Window and Door Machinery
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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...
The ProfteQ machining, milling and welding platform combines affordability and advanced engineering, according to Lee Marriott, sales and marketing manager at Promac Group, who explains what it offers fabricators. The ProfteQ milling and welding platform makes timber-look joints in PVCU accessible for a price tag that should be affordable to anyone in fabrication. When we saw its potential reach, we...
By Stuga’s Steve Haines. With fabricators updating machinery to help keep them at the leading edge of production technology it was important for Stuga to continue to update its range of automatic sawing and machining centres. As market leader in sawing and machining Stuga is always targeted by competitors as ‘the one to beat’ in the UK. With most competition...
Stuga’s Steve Haines considers how is the PVCU window and door frame market progressed in 2017. After talking to customers and some well-connected people, Stuga has come to the conclusion that the PVCU window industry is very likely to be around 10% to 15% down in money terms, and 15% to 20% down in volume terms by the end of...
By Ian Latimer, managing director of Emmegi (UK). Deloitte recently published a survey claiming that 26% of non-British workers are thinking of leaving the UK by 2020, and 36% by 2022. For the large numbers of fabricators who employ migrant workers, those are fairly chastening figures. Obviously, not all of these non-British workers will be skilled, but it does highlight...
Following on from Elumatec’s successful TechDays event, managing director Phil Heavey discusses the firm’s production software offering. The 20th century might not feel all that long ago, but in technological terms, it’s a different age. In fenestration and construction, we’ve seen a dramatic transformation – one that’s made businesses bigger, better, and more productive than ever before. But it’s also...
By Ben Brocklesby, director at Origin. At Origin, we work hard to understand what homeowners want and need from their homes. Additional insight helps us learn about our target audience, which we pass on to our partners, allowing them to be better equipped when speaking to customers on the shop floor. This year, we’ve used independent research to reveal the...
With mixed industry forecasts, Lee Marriott of the Promac Group explains why it’s the right time to move into aluminium and how to do it. Forecast to reach a 17-year high, at a time when the whole industry is predicted to see contraction, putting on 24% growth in the last year alone – it appears our appetite for aluminium is...
As Spectus opens up new heritage opportunities by adding a mechanically jointed option to its vertical slider, Spectus Brand Manager Carmen Velilla explores why the window remains a popular choice. There’s no denying the elegance of a sash window; it’s a design that has lasted for centuries for good reason – the perfect complement to beautiful 18th, 19th and early...
Aluminium is forecast to reach 220,000 frames a year by 2020. Dave Thomas, managing director of Haffner Murat, says that if you want to take advantage of the opportunities, you need to make sure you are properly equipped to do so. PVCU has been – and still is – the dominant material in our industry. But there’s no denying that...
By Ian Latimer, managing director of Emmegi (UK). Many fabricators only buy a new machine from us once every five years or so, yet they still rightly very much consider us to be their machinery partner. At the FIT Show, it was noticeable just how many of the visitors on our stand were existing customers – some had ordered machines...
The Flamstead Group, owners of HL Plastics, purchased Wegoma GB in 2014, has reported that the success of the partnership becomes more obvious with each passing day. Avantek sales director Nigel Bishop explains. I’ve worked in the window industry for most of my career, and even I was a little sceptical about how a systems company and a machinery company...
Seamless welding technologies have redefined PVCU window manufacture but until now sill manufacture has remained more or less the same. Jamie Munday, Promac’s sales manager, explains how the SLS Seamless Sill Welder is about to change that. Graf Synergy and FOM announced the formation of the new FOM-GS Group at the end of last year. It brings two global leaders...