Shropshire Star

Tough Furniture boosted by investment in new machine

A Shropshire firm has invested in new machinery which they say will help increase efficiency.

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Tough Furniture, based in Craven Arms, has been pioneering the design and manufacture of furniture for challenging environments such as NHS mental health wards, private mental health care groups and SEN schools for 30 years.

They also sell directly to parents and carers looking for furniture items that will withstand the rigours of challenging behaviour in the family home.

A lot of Tough’s furniture items such as beds, wardrobes and desks are made from melamine faced MDF panels with rounded corners and edges. MDF is a great material to work with but comes with an unfinished edge.

An Industrial grade edgebanding machine is then used to glue a band of finished material to those unfinished edges to match the tops and sides.

Tough Furniture’s edgebander was 18-years-old and reaching the end of its working life, causing the company a few headaches in terms of breakdowns and repairs.

After analysing the options available, the company opted for a new Biesse ‘Stream A Smart’ edgebander with the added option of a high-speed single-motor corner rounding unit. This was only the second machine with this corner rounding unit to be sold into the UK, and the first one sold from Biesse’s UK showroom.

The corner rounding unit offers four different corner radii and, vitally important to companies like Tough Furniture who manufacture items to order, the ability to switch corner radii instantly and automatically via a control screen.

Previously the production team had to manually change machine parts every time a change in corner radii was required.

A spokesperson for the company said: "The new machine is much more accurate when it comes to the finish on the board edging, meaning Tough have to spend less time trimming or cleaning, making the whole process more efficient.

"It allows for a much tighter bonding of the edging tape to the board, so the joints are fainter and less pronounced, which is important in the market Tough Furniture work in, from both an aesthetic point of view and a safety point of view.

"A fully digital operating system allows for any technical problems which might arise to be solved quickly via web based interaction with the Biesse team of engineers in Italy, resulting in less time being lost to breakdowns.

"All in all, the new edgebanding machine is helping the company to minimise downtime and increase efficiency. We now have increased flexibility to handle the production of the wide variety of furniture items they are asked to produce, and can also maintain a long-standing goal of continuous improvement in the safety and aesthetics of their products."

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