10/10/2014

HOMAG Ambition: New series, new processing unit technology

Hanover Industry Fair 1962: Occupying a modestly dimensioned booth, a small company from the Black Forest unveiled the world’s first edge banding machine. Used in conjunction with a new type of glue, the hot-and-cold technique was hailed as a revolutionary development. This new concept was to take the world by storm and bring about a transformation throughout the market.

It takes drive to implement ideas for lasting market change
The inventive spirit of those early years has maintained the same momentum across the HOMAG Group to this day. Ever on the search for even better machines and technologies for woodworking, the continuous improvement of existing products through on-going development is just as much part of the company’s agenda as completely new avenues of research. The focus here is always firmly on the customer: after all, every new idea and every new development is assessed according to the benefits and advancement it provides for customers. Over 50 years of experience in the field of edge banding and a team of employees with capacity for lateral thinking have now resulted in another sensational development: HOMAG proudly presents the new Ambition series.
 
New concept for greater customer benefits
New units and equipment combinations on the basis of a smart modular system allow the edge bander to be equipped in line with specific customer requirements. Other benefits include the elimination of finish processing, ergonomic operation and a choice of different glue types for edge processing through to zero edge production.
    
Five models of the new series were unveiled at the HOMAG Treff in Schopfloch from September 23 – 26. The entire series encompasses different models with different equipment configurations. We are presenting one of these here.

The Ambition 2480: Professional flexibility with a feed rate of 25 m/min
This model of the new Ambition series is ideally suited for premium quality processing of edges made of plastic (PP, ABS, PVC) or melamine, but provides superb results when processing veneer edges. All the necessary processing units are mounted as standard. Anyone wishing to process workpieces with thicknesses between 8 and 60 mm at a feed rate of 25 m/min has chosen the ideal solution with this model.

NEW – NEW – NEW: Units and equipment

• New workpiece infeed for ergonomic workpiece handling. The support surface allows the workpieces to be positioned with the utmost ease. The sturdy design of the fence enables precision alignment of even the biggest and heaviest workpieces.
• Gluing unit with reproducible glue application accuracy for need-driven glue dispensing facility. The glue quantity dispensed can be defined and adjusted as required and read using a Vernier scale. So the required application of glue can be adjusted again exactly after cleaning or maintenance.
  New industrial standard snipping unit with improved disposal of snipping waste – robust and durable.
• New profile trimming unit with automatic workpiece thickness, feed adjustment for precise copying of corners and automatic profile change. This eliminates the need for adjustment of the pneumatic system dependent on the feed rate. The quality remains constant irrespective of the feed rate.
• New grooving unit with powerful motors for large groove cross-sections. Many groove or rebate applications call for cross-sections of over 60 mm², and require the user not to throttle the machine’s feed system to below 20 m/min to be sure of optimum productivity. For this, grooving motors of at least 4 kW are required – a level of output provided by HOMAG with its new grooving unit.
• New glue scraper blade for automatic adjustment of the tracing facility: In the past, users found it tricky to achieve the optimum setting for the glue joint scraper blade after changing between workpieces with and without protective foil. Here, HOMAG provides an automatic solution. This makes use of technology deployed previously in industrial plants using an inflatable tracing roller. Adapted to create a tracing pad, this industrial standard technique has now become a highly affordable solution for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Zero joint on request
The hot air technique airTec to produce perfect zero joints can be simply integrated into all the HOMAG Ambition models. The airTec option is unbeatable when used in combination with a hot-melt gluing unit, as it ensures that every type of edge can be processed – even if there is no zero joint edging to hand.