Acquisitions help make Weinig more 'solid' than ever.

Michael Weinig Co., the worldwide leader in wood moulder technology, has expanded and strengthened its position in solid wood processing through the acquisitions of Waco and Dimter.

The three technology centers offer "single source solutions" through an efficient international distribution and service network that Weinig has built up over the decades including its sales, parts and service center in Statesville, NC, Weinig's Statesville facility, which also serves as the North American headquarters for Dimter and Waco, boasts a first-class training center, which was named "Educator of the Year" by the Woodworking Machinery Importers Association in 1992.

Weinig's strength in the North American solid wood processing market is closely tied to the company's solid foundation in Europe. The Weinig group's head office and largest production plant is in Tauberbischofsheim, Germany. More than 1,000 employees are involved in the manufacturing of four-sided planer/moulders for solid wood processing.

Waco provides an ideal complement for the Weinig range, focusing on the higher capacity planers and moulders with feed speeds up to 1,000 feet per minute, in addition to band resaws and ripsaws. Waco has modern production facilities in Halmstad, Sweden, with a workforce of 100.

Dimter in Illertiseen, Germany, employs 300 people and enjoys a solid reputation for wood optimizing cross-cut saws, fingerjointing plants and continuous-process panel gluing and laminating plants.

Weinig also has a highly modern manufacturing plant in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, where 40 employees manufacture planer and profile cutterheads.

The brochure, "Solid Wood Processing with Products from the Weinig-Group" and more detailed information will be distributed at IWF '94, Aug. 25-28. Stop by Weinig's booth, #5118, and pick up a copy.

Dimter's intelligent cross-cutting solutions

Since its merger with Weinig last year, Dimter has expanded its capacities considerably. The know-how acquired in developing highly automated plants can also provide standard machine solutions for medium-sized and smaller companies, as for example with cross cutting of solid wood.

In the field of high-capacity plants, Dimter's technology comprises of some very complex processing-related know-how reaching from sawn timber to laminated squares or edge-glued solid wood panels. The following components are pan of Dimter's product range:

* Automatic surface detection and inspection systems

* Optimizing cross-cut and cut-off lines

* Fingerjointing plants

* Panel gluing lines

* Laminating plants

* Double-end tenoners

During the last few years, Dimter has introduced many innovations especially in the fields of crosscutting and wood defect detection. Most recently, Dimter developed Discan, an automatic, optoelectronic wood defect scanning system that incorporates data transmission to fast computers and software. The advantages of optoelectronic scanning of the wood surface are obvious because the Discan system takes the location of wood characteristics into consideration. Up to four sides are inspected at the same time. Parallel zones are evaluated on each side.

The new technology not only ensures faster and more objective assessment than visual grading, it also enables optimization according to extremely complex decison criteria which can be freely defined and then used selectively depending on the relevant end-use of the wood. Up to 64 characteristics can be defined as indicators of wood defects and a total of eight different end uses for the wood are also considered in the result, which multiplies the opportunities to utilize wood with defects within permitted areas as a higher quality and/or as a large fixed length. This is a decisive factor in view of the high demands of surface quality and the need for increased material yield.

Software determines the output

The real key for optimization, however is the transmission and real time processing of the data in the optimization computer. Here important progress in the direction of very high feed speeds has been achieved during recent years.

Dimter's Optimax system consists of a high-speed industrial standard computer and user-friendly software that was developed by Dimter as the "intelligent brain" of optimization.

Programming of all system parameters and entering sample data can be done by keyboard at the machine or from an office PC. Any combination of board length, quality and defect definition may be entered in a simulation program. In 0.1 second, the computer screen will show the optimized data of the board.

By modifying significant evaluation data, fixed lengths or other criteria, the user will quickly find the ideal parameter settings for his production. The software developed at considerable cost by Dimter is able to optimize according to the most varied criteria and combinations.

In optimizing for yield, the computer looks for the best combination of lengths with the minimum amount of waste. Alternatively, the cutting combination with the maximum total value can be established on the basis of significant end-use values for each length when the value of the wood is optimized.