German woodworking machinery manufacturer Weinig is now targeting the region’s market with the newly-introduced PowerCom and the Mill Vision software systems that boost timber-manufacturing efficiency and profitability as well as increase yield by cutting down on wastage of timber.

With the steady escalation of timber prices, these software systems are vital consideration for increasing competitiveness in the solid wood component market, says a spokesperson for Weinig.
“The PowerCom software is useful for the management of moulder tooling. It is a computerised setting system available on the range of moulders to ensure operators can set the systems for complex profiles quickly and accurately,” says the spokesperson.
“The heart of PowerCom is in the tool room, where tools are measured after being ground and the data entered into the system. These figures are then used to provide precise setting data for each axial and radial position for every tool on the machine, taking all guesswork out of the setting operation. Set-up times for stock mouldings are minimised and new profiles are as easy to machine as stock profiles, thus offering huge benefits. Other advantages include accuracy, repeatability, minimised downtime, fast setting up and response to orders along with fast access to customer information.”

Machinery systems
Weinig’s Mill Vision software offers a complete solution for systems where hundreds of different parts have to be crosscut and then further processed on to other machines or selected for assembly.
“This represents a major logistic problem in trying keep track of crosscut pieces, which sometimes are hardly distinguishable in size. Therefore, manufacturers are often are forced to work strictly on an order-by-order basis, but this means that a large quantity of wood is lost in the form of residual pieces, which are wasted.
“Mill Vision software puts an end to this squandering of resources. This software allows users to take product data from customers’ specific programs and simply change existing order lists into a complete cutting list, at the press of a button. In order to optimise the timber yield, similar parts – such as those with the same cross sections, profiles and wood types – from different orders can be combined into a single cutting list,” adds the spokesperson.
One of the many other important advantages of Mill Vision is that it allows labels to be printed with much more useful information when the piece is cut – including details such as size, customer order and other significant information – for that particular part to be easily and quickly recognised at the assembly line in the creation of the end product.
Many customers, in the US, Europe and, more recently, in the UK, with complex cutting patterns are now using Mill Vision with substantial success and reaching higher productivity and yield levels than previously achieved, he adds.
The Weinig Group focuses on products for the solid wood industry, offering Weinig moulders, planers, tool grinders, tooling and mechanical handling systems; Waco high-speed moulders and planers; GreCon Dimter optimising crosscut saws and finger-jointing machines and Raimann rip saws. It has four manufacturing facilities in Germany, one in Sweden, one in Switzerland, one in China and one in the US.