Home Decor, Farnborough

A top-of-the-range Striebig Control vertical panel saw is playing a key role at sliding wardrobe door maker Home Decor, which has won a major new contract from national retail chain B&Q.

Currently being trialled at a B&Q store in Farnborough, customers can order made-to-measure sliding wardrobe doors produced by Home Decor. The fully-automatic Control’s ease-of-operation and narrow space-saving footprint were amongst the main reasons for its purchase.

Home Decor produces several thousand sliding wardrobe doors a week at its highly mechanised factory in Sheffield. Panels for its standard ranges, available in nearly 400 different combinations, are bought in already cut to size.

Although it had an existing panel saw, after winning the B&Q business it became evident that a more efficient saw was needed that could cope with the expected demand for the bespoke wardrobes.

Efficient Striebig Control for increased orders

The Striebig Control 4224 model it chose sizes chipboard panels with a paper foil laminate plus MDF panels, either 4mm, 8mm or 12mm thick. These are used for the front facings of the bespoke wardrobe doors.

Operating to an accuracy of 1/10 mm and with a maximum cut size of 3300 x 2240mm and a cutting depth of 80mm, the Control represents the state-of-the-art in vertical panel saw technology.

Its sophisticated design allows it to be operated via an ergonomic control panel, leaving time for the next batch of work to be prepared. Much of the cutting operation is automated; the saw head is power fed, and the feed speed is controlled to ensure the quality of the cut is maintained.

Numerous automatic procedures carried out by the press of a button include locking and releasing the saw beam, setting the horizontal cutting height, plunging and swivelling the motor, locking the support rollers during sawing and fine saw blade adjustment.

It features the highly efficient TRK dust extraction system that ensures that dust levels are kept well below permitted European limits.

Home Decor specified an optional scribing blade along with the standard blade, which is used to prevent breakout and splits in the face of the laminate panels.

The company’s manufacturing engineer, Stuart Limb, said: “To handle the B&Q work we needed an efficient saw that could be one-man-operated. Space was also an issue as we needed to make the best possible use of the available production area.

“After reviewing all of the saws currently available on the market we decided that the Striebig ‘ticked all the right boxes’. We chose it because of its impressive automatic cutting cycle, the overall quality of its build, and the lack of space it takes up.”

The saw’s operator, Jim Hague, added: “It’s a lot easier to use than the panel saw, which needed two people, and its accuracy is spot on. We no longer end up with panels that are out of square.”

The Control has proved a real time saver. As well as needing only one man to operate it, eight panels of the smaller thicknesses can be cut at a time; previously they had to be sized individually.

As well as cutting panels for the new B&Q range it’s also used for preparing panels for samples of new product lines that Home Decor are developing.

The Control was supplied and installed by Striebig’s sole UK agent, T.M. Machinery Sales, together with an Al Ko mobile dust extraction unit.