The demand for wood-based construction elements in the building industry continues to grow unabated and high-quality tooling solutions for structural timber being of enormous importance.
Increasing demand and the resulting growth in consumption is forcing the British timber construction industry to optimise its manufacturing processes in terms of cost and time. Quality-forming aspects such as appearance, surface finish and gluing ability are increasingly coming into focus. These can only be achieved with resilient and robust tool systems that allow high feed rates, are easy to handle, deliver perfect results and are convincing in terms of ease of maintenance.
Planing is arguably the most important step in woodworking. Here, the shape and material thickness are determined, and surfaces and reference surfaces are created. Leitz has developed a series of high-performance planing tools to help machinists maximise efficiency in production.
The Leitz CentroPlan Planing Cutterhead achieves perfect machining quality due to high concentricity, as its knives are positioned directly in the support body. Featuring a solid cutting edge for long tool life, the tool’s constant diameter results in shorter downtimes and the repeatable knife positioning means that no adjustments are required on the machine. Leitz also developed the MC 33 planer blades to increase productivity due to longer tool life and reduced sharpening cycles. Thanks to the innovative Marathon coating, the planer blades have a six-fold longer maximum tool life when compared to uncoated HS-planing knives. This can result in as much as an 80% reduction in downtime from tool changes and increased cost savings from less frequent replacements.
Leitz also designs and manufactures high quality profile tooling, Leitz solutions like the ProfilCut Q are designed for dealing with high feed speeds and cutting speeds of up to 120 m/s. Allowing timber producers to maximise their efficiency and economies of scale when machining. These efficient and flexible solutions allow for efficient the use of raw materials, as it enables the quick creation of alternative multiple products like mouldings thanks to its quick knife change system – ideal for manufacturing batches of different profiles. Especially as the knife change can be made on the mounted tool body, further reducing downtime from profile changes. The ProfilCut Q is available with Carbide, Marathon coated or Diamond cutting edges. Making it suitable for most wood-derived materials on the market.
The use of high-quality drill bits is essential for the structural timber industry. The XL twist drill from Leitz was engineered to combat rising prices surrounding raw materials by meeting the specific requirements and materials used in wood construction, enabling users to save noticeably more time when boring deep holes. Thanks to use of high-grade materials in its construction, the XL twist drill has a 10-times longer tool life than commercially available twist drills. It’s updated geometry also increases positional accuracy on the exit side by 50%.
If you’re looking to improve enhance your machines performance with high quality tooling, Contact Leitz at c[email protected] or call 01279 454530
