July 27, 2022 FAMEG Invests in ANCA Tool Grinders

World leading chair manufacturer, FAMEG, invests in ANCA tool grinders to produce cutting tools in-house and achieves major improvements.

FAMEG is one of the biggest chair manufacturers in the world. Established in 1881, FAMEG has dominated the market with a wide variety of product and commitment to quality. The company now has customers in 50 countries worldwide, an 800 strong production team and is headquartered in Radomsko, Poland.

Andre Bronowski, Sales Director at FAMEG said: “The chair design is similar to a fashion business. The product needs to be attractive, but it also needs to be strong enough for use. We work with many designers, from Poland and abroad from Germany, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland.”

“The process to manufacture a chair is not so simple. First, you have to source round wood, cut and bend the wood or make as plywood. For these processes we need cutting tools, a lot of cutting tools. After cutting, we assemble the complete chair – staining and lacquering to produce a final product.”

“Two to three years ago, we decided that we would make all our own woodworking tools in house and that’s why we contacted ANCA. Nowadays, production requires a lot of flexibility and short lead times. We calculated that it would be best to control this process ourselves.”

“Furthermore, to ensure our quality standards we try to control all steps during production.  Having the ANCA FX7 in-house means that we can now supply all the tooling for ourselves, save money and are even looking at manufacturing cutting tools for other companies,” Andrea stated.

Ireneusz Idzikowski, FAMEG Product Manager said, “We decided to purchase an ANCA machine because of how long it was taking to source cutting tools. We need our cutting tools fast. Our manufacturing deadlines are very short, so if we couldn’t get the tools we needed quickly, it was a big problem.”

“A second reason was diversity of cutting tools. Our production requires using specialized tools that have unusual dimensions. Obviously, we also use standard cutting tools, but the majority were specials. Tools made for special request and of special construction are not always perfect. Often you have to make a correction, which doesn’t have to be related to the tool itself but the production process of the used machine, which we can now do in real time – rather than shipping it back to a supplier.”

“We use the ANCA FX7 for both production and resharpening. For production we have equipped the machine with a robot to produce tools in an automatic cycle, replacing the operator’s work.”

“The machine has solved a lot of production problems. Now we can access cutting tools when we need them. It means we have stock or can manufacture the required cutting tool pretty much immediately, which wasn’t possible until now. It completely changed our work quality production wise.”

“We are also very happy about the service, ANCA service technicians help us in solving various technical questions and we know who to call and that they won’t leave us alone with our problem,” Ireneusz concluded.

Duncan Thompson, ANCA Special Projects Manager said: “FAMEG approached ANCA to see if we could find a custom solution for our FX grinding machine to have greater flexibility and capability for unattended production of wood tools. In partnering with FAMEG, we now have developed a machine package ideally suited to companies operating in the wood cutting tool industry.”

“The solution has a special tooling system that can be used on our highly affordable and versatile FX7 machine. With its inbuilt robot and dedicated tooling, the FX7 can easily change automated production between woodworking profile blades, used to form skirting boards and architraves, and solid round shank tools such as routers and drills used in production of furniture and nested flat panel applications.”

FX7 includes an inbuilt robot for tool and wheel pack changing, making it the ideal foundation for FAMEG’s application.  Two systems of work holding are offered: one for flat profile blades and another for round shank routers. Changeover between the two is designed to take less than 15 minutes. To support unattended production, a new robot head changes not only wheel packs (up to six for ultimate grinding flexibility), but also loads profile blades, or round shank routers without the need to make any changes to the robot tooling.  Changeover of the machine from profile blade grinding setup to routers takes less than 30 minutes.  

Production of different tool types is supported by dedicated tool software packages for programming profile blades, compression routers, standard and profile routers and drills.   All these grinding programs can be verified offline on the ANCA CIM3D package, ensuring the first tool produced is exactly as expected.

ANCA’S SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE YOUR WOODWORKING TOOL PRODUCTIVTY AT IWF

ANCA offers a variety of CNC grinding application solutions to suit the woodworking tool industry. Through collaboration with different companies, such as FAMEG, ANCA offers a range of CNC Tool and Cutter Grinders, along with dedicated woodworking software and automation solutions, to suit a range of tool types.

With ANCA, manufacturers can diversify wood tool applications on FX machines. ANCA’s woodworking solution for the FX7 offers outstanding flexibility for unattended production. At IWF, visitors can see ANCA’s FX7 grinding compression routers.

Diversify your wood tool applications on ANCA FX machines:

• Workholding solutions with quick changeover times
• Option for up to six wheel packs with automatic changing
• Dedicated application software
• LaserUltra can be applied to guarantee router diameter is accurate and consistent in unattended production

Visit ANCA at IWF at Booth B8285.

For further information, please contact:

Johanna Boland
Group PR and Communications Manager, ANCA
M: +61 407799779
Johanna.Boland@anca.com

ANCA is a market leading manufacturer of CNC grinding machines. It was founded in 1974 in Melbourne, Australia where the company still has its global headquarters. ANCA has offices in the UK, Germany, China, Thailand, India, Japan, Brazil and the USA as well as a comprehensive network of representatives and agents worldwide.

ANCA CNC grinders are used for manufacturing precision cutting tools and components across a diverse range of competitive industries including cutting tool manufacture, automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical.

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