Manufacturing Services
It was never really our intention to go into the manufacture of vacuum pressed products but the level of inquiry generated for this type of work from our early exhibitions led us to decide it was too good an opportunity to miss. As it turns out this was a very wise decision, and means that we are now in a far better position to offer technical support to our vacuum press customers than any other vacuum press manufacturer in the world. If you experience a problem then we’ve almost certainly had it before and either found a work around or decided that it was commercially insurmountable. Either way, you save a lot of time and therefore money.
Manufacturing now accounts for 75% of the company’s turnover and we work with a very wide range of clients on an even wider range of projects. One-off prototypes to production runs of several thousand panels can all be easily tackled with our in-house production facilities. If you need it we can often make a small sample section of a panel on the day we receive the enquiry.
We often work with clients on more than one level, supplying them with a vacuum press and moulds but also acting as an overflow manufacturing facility should their own workshop be too busy or if the project is a little out of their experience range.
We have developed several designs of CNC machined trimming jigs for curved panels to speed up production and increase dimensional accuracy of the finished panels. It is unlikely that you would order trim jigs for a one off panel but even a run of five can justify the additional costs involved. In most cases there will be a pair of jigs, one of which is used for trimming the straight edges of the panel with a lipping planer and the other for trimming the curved edges with a bearing-guided router cutter. Jigs for more complicated shapes can also be made so please call for further information.
Our workshop is equipped with the following machinery:
Two 1325mm x 3125mm x 600mm (height of membrane) FramePress Pros
One 1000mm x 800mm x 700mm (height of membrane) FramePress fro prototyping and sampling
Pacer 2512HDS 6 tool CNC router
Self-built CNC hot wire cutter
1195mm wire, 1400mm X-axis, 650mm Y-axis
10’ x 5’ Streibig Wall saw
1100mm Boere twin head wide belt sander (calibration head + pad finish sanding)
SCM Edgebander
Hettich Blue Max vertical and horizontal boring machine
1400mm manual veneer guillotine
3200mm veneer saw
Kuper stitcher (used mainly for joining balancers)
Morso mitre guillotine
Hoffman jointing machine
An Elliptical Column Casing destined for Heathrow
One of the pressings on a router trim jig
Ready to have straight edges trimmed with lipping planer
40 out of an order for 1360 curved MDF doors
A prototype conical speaker cabinet prior to fitting of drivers
A batch of prototype chair components
A hand veneered curved shaker door - Don’t let anyone tell you this is a fast way to get rich!
A run of eight wardrobe doors with book matched veneer running through.
The internal plywood framework for a conical column casing/ventilation duct. When installed the smaller diameter section went at the bottom and was clad in perforated stainless steel. If you ever visit the Swansea Leisure Centre have a look around the reception area.
The laminated MDF/flexiply skins attached to the framework. You can’t really get an idea of scale from these images but the casings were nearly 3500mm tall and about 1100mm diameter at the top.
Pressing a walnut veneered conical pedestal for a boardroom table. It was too tall for our box membranes, hence the use of a big bag.
The ‘boss’ trying to remember how a lipping planer works! “What do I have to do to make it go all noisy Greg?”
The tape is applied to stop the veneer splitting out during the trimming process.
In this instance the mould was designed to be used as the trim jig.
The edge after trimming
A lipping planer represents a fairly hefty investment. However, if you are regularly making curved panels, the time it will save you when you come to trim them means that it pays for itself very quickly. It just performs a function that no other piece of machinery can do as well or as efficiently.
The lipping planer trims the panel flush with the end surface of the mould
The internal face ends up being invisible so we used Kraft paper as a balancer.
The finished pedestal showing the book matched and angle cut veneer.
An exhibition ‘water station’ for LifeSaver Systems. The basins filled up with and emptied of foul water when the buttons in the top were pressed. See www.lifesaverbottledirect.com for further information.