Underwood Kitchens, Buckinghamshire

A Striebig Control fully automatic vertical panel saw, launched into the UK market at Woodmex, has brought improved quality and efficiency to award-winning kitchen maker, Underwood Kitchens Ltd.

The Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire business is firmly established as a manufacturer of top-quality, bespoke kitchens to suit a variety of tastes, from traditional to contemporary, Shaker-style to farmhouse. In addition to an extensive showroom at its rural base, its kitchen settings are displayed in several up-market retailers around the country. Last year it fended off fierce competition at Bathrooms & Kitchens magazine’s industry awards to win the prestigious Master Retailer of the Year award.

Quality runs through everything that Underwood does, from the initial design stage to manufacturing and on-site fitting. That is why it believes in buying the best production machines available from specialist manufacturers to complement the hand craftsmanship of its skilled workshop staff.

After using a Striebig Automat for four years, it upgraded to the new Control as it wanted the most up-to-date saw technology available to boost product quality and workshop efficiency still further.

Striebig Control upgrade in technology

“We chose the Control as it was by far the more robust and technically superior saw of all those we looked at,” said Underwood’s technical director, Keith Spurgeon.

It is used to size a range of carcass sheet material including MFC, raw and veneered MDF, veneered chipboard and veneered plywood, providing a host of benefits. Explained Mr Spurgeon: “It has made our life easier in so many ways. It’s easy and quick to set up, the cutting speeds are faster and it’s easier to change the blades. Most important, the quality of the cut is even smoother than before, whatever material we size on it.”

With the scoring saw that they had fitted as an optional extra, which features pneumatic return, the chances of chipping occurring on the back of MFC panels during sizing have been removed.

The top-of-the-range Control, supplied by Striebig’s long-time sole U.K. sales agent, T.M. Machinery Sales, of Leicester, offers almost every possible option for fully automatic sawing operations. With manual feeding of the saw unit eliminated, the operator’s job is made easier, giving him ample time to prepare the next sawing job.

Ease of operation is provided by a PLC control system, with any operating errors displayed so that they can be corrected immediately. An infinitely variable feed speed can be adjusted to suit every kind of material. Sawing errors that may occur as a result of different feed speeds required when cutting ‘sensitive’ materials are therefore a thing of the past.

The highly innovative saw is designed for the fast and accurate cutting of wood based panels, laminates, plastics and other sheet materials. Numerous technical features considered expensive optional extras in other saws are included as standard. They include a digital measuring system, accurate to 0.1 mm, and an adjustable precision display that can be set to an accuracy of 1.0, 0.5 or 0.1 mm, according to the thickness of the panels being sized.

Available wall-mounted or freestanding, it has a cutting depth of 80mm, a tough saw frame, a fully automatic roller locking function, an auxiliary stop section with its own tape measure, three additional auxiliary stops for repeat cuts and a small work piece support.

It comes in a variety of frame sizes with cutting areas ranging from 3,300mm x 1,680mm up to 5,300mm x 2,240mm, so as to take the largest panels. Fitted as standard is the TRK dust and chips extraction system that ensures dust levels are kept well below permitted European limits, and automatic moving backing support.

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

Among the optional features to enhance performance and increase output are a programmable electronic positioning system that can store up to 400 vertical positions to cut down on set-up time, an angle cutting unit and a depth stop for grooving jobs.

The Control’s operator at Underwood, Tony Bathe, says it’s a delight to use. “The digital setting up is as accurate as you would want it to be, the control system is very user friendly, and the ease of loading panels on to the frame takes away all the hard work”.