In a competitive marketplace and challenging economy, smart businesses naturally look for ways to improve efficiencies and productivity, cut costs and waste, and gain that all-important edge over competitors. For those who operate in the flat panel market, CNC and tooling specialists Panel Tools exists to deliver valuable solutions on those metrics and more.
Panel Tools’ co-founder and Director, Fraser Killen says the company thrives on collaborative efforts between themselves, customers and tooling manufacturers. “Customers come to us with an application or a challenge, and if we don’t have the exact tool they need, we will often design brand new tools and systems for them. We’ll consult with our global network of partners, conduct trials at the customers’ site, and we won’t stop until the solution is found.â€
The company’s CNC Specialist, Brad Anderson, has worked very closely with a particular customer for over 18 months, seeking to bring about improvements in technology to reflect the way manufacturing is evolving around the world.
“With this customer, a staircase manufacturer, we’ve put a number of profiles in place for their stair treads, most notably, an R3 pencil round profile. As a result, they’ve been able to shave forty minutes per set of stairs off their production time, which is a huge achievement, considering their high output. But apart from the time savings, we’ve also brought outstanding consistency and repeatability to their product by introducing a CNC to profile their treads.â€
Panel Tools turned to cutting tools manufacturer, Freud and their ISOprofil technology, a diameter and profile recovery knife system. It features resharpenable knives and allows a constant diameter and profile to be maintained, which is unique to a cutterhead.
“ISOprofil provides the benefit of a turnover knife-style system, but with the economy of a knife that can be sharpened multiple times,†Brad explains. “The knives can be sharpened 6-8 times in their lifespan. We find that the initial cost of the knives is not much more than that of a standard turnover knife, yet they come with many more benefits.â€
The ISOprofil system saves setup time for the customer and reduces the skills needed due to the diameter and profile recovery.
“When you go from a manual labour-intensive task to a CNC-automated process,†Brad says, “the repeatability greatly exceeds expectation. You achieve the exact same profile and finish every single time. It also removes monotonous, repetitive tasks from the picture, so workers can be reassigned to more meaningful tasks.â€
The ISOprofil solution came about when Brad visited one of the company’s factories and noticed a team of five workers with hand trimmers applying radii. In arriving at the answer, some challenges had to be overcome, such as the need for adjustability to suit the various tread thicknesses. While at the LIGNA show, Brad was able to bring the owner of the stair manufacturing business to the Freud stand and show him the cutterhead and some samples. “He was so impressed with the finish and return that he’d get out of it that he ordered three cutterheads right there and then for one of their factories.â€
Panel Tools offers 30-minute personalised phone consultations to discuss a customer’s specific needs. As Fraser explains, “The purpose of the session is not to talk about pricing, it’s really a brainstorming, problem-solving consultation that focuses on one particular aspect of the customer’s business.â€
The customer provides information in the booking process which Panel Tools uses to prepare for the call. “We might even email them with more questions so we have a fuller picture before we speak. After the session, we put in place a roadmap and work our way through the different priorities. Ultimately, we devise a highly personalised solution that is guaranteed to deliver benefits, whether it’s cost savings, better finishes, more efficient output, or whatever else they need to achieve.â€
Learn more about Freud’s ISOprofil technology:
