Window and Door Machinery
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By Steve Haines, Stuga. We hear more and more from the national press about the difficulty finding reliable labour, and this has been made worse by the result of the referendum from what we are told. I hear from much of the PVCU window and door fabrication industry that they struggle to get good people and this is creating problems...
By Neil Parton, MD of Elumatec UK. Issues have a habit of expanding to fit the available space. What begins as a minor niggle in a business situation can become a problem that feels insurmountable – and that can happen very quickly. A classic example would be a temporary cash flow problem that becomes entrenched when it’s not handled wisely,...
By Steve Haines, Stuga. The Stuga ZX5 automatic sawing and machining center was created early in 2017 but was originally to be the ZX4-MK7. The ZX4-MK6 was a well-established product, selling and working well but the time had come to upgrade it to incorporate new ideas and new technology. Stuga also wanted to include ideas and suggestions from customers and...
Lower net migration and a higher rate of employment has set wage increases spiralling. Promac discusses on how you can keep a lid on the cost of manufacture. Net migration to the UK from other EU countries has reached a near six-year low; according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the difference between the number of EU citizens entering...
By Emmegi. Voilap Holding is the new name for Cifin – the group that owns Emmegi, and which was established several years ago by the Emmegi founders. It’s a reflection of Voilap, the newest digital business within the group, but it actually now encompasses nine different but complementary brands. Among those in the UK is Emmegi but, from a fabrication...
Embodied energy in building products is under greater scrutiny, delivering environmental benefits and production efficiencies. Joe Hague, managing director of Promac Group, explains. The construction industry is the largest consumer of resources in the UK, swallowing up more than 400 million tonnes of material a year (Davis Langdon) and accounting for 10% of UK carbon emissions (Envest). While the industry...
Promac’s Joe Hague asks if the growing influence and increasing automation introduced by large fabricators mean that the writing is on the wall for small and medium-sized manufacturers. Consolidation goes hand-in-hand with market maturity and the list of acquisitions and mergers in the glass processing and fabrication sector is long. This has done two things: it’s created new and larger...
Matt Hardy, director of Skyglaze explains how the new LMX650 from FOM is redefining possibilities in aluminium fabrication. FOM allows you to manufacture better product by accessing more technical processes – flow and friction drilling, notch cutting, T-milling – and the integration of those processes. That specialism means that ultimately as a manufacturer you can do more and offer your...
Emmegi’s success in the UK over the last decade has largely mirrored the success of the aluminium sector as a whole. Surging demand for our machines has reflected the growth in demand for the material and, in particular, the trend amongst PU fabricators to add aluminium products to their portfolios. What has made it particularly attractive for those fabricators has...
The technology behind modern CNC machines is extraordinary says Mighton’s Mike Derham, but sometimes ‘small and specific’ works too. Unless your joinery business is dedicated to producing every piece by hand, you will be reliant to one degree or another on machinery during the production process. These days, with the cost of complex CNC equipment coming within the budgets of...
Stuga Machinery’s Steve Haines explains how the company had a busy 2017 building a wide variety of machines while designing a new top of the range sawing and machining centre, now known as the ZX5. There are three ZX5s installed in the market with two more on order, and it is looking like this new model may eclipse the popular...
90° and specialist welds have seen exponential growth, so if a new machinery platform is on your shopping list what are the pros and cons of each? Joe Hague, Promac discusses. Innovation in welding technologies has driven a step-change in PVCU manufacture. Growth in the PVCU window market, for example, slowed to 1.2% last year but that’s less of an...
Following my visit to the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany 2011, I was struck by the importance and relevance of the new buzzword ‘Industrie 4.0’. I knew that I had to ensure that Stuga products would be designed to allow our customers to make the most of this exciting revolution. Following this, Stuga has been designing and developing features that...
We’ve seen vast leaps in manufacturing technology over the past few decades; the machines being produced today are faster, more efficient, and more intelligent than ever before. But as we move further into the 21st century, the biggest advances aren’t coming from machinery, they’re coming from technology and connecting machines to computers and other devices via the internet. Fabrication is...
Oliver Ginger, supply chain director at Origin, talks about how Origin is getting smarter and the technology it implements to ensure a streamlined process. I am often asked how connected we are at Origin. People want to know what procedures and systems a leading manufacturer like us has in place to be smarter. I always say that there is a...
Much of what is described under ‘Industry 4.0’ will already be familiar to Eurocell fabricators and is part of the company’s evolving working methods, according to Ian Kernaghan, Eurocell’s product manager. The smart factory, or Industry 4.0, is not a concept like ‘lean manufacturing’ with principles and best practice, in my view. Instead it is a handy catch-all term for...
From augmented reality to increased manufacturing efficiency, Roberto Canassa, director of IT at Emplas, argues that regardless of the platform, technology must deliver better customer experience. The window industry is very fragmented. We still rely on volume – frames per week – as a measure of success, when what we should be measuring is our ability to not just meet...
On the back of a year that saw Thermoseal win numerous awards – including Export Champion of the Year in the Amazon Growing Business Awards, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade 2017), and the Derek Bonnard Award for Excellence at the G-Awards – head of marketing and communications Samantha Hill discusses the company’s current export business plans. Manufacturing and...
Many pundits are predicting the best conditions for decades for timber window sales in the home improvement sector. But Mighton’s Mike Derham believes it’s important to sell like for like against PVCU and aluminium, and great hardware is a key feature. Mighton Products sells a wide range of hardware for frames manufactured in all materials, but we major on high...
Bob Wallis of Window Tech Trade explains how he has turned his back on the manufacture of a standard product, and is instead winning business on a highly focused offer. People were saying a few years ago that super-fabricators were going to take over the industry and it didn’t happen – but I think we’re now at that point; I...