Technology Throws a Curve at Edgebanding.

Nova Solutions Inc. offers unique perspective for computer users

IF YOU WERE TO WALK through the offices of Nova Solutions Inc. in Effingham, IL, you would not find a single computer perched atop a desk.

Is this office furniture manufacturer some throwback to a less technological era? Hardly. Nova Solution's offices are filled with the company's signature design computer furniture. The "solution" Nova Solutions offers is a comprehensive line of computer-recessed desks and accessories that can be found in schools, homes, colleges, businesses, training centers and courtrooms around the world.

John Lechman, owner of the company, was co-owner of a kitchen cabinet company in Boulder, CO, when he saw his first computer-recessed desk that was made of metal. Lechman liked the idea of putting the video display terminal and computer inside the desk with the terminal viewed through a glass panel fitted into the desktop. He says the design has a long list of ergonomic benefits to users and is practical as well, freeing up desktop space for other uses and providing unobstructed views in classroom settings.

Nova Solutions employs 130-plus people at its Effingham facilities. The company recently purchased machinery that is helping it improve the way it manufactures office furniture. A 45,000square-foot expansion is also underway.

Particleboard Sets the Stage

Nova Solutions uses particleboard for most of its products. The particleboard is either laminated with melamine or with high-pressure laminates when designs call for postformed edges. Panel thicknesses range from % inch to 1 inch for melamine tops; 1%-inch-thick panels are used for postformed worksurfaces.

The company outsources some parts but is moving more and more to becoming self-sufficient, Lechman says. "Before, we subcontracted many of our parts, but we want to reduce our dependence on vendors and get a better level of doing our own boring and routing, which is why we have invested in new machines," he says.

New equipment includes a Biesse Rover 346 point-to-point boring machine and a BIMA 810 V/D CNC machining center from IMA America. The BIMA is a multi-functional machining center that handles complex work in one setup. Nova Solutions uses it for boring, routing, grooving, notching and shaping. It can also perform contour edgebanding.

Newer yet is a Millennium CNC contour edgebander from Biesse that Lechman saw at last year's Ligna Hanover show. The Millennium's robotic technology is used to apply ABS, PVC and solid wood strips onto the edges of shaped panels.

The Millennium's capabilities dovetail nicely with the company's plans to introduce a variety of new worksurface shapes to the market. The Millennium applies edgebanding by manipulating the substrate around its working units. These operating units are installed into a fixed position on a turntable and glue is applied to the panel edge instead of directly to the tape.

The machine works as follows: A shaped panel is placed on the turntable and its lead edge is brought into contact with the edgebanding unit by a robotic vacuum hand. The robotic hand is positioned by four of the machine's eight numeric controlled axes. The robotic vacuum hand follows the identical path of the panel's profile. The machine uses an icon-driven, graphical interface that prompts the operator about which program to use for a particular part. Part designs are created by a CAD program, but the machine can also import DXF-generated information with programs such as AutoCAD.

Lechman says his shop was the first in the United States to have a Millennium edgebander up and running. Because the types of edgebanding materials being applied by the machine are new for the company, Lechman says he cannot definitively say how much time he is saving, though he knows it is substantial. He says that a recent run of desktops for a store fixture company illustrated the advantages of this new technology. "With the Millennium, each top took approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds to band. Doing the same job by hand would have required about eight employees producing one top per hour per man.

"It is easy to make products that feature squared edges and incorporate straight-line edgebanding,' continues Lechman. "The complexity of banding contours and shaped profiles make these new technologies important acquisitions for us.

"The investment in technology was based on the cost justification of producing our current high-volume components in-house. We used to do what I call virtual manufacturing- buying many of our parts finished. With our new technology we are moving towards producing much of what we once outsourced. We like the sense of control over time and expenses, plus this allows us to improve our inventory control. We only make what we need when we need it."

In addition, Lechman says, "By doing contoured worksurfaces internally in a cost-effective, high-quality way, we now have the capacity to do more creative designs," Lechman continues. "We think the future is in more complex shapes as opposed to products with 90-degree angles. This technology will allow us to introduce really creative offerings."

Nova Solutions' design staff, including technical designer Jeanette Forbes, NCDIQ, is working on a collection of new shapes in desktops that will be produced using the newly acquired technology. "The Millennium and BIMA technology open up a whole new door of opportunity for us," says Forbes.

New Frontiers

Lechman says he believes these new product offerings, coupled with the potential to tap new markets, will help ensure the company's success for many years to come. He says the 45,000-square-foot addition is being constructed to accommodate current and future growth.

Nova Solutions offers its patented recessed computer concept in a variety of different product lines. Styles, sizes and configurations are tailor-made for end use in offices, classrooms, courtrooms, banks, hospitals, labs, libraries, government and corporate training rooms, home offices and kitchens.

"Our workstations can be used in virtually every computer-user setting," Lechman says. "From the beginning, I knew our design was unique and offered users the benefits of a clean look, document privacy, computer protection and direct eye contact across the desk."

As holder of the patent for storing computer monitors below desktops, Nova Solutions continues to sublicense its designs. Lechman says he sees the potential for his company's products in many other markets.

"Two new markets where we are currently enjoying great success are in the kitchen and home office markets. The kitchen dealer has great access to people who are asking for home information centers and home offices," Lechman says.

Company's Trail is Littered with Legal Briefs 

"WHEN PEOPLE ASK me when I started my business, I usually tell them two dates: 1987 when the company was founded, and the fall of 1995, when we finally settled a lawsuit and won sublicensing control of the key patents for the desk design," says John Lechman, president of Nova Solutions, Effingham, IL.

Lechman provides the highlights of the costly and lengthy court battle that dominated his life for several years. He says the recessed computer desk was invented by Edward Schairbaum, who initially licensed Engineered Data Products Inc. of Denver to incorporate his patented design into metal furniture. After seeing one of EDP's desks in 1987, Lechman says he pursued the rights to make the desks in wood. The self-described entrepreneur financed the venture with money of his own plus a $100,000 line of bank credit arranged and guaranteed by his father-in-law, who happened to be employed as an office furniture manufacturer's representative.

The company was successfully making inroads in the office furniture market, with annual sales reaching $600,000 by 1990. Yet, Lechman says the costs of making and marketing a unique product were exceeding his line of credit. "Sales were very good, but we had gone through the line of credit, used $60,000 of my personal savings and ran up $88,000 in credit card debt." Lechman says decided he needed to find financial backing to sustain his company. To raise capital, he sold a controlling interest in the company to the owners of a laminate component manufacturer in Illinois and moved operations from Colorado to Effingham.

At the same time, he says he negotiated with Engineered Data Products for the rights to manufacture the desks as well as sublicense other manufacturers to produce product. "I wanted the right to sublicense to large furniture manufacturers but keep the rights to produce the furniture, too," Lechman says.

He learned that EDP was challenging his interpretation of the contract they had signed and thus began a long series of court battles, putting the sublicensing plans on hold. Legal wrangling dominated Lechman's life from 1990 to 1995 when the various suits were settled in his favor.

A New Lease on Life

In 1995, with the massive legal battle behind him, Lechman opted to buyout his partners. He and a group of investors bought back the company and formed a new company. Lechman now has a controlling interest in the new entity, Nova Solutions Inc.

Lechman was able to start licensing the patents for the desk on a nonexclusive basis to other furniture manufacturers. Licensees pay Nova a flat fee for each desk they manufacture and Nova Solutions supplies the hardware used to hold the computer monitor, keyboard and the glass inserts for desktops, which bear the Nova name.

Lechman would like to be able to say that 1995 was the end of all his legal battling, but because of the nature of his product's design, he says he continually fights off manufacturers who infringe on his patents.

"Already we have spent millions of dollars in legal fees and we continue to spend money to see that our patents are not infringed," he says.

In spite of the hellish years fraught with lawyer bills, Lechman says Nova Solutions is thriving. He touts the ergonomic benefits of the desk's unique design as reasons behind the success of the product.

"We have controlled studies that show that this design reduces eye and neck strain. This angle reduces the potential for eyestrain because eyes work harder to accommodate or change focus as the object they are looking at gets closer. By simply looking downward, studies show that eyes improve the ability to 'accommodate'."

"Up until the last two decades, when people began working at computer monitors, people read by looking down instead of staring straight ahead. Eyestrain, neck aches, back aches and dry eyes are all problems experienced by computer users. Our design helps to reduce this problem because it allows computer operators to look down, creating a more user-friendly environment. Because our design is unique, it requires that I get the word out to the public," says Lechman. I am part evangelist here, taking my message to the people."