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News Release from: Masterwood (UK) | Subject: Project 415L CNC machining centre
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 January 2008
Masterwood doubles production for stair
maker
A Cornish stair maker has doubled production after investing in a Masterwood 3-axis Project 415L CNC machining centre supplied with Masterwood's Master Stair specialist software.
Botrea Stairs, located near St.Just in West Penwith, Cornwall, about six miles from Land's End, is probably the most westerly joinery in England It makes all kinds of wooden stairs including straight, curved, spiral, plain and decorative types, in either softwood or hardwood and in contemporary or traditional designs, for both homes and businesses
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 21 Dec 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The machining centre is housed in a 600 sq.m.purpose-built factory unit opened earlier this year, partly in anticipation of the CNC's arrival.
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The Project, the company's first machining centre, replaced traditional joinery methods.
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Its introduction has led to a doubling of output - from 15 to around 30 staircases a week - a figure director Bill Padgeth expects to increase still further as they become even more proficient in its operation.
It has also allowed them to do away with five traditional machines, including a stair trencher, tenoners and mortisers.
The Project makes all of the staircases' components including the strings, treads and risers, does all the mortising and tenoning and produces the newel posts.
"I could see the way things were going in joinery production and started to look into automated production a couple of years ago," said Bill Padgeth.
"As we want the business to flourish and remain profitable it's essential to keep pace with changing technology.
"As well as allowing us to make staircases more quickly, which has led to a big reduction in overtime, the Masterwood turns out a far better product.
It delivers consistent accuracy, which even the most highly skilled and experienced carpenter can't maintain day after day." Another benefit is that if a component, a tread for example, is damaged on site during fitting, an identical replacement can quickly be produced as the production details are stored in the Masterwood's memory.
"The principal reason we bought from Masterwood was that they could supply both the machine and their own software," said Bill Padgeth.
"As a first time CNC user it seemed sensible to buy the hardware and software from a single source that could provide us with complete training in both, plus a total after-sales service".
Far from replacing labour, the doubling in output achieved with the Project has already led to the creation of two more jobs in the preparation section, with another carpenter being sought for assembly work.
"Moving up to CNC production has been a positive experience with lots of benefits, thanks to Masterwood," said Bill Padgeth.
"We have been able to increase production, cut down on overtime working, and have been told that our stairs are now easier to fit because of the accuracy of the machining".
The versatile Project has also been used to make curved wooden street benches for the local Council, which have been placed in Penzance's main shopping street.
The Project 415L has a working stroke of 5200mm, ideal for stair strings, with a 12 position tool changer (with up to 24 available), a tubeless bed for quick set-up times, pneumatic clamping and an 8Kw router (a 14 Kw version is also available).
It comes complete with Masterwork, Masterwood's own CAD/CAM software.
Master Stair is an easy-to-use Windows-based CAD/CAM staircase program featuring a cut string capability, designed to speed up the production of all types of wooden stairs.
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