Bayram Increase Cross Cutting Capacity
Bayram Timber located in Hull were established in 1977 supplying general rough sawn and machined timber to the joinery and furniture industry. Since then the company has gradually grown year on year with 2007 seeing a significant investment in a new 28,000 sq.ft purpose built factory. This makes a total of two sites employing over 100 people in all. They have a nationwide client list, but with a focus on serving the caravan leisure industry with a variety of timber components, manufactured on a 'just in time' basis to meet customers individual stocking and production requirements
Stromab CT600 Automatic Programmable Cross Cut SawCross cutting is an important area of Bayrams production facility, and prior to the new factory being built they had purchased a number of new and used machines from cross cutting specialist JJ Smith. These included two new Stromab Matrix programmable push fed automatic saws, an H&M Anglemaster saw along with four used automatic cross cuts saws which were recently supplied with upgraded software .Therefore when Bayram decided they needed to further increase their sawing capacity there was no hesitation in contacting Smiths for advice.

After several discussions with Martin Smith from JJ Smith, it became apparent that Bayram would greatly benefit from an additional programmable saw for both straight or angled cuts. The new machine that was specified was a Stromab CT600 automatic programmable cross cut saw with a 6m infeed capacity and a blade that can swivel and cut anywhere between +70 and - 70 degrees. Cutting height depends on the width of timber and the angle being cut but the maximum is 160mm. The machine incorporates a heavy duty rack and pinion drive for the pusher fence and a magnetic strip encoder for maximum cutting accuracy. The saw blade dia is 600mm and motor size as standard is 10hp.

Due to the angle cutting facility the machine uses a vertical and horizontal clamping system that is sequenced with the pushing and cutting cycle. Programming is extremely simple thanks to a colour graphic touch screen controller with the facility of remote programming of the cutting list with data transfer via a USB key. Full optimisation is standard. Options include defect cutting, windows operating system, label/inkjet printing and electronic workpiece sorter for the cut components.

Bayram's Technical Director Tony Clarke comments “The CT600 is a very user friendly machine offering a quick and accurate cutting facility. We produce many different angled cuts for a wide variety of components and these can now be automatically produced with extreme confidence which is great for both us and our customers", The machine has now been installed for just over two months and Mr. Clarke adds " JJ Smith gave us a wonderful overall package with delivery and installation bang on schedule. It was also refreshing to already know that we could relay on excellent back up and service if and when it was needed"

The Stromab CT600 supplied to Bayram is just one of a family of crosscuts that JJ Smith from manual pull over saw with programmable stops to complete lines including infeed and outfeed handling that J J Smith offer, making them the leading supplier of this type of machinery to the woodworking industry..
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Mortising Made Simple At Joinery Craft
Joinery Craft based near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire are a specialist manufacturer of bespoke high quality window and doors, supplying mainly new build developments and working with some of the UK's leading house builders. The company was formed almost 13 years ago by Adrian Robson and now employ 10 people in the workshop. As the business has grown they have invested in various items of new equipment to help improve delivery times, efficiency and quality.
Centauro CNC Beta MortiserOne of the latest additions has been a new Centauro model Beta 3 axis programmable automatic swing chisel mortiser supplied by JJ Smith of Liverpool. Like many joinery manufacturers Joinery Craft had been using traditional hollow chisel and chain mortisers. However this area was proving to be a real production bottleneck, especially for door manufacturing and for windows that required mortise slots for glazing bars.

Adrian Robson had previously purchased a number of machines from JJ Smith and had no hesitation in contacting them for advice on how to improve the mortising operation. They suggested that the new Centauro Beta CNC 3 axis automatic swing chisel mortiser would prove ideal, and that it should be supplied with the additional optional programmable hollow chisel head which is particularly suited to making the small mortise slots required for window glazing bars.

Adrian arranged to view the machine at last years W6 exhibition and was very impressed with its operation. He comments ' It ticked all the boxes we were looking for. The programming was extremely easy thanks to the colour graphic touch screen controller, quality and accuracy of the mortise slots was spot on, and the programmable hollow chisel head really gave the machine that extra versatility with the ability to make vertical mortise slots by means of the programmable Z axis operation. We also liked the fact that as the component is automatically moved and ejected by the gripper mechanism this would leave the operator free to perform other tasks while the mortising cycle is taking place " An order was placed and the machine was installed on schedule at the end of last year. Adrian has been delighted with its performance and adds " We must have speeded up our mortising operation by at least 60% since we have had the machine and we are now doing work that would have taken far too long using traditional machines. For instance making a 9 panel window, which can have a total of 26 mortise slots is so easy on the Beta machine. Typically we can now produce a run of up to 50 windows requiring 1300 mortises with no problem at all. In addition door production has improved and is particularly easy as you are able to select a single program to accurately machine both left hand and right hand stiles with haunched and through mortises. Another advantage has been that we can use the machine to produce the night vent slots in the window frame heads".

Other features of the machine include step by step graphic set up on the controller which includes calculating the oscillation swing of the chisel along with a graphic representation of the mortised component which Adrian says is a "real plus". In addition a USB port / key allows for back up storage of memorised programs and machine parameters. Also on request the Beta can now be specified with a programmable milling head instead of the hollow chisel head. This can be used for operations such a louver door slots.
Centauro BETA Graphic Controller
Centauro BETA Programmable Hollow Chisel Head
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Northern Joinery Invest In Taylor Clamping System
Northern Joinery the Whitworth based manufacturer of high quality staircases have recently installed a new Taylor Rotary Clamp Carrier system which is being used to produce edge and face laminated stair components such as strings, treads, winders and newel posts.
Taylor Automatic Clamp CarrierThe company was established in 1959 and began specialising in staircase production in the mid 60's. Since then they have become one of the UK's leading manufacturers working nationally and supplying some of the countries major house builders. They use some of the most sophisticated CNC machinery and design software available enabling them to build even the most complex staircase

The company have always had a policy of investing in new equipment to help increase productivity and quality which was highlighted by the installation of the Taylor Clamping System. It became apparent some time ago that there was a bottleneck in the production of laminated components that were being produced on an old RF machine that was becoming expensive to run and maintain. In addition the newel posts were being laminated on a manual hydraulic clamp which was proving too slow. Company director David Broadbent and works manager Pete Welsh visited last years W6 exhibition to investigate possible solutions to this problem. It was there that they spotted the Taylor machine which was on demonstration on the JJ Smith stand. Their initial interest was followed up by a visit to JJ Smith's Liverpool showrooms to discuss machine specification in further detail and also to make tests on their own products.

An order was then placed for a 5m capacity 6 section semi automatic machine. It was equipped with 302 type heavy duty clamp arms having a maximum opening of 920mm. For face laminating material up to 150mm in thickness the optional rocker plates were supplied, along with a Taylor motorised roller spreader for applying an even and metered spread of PVA adhesive to the lamels prior to clamping. The machine has now been installed for over 4 months and Mr.Broadbent comments "The Taylor Clamp has certainly lived up to our expectations and is proving very versatile for the different lengths and sections of material we need to laminate. It has also enabled us to obtain far better material usage without compromising on quality. We also found it very easy to work with JJ Smith who from the outset gave us some good advice on the required machine specification, general solid wood laminating techniques and also suitable glue suppliers".
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Panhans in Scotland
Two leading Scottish joinery manufacturers have each recently installed top of the range fully programmable spindle moulders from German manufacturer Panhans.
Fred Simpson Joinery based in Peterhead and Hall & Tawse Joinery located in Aberdeen are well established firms who have a reputation for producing high class joinery products. Each have a policy of continued investment in machinery that will help improve production, quality and flexibility.

The machine supplied to both companies was a Panhans model 245 'Electronic Plus' spindle moulder which has a + 45 / -45 degree tilt with 4 axis programmable control to the rise & fall, tilt, complete fence assembly and infeed fence only. Programming is extremely simple with the possibility to memorise 999 different programs. Additional features include quick change HSK 80 shafts which can be 30mm, 11/4", 40mm or 50mm in dia, a 15hp main motor and the Zeromaster calibrating device which allows for the height readout of the spindle to be calibrated in relation to the cutterblock that is fitted.
Optional extra's that were specified included the comfort arm assembly for the feeder which is vertically adjustable through an electric motor and positioned from the control panel. Also a device for the swing away of the shaper fence with electric lifting and lowering was also fitted along with left and right table extensions with frontal support bar.

Fred Simpson comments ' I first saw the Panhans machine at a show some 18 months ago and was immediately impressed with its ease of use, versatility and above all its build quality. Therefore when I was ready to invest in a new machine I had no hesitation in contacting Alex Black of JJ Smith to discuss the machine operation and specification in more detail. An order was placed and it has now been installed some 6 months and I have to say it is a fantastic machine. It is a lot easier to set up than our old conventional spindles and the fact that we now have quick interchangeable shafts already tooled up and ready to fit is a real time saving bonus'

Alan McGillivray, production manager at Hall Tawse says 'We decided we needed to purchase a new spindle earlier this year, but at that stage had not really considered a fully programmable machine. However, JJ Smith suggested we have a look at a machine of this type working on site and as soon as we saw it we recognised the advantages it gives in set up times both for standard and specialist production both of which we do. The machine has now been in operation since early June and we have been very pleased with its performance and the added flexibility it has given us'
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Rochdale Wood Products Turn To Centauro CNC Lathe
Rochdale Wood Products who produce high quality mouldings and components for kitchen and general furniture manufacturers have recently expanded their wood turning facility with the acquisition of a second Centauro T90 CNC lathe from JJ Smith.
The purchase was needed to help satisfy the increasing demand from their customers for bespoke specialist turnings. While traditionally Rochdale Wood concentrated on products such as specialized mouldings and CNC router work, the turning side of the business has steadily grown which has resulted in the purchase of a number of machines in the last 18 months which includes equipment for barley twist and fluting. The introduction of another CNC lathe now gives them a high degree of flexibility and versatility.

Managing Director Steve Holden comments 'The beauty about the Centauro T90 machines is that set up times are extremely short and therefore we are able to quickly satisfy our customers demands for different designs and quantities of turnings. Also thanks to the CNC control we are able to produce very high quality, high definition turnings on a repeat basis'.

Programming of the T90 is extremely simple using the dedicated Centauro CT CAD software. From this profiles to be produced can quickly and easily be created and designed to suit customer’s individual requirements. Features on the machine itself include hydraulic self-centering for easy and precise loading, a programmable dowel knife and a 10hp main motor with inverter to give infinitely variable spindle speeds programmed through the software.

The new T90 has now been installed for nearly 3 months and Mr. Holden adds ' It has given us the extra capacity we needed and has been working very well. With the turning operation we now have the feeling is we are ideally placed to fill a growing gap in the market for the production of quality bespoke turned components which compliment the other products we are able to offer’.
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H&M Saw For New Goodwins Factory
Goodwins Timber Frame have recently located to a new factory in Tullow Co Carlow, from their smaller existing factory in Athy. The company was started by Jonathon Goodwin as a business separate from their well established builders merchants to manufacture timber frame kits for the growing market for this product in Ireland.
In specifying the equipment for the new factory, Goodwins were able to learn from their initial experience from their first factory. Jonathan commented “We initially underestimated the amount of sawing required and were keen to start the new factory with a saw that cut panel components in volume”. He continued “We researched the market and it was clear that J J Smith could offer a complete range of saws specified for the timber frame industry”.

“Having met with Martin Smith the timber frame product manager for the company, I was happy that they could offer a machine to suit our requirements”.
Martin Smith takes up the story “It was clear that Goodwins knew exactly what they requried and we were able to offer a fully automatic upstroke saw with automatic infeeding. In addition they needed to be able to splice timber for long top and bottom plates, so we integrated a splicing press into the outfeed of our saw. This arrangement saves space and avoids double handling of the products”.

As Goodwins already had angle cutting facilities J J Smith offered a straight cutting version of their popular Anglemaster saw that has been supplied to a lot of timber frame manufacturers in the UK and Ireland.

The machine was fully integrated to Goodwins timber frame manufacturing software to enable optimised cutting lists to be downloaded directly to the saw. In addition the machine was supplied with two ink jet printers. As Jonathon explains, “We were keen that the machine was specfied to work at full capacity, and we wanted the facility to print different panel identifiers on two different pieces of timber being cut at the same time”.

Mr Goodwin concluded “We are keen to invest in the latest equipment for the whole of our production facility and the J J Smith saw will form an important part of our new factory”.

J J Smith offer the complete range of specialised sawing equipment for the timber frame industry and offer their market leading equipment combined with OptiMaster their pre optimising software which is tightly integrated to the popular design packages used in the industry.

Martin Smith also concluded “We are very happy to be associated with Goodwins in the new factory and wish them every sucess in the future”.
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