago (MI)
Credit cardVisa MastercardCredit card No.CVVExpiry date
Please, send the coupon attached to a copy of the payment bill.I accept term of Art. 10 of low 675/96 concerning the processing of personal data for statistic and promotion purposes.
Our production of woodworkingmachines: edger, cross-cutter.
Machinery and services for plywood and sliced veneer production.Peeling lines, dryers, presses and finishing lines; horizontal, vertical and rotary slicers, press dryers and clipping lines.
Vertical and horizontal log bandsaws. Log carriages with variable axis.Canter. Integrated working units with circular blade. Vertical andhorizontal band resaw systems. Multi-rip saws and edgers. Logprofiling units. Complete sawmillsystems for mass production.
Wood processing machinery and systems for sawmills.Vertical and tilted log band saws, log carriages with independentHeadblocks, tandem headrig,chipping canter, one-headrig and Twin resaws, Multi Rip Saws,manual and automatic edging line and saw servicing equipment.
The Company Sicar spa produceswood working machines with morethan 50 years of experience. Thanks to the continuous technicaldevelopment and the strictly contactwith the international market we are able to offer a completerange of products for the small and big industry.
The Biesse Wood Division productline includes panel sizing centres,vertical panel saws, manual and automatic edgebanders, squaring/edgebanding machines,sanders, cnc machining centres, routers, through feed boring and inserting machines, material handling equipment and packaging.
The company Ebs is specialized in the production of automatic edge-bander for the hobbist and thesmall/big industry. The range includesmanual trimming and edge-bandingmachine and in particular highquality and reliability automaticedge-banding machines projected by an high-qualified technical staff. The total aim of the company havealways been the continuousimprovement of the machine’squality, research and development.
EBS srlVia Del Lavoro 32/AI-36016 Thiene (VI)phone +39 0445364334fax +39 0445370878www.ebsbordatrici.it [email protected]
Over 30 years of experience in designing and manufacturing a wide range of edge bandingmachines for both small and mediumcompanies and for industrialproductions.
ELWOOD sncdi Bossi Franco e c. Viale Industria, 66/2 I-27029 Gambolò (PV) phone +39 0381 641279fax +39 0381 [email protected]
For over 30 years, De Stefani designsand manufactures sanding machinefor panels edges and profiles.Single or double sided edge sandingmachines equipped to sand flat and shaped edges on raw orlacquered panels. Combinedmachines for panel edges foiling.Edge Buffing and polishing machinesfor High Gloss finishing panels.Profile sanding – denibbing
machines equipped with abrasivebelt or wheel to sand raw or laquered mouldings. Angle profile gluing and assemblingmachines for door frames.Double end profile cutting machines.
DE STEFANI VALERIO & C sncVia M.P. Virgilio, 16I-20833 Birone di Giussano (MB)phone +39 0362 310914fax +39 0362 [email protected]
Cnc machining centers to carry outbeams, roofs and wooden elements for prefabricated houses,structures for playgrounds,walls and "block house”.
Cnc machining centers forprocessing windows, doors, arches, interior doors and stairs. Automatic trimming line for the automatic trimmingof pvc on doors and panels. Automatic lines for milling, cutting, edging plans for kitchen tops and shelves. Cnc machining centers for machiningcurved elements, chairs, frames,sofas, furniture. Cnc machiningcenters for processing specific doors and panels.Automatic lines for carrying out boring and milling on furniture elements as drawers'fonts, doors of wardrobes. Special machines on request.
ESSETRE spaVia della Repubblica Serenissima, 7I-36016 Thiene (VI)phone +39 0445 365999fax +39 0445 360195www.essetre.com - [email protected]
Cross cutting-Top speedoptimization-Automation Cursal is the specialized Italiancompany that produces the mostcomplete series of: crosscut saws for wood and assimilated; loading-unloading automations;turnkey solutions and customisedcutting configurations for small,medium, large sections; integrationinto processing cycles from the largesawmill production to semi-finished;specific accessories and modularcomponents: Nc with softwareinterfaces, optical scanners forautomatic detection of lengths-widths-defects, moisturemeters, printers etc.; personalizedadvice for advanced systems;complete and, on time, domestic andforeign mechanic/electronic support.
Manual and automatic vertical panelsaws for cutting wooden panels, plastic and acm products. Weldedsteel frames, to grant rigidity andprecision. Special applicationsallowing the possibility to make alsogrooving on sandwich panels forfolding. Automatic horizontal beamsaws with many differentconfigurations accordingly to the panel sizes and thicknessrequirements.
Cn milling machines; anuba machines;cn working centers; lines of production and specialmachines for doors and frames;automatic screwing of locks andcounterplates; wide range of accessories and solutions.
NUOVA PROGETTI sncby Clerici Roberto & Rossetti FilippoDesign and manufactoring of wood working machineryVia Bonifica, 6I-27030 Sant’Angelo Lomellina (PV)phone +39 0384 55189 / 938018fax +39 0384 559984www.nuovaprogettimacchine.itnuovaprogetti@[email protected]
Panel processing machines and plants.Special multi-blades panel saws,longitudinal milling machines with rollers feeding, working centresfor the “Folding” technology, flooring industry technology, doors and modern furnishing industry technology.
MARIO ZAFFARONI & FIGLI srlVia Centro Industriale Europeo, 24 I-22078 Turate (CO)phone +39 02 9688453fax +39 02 [email protected]
Woodworking machinery: the widest range of products.
The product range is wide in thesector of traditional woodworkingmachines: thicknessing planers,surface planers, combined surface-thicknessing planers, circular saws, spindle moulders,combined saw-spindle moulder, universal combined machines, band-saws.
Components and suction plants for dusts, smokes, fumes. Aircleaning. Dry and water paintingbooths. Pressurized painting plants.Cleaners with activated charcoal for solvents. Suction benches andbooths for the sanding powders.Separator cyclones. Electric fans.Inverters for the saving of energy.Filtering groups and handled sub-stations with mechanical and automatic cleaning in counter-current with compressed air. Storage silos. Sparks bearingsystem and automatic extinguishing.Mills and refiners for wood.Briquetts presses. Dryers. Pelletspresses. Complete plants for pelletsproduction. Boilers and warm airgenerators for solid fuels. Industrial insonorizations.
Lacquering and printing lines forfurniture panels, hardboard, mdf orchipboard panels, doors or parquetflooring with roller or curtain coatingtechnology and uv or hot air dryingsystems. Automatic and robotic spraylines with vertical dryers, flat or uv dryers. Lacquering and printing on coils.
Company specialized in fulfillment ofrobotized solutions for painting chairs,tables and assembled furniture,panels, windows and doors.
Epistolio srl – Painting Robot Division,with a 20 years experience in developing and constructinganthropomorphic and cartesianrobots, offers a comprehensive rangeof complete solutions for automatedindustrial painting applications in the woodworking industry.
Industrial painting machines as: drypainting booth, water painting booths,pressurising painting system and suspended transport lines.
TECNOAZZURRA srlVia del Tesoro, 210 I-47827 Verucchio Fraz. Villa Verucchio (RN)phone +39 0541 678225-678078fax 39 0541 671144www.tecnoazzurra.it [email protected]
Cefla Finishing Group worldwideleader in the finishing of wooden,plastic and non-ferrous materialproducts - designs and manufacturesturnkey painting and wrapping linesfor the wood, glass, metal and plasticindustries, tailored on customer needs and requirements.
Finishing plants for the furniture and construction industry withapplication by spray, by roller coatersand curtain coaters and drying by Uv dryers, vertical dryers, lineardryers with microwaves technology.Complete finishing plants for doorsand windows.Spray booths.
Finishing machines and lines for mouldings. Finishing machines and lines for flat and raised panels.Finishing machines and lines for doors and windows. Special finishing machines and lines.
MAURI MACCHINE srlVia M. Comacini, 12 I-22072 Cermenate (CO)phone +39 031 771374fax +39-031 [email protected]
Finishing systems for plastic, glass and wood products.Roller coater machines, curtain coaters,spray robot with single and doublehead, spraying machines, hot air, UV and vertical ovens.
VD srlVia U. Foscolo, 42/44I-20034 Birone di Giussano (MB)phone +39 0362 311308fax +39 0362 [email protected]
March-April 2013 XYLON INTERNATIONAL 77
Timber dryers
Termolegno: the value of dryingDryers from 10m3 up to 250 m3, pre-dryers, mini-dryers, tunnel-typesystems, turnkey drying plants,dryers for the plant-health thermaltreatment of wooden crates, control systems, steaming kiln,electronic moisture tester.
TERMOLEGNO srlVia del Sile, 4 - Località RauscedoI-33095 San Giorgio della Richinvelda (PN)phone +39 0427 94190/949802fax +39 0427 [email protected]
Handling and commissioning
From over 40 years we proposeintegrated solutions in material handling and industrial automationsector. Highly personalisable and specific systems for furniture assembling, the automatic storage and the handling. Automatic warehouses, lazer guided vehiculs (lgv), robotized islands, conveyors, sorter systems, assembling lines, tilting units, management softwares.
CASSIOLI srlPlace Guardavalle, 63I-53049 Torrita Di Siena (SI)phone +39 0577 684511fax +39 0577 686084www.cassioli.com - [email protected]
Viscat Fulgor, for over 50 years aleader in the production of flashbutt welding machines, weldingmachines for large band saw blades,sharpening and file sharpeningmachines, setting machines, brazingmachines, high-frequency generatorsfor induction braze-welding anddust suction units.
Design, production, installation,training, technical service for sawmillmachines and plants. Machines and plants for timberhandling, debarkers for hard-woodand soft-wood. Technology forsawmill. Sorting plants up to 50boxes, stacking and destacking linesfor planks, chipping plants for logsand discards, plants for polesprocessing, planing machines forround poles, planing lines withautomatic loading and unloading,impregnation machines.Machines for the production of shavings for animal litters. Grinders for pallets and wood cases.Assembly tables for carpenters.
DDX develops Cad/Cam/Cim software solutions: “EasyWOOD” for panel and solidwood machining using 3, 4 and 5 axis;“EasyBEAM” for structures, houses,walls, beams, rooves, gazebo, etc.;“PowerSTAIRS” for staircases design and manufacturing;“PowerWIN” for any kind of windows, french doors, internaldoors, entry doors and shutters.
DDX srlVia G. Donizetti, 109/111 I-24030 Brembate di Sopra (BG)phone +39 035 621093fax +39 035 333723 [email protected]
Construction of briquetting pressesand grinders for the recovery of wood waste, dust, textile,nonferrous materials, etcetera
CP Utensili, a company which process woodworking tools since1968, is the ideal partner for toolingsolution on demand. The German Quality Norm “BG-Prüfzert” for the highproduction standard and an export quote of 80% confirms the international prestige of the company. Flexibility and fast delivery was always the way to success.
Leitz is a leading technologymanufacturer of machine-drivenprecision tools and process designedtool systems for the professionalprocessing of solid wood, woodderived and plastic materials.
LEITZ ITALIA srlIndustriezone, 9 I-39011 Lana (BZ)phone +39 0473 563533fax +39 0473 562139www.leitz.org - [email protected]
Since 1959, Fapil’s mission has been to design and build cutting tools formachining wood, board materials and plastics. Specialists in cnc tooling.
Since 1924 Fink produces completesets of tools for windows, helicoidalcutterheads, cutterheads for profiledkinves, cutters in Hw welded, circular saw blades, dia tools, boring bits, solid carbide routers,tools for cnc macchines, trimming hoggers.
Zuani Company is a leading Italian manufacture of tools for the Woodworking industry. We are producers of high precisiontooling with tc reversible tips as well as reversible profiling cutters for cnc automatic and traditional woodworkingmachineries for wooden windows, doors and furnitures production.
Tools for wood-alu and plastic material working. Tools for automaticboring machines and router bits for cnc router machines. M.Conti measuring devices for the woodworking industry.Special devices for door and windows manufacturers.
Since 2004 our company has startedhere in Italy the production of 3-layer wood elements forwindow and door building. We have been gaining a lot ofexperience during these years andwe can now offer them in severalwood species, such as: Okoumé,Ozigo, Slavonjan Oak, Tulipier and Lime. All elements are gluedemploying a vinylic glue pvac - d4 - en 205 only.
Glues and adhesives for the woodworking and furnitureindustry: hot melt, PVAc glues, uf glues,polyurethane waterdispersion, solvent based adhesives.
DURANTE & VIVAN SPAVia Giuseppe Garibaldi, 23I-33080 Ghirano di Prata (PN)phone +39 0434 605211fax +39 0434 [email protected]
North America: hardwoods and softwoods.Lumber, ripped strips, componentsand laminated windows scantlings:Hemlock, Douglas Fir, White Oak,Ash.Europe: laminated windowsscantlings and finger jointed.Asia: laminated windows scantlings.
