Employees on tour of discovery
The new Domino System is the next logical step towards this goal, according to Hörner-Marass. To develop it, HOLZMA sent its best employees on a tour of discovery: An interdisciplinary team was despatched to check how companies are dealing with their destacking tasks. The focus was on small to medium-sized enterprises. "The result was fascinating," said the HOLZMA Managing Director. "Each organisation had its own system. There were excellent solutions, but also a wide range of inefficient, non-ergonomic solutions and poorly organised methods. For example, transportation carriages and rails were designed and constructed in-house, labelling systems had been developed for information transfer and much, much more.
The requirement: fast and structured destacking
"What links each process is the need to destack parts quickly, in a structured manner and ergonomically; and to transport these onward efficiently. It was therefore clear from the start: Whatever approach HOLZMA developed – it would have to be simple and affordable, while at the same time being able to handle the most common demands. The result is the new Domino System."
Domino tile: "fully-automatic labelling"
The core component of the Domino System is a fully-automatic labelling system mounted in front of the pressure beam. This labels books, single parts or offcuts quickly and reliably – even if the saw is equipped with the Power Concept, enabling it to simultaneously cut two strips into parts of different lengths. Labels are no longer manually attached by the machine operator. This avoids the "operator" bottlenecks, prevents labelling errors and ensures information is reliably transferred to downstream work steps.
Domino tile: "label"
This starts at destacking where the label assigns each part its own destacking space. The key benefit is that the machine operator can work according to a guided and structured process, which saves time and allows the saw potential to be fully utilised. This means more time to complete other storage activities, to prepare materials, or to handle internal material transport tasks.
Domino tile: "parts buffer"
The new parts buffer acts as a further domino tile. When parts are cut fast, for example when using the Power Concept, a large number of individual parts leave the saw in quick succession. While they are lying on the air table, the saw cannot start processing the next strip. This means a loss of time, money and efficiency. The new parts buffer avoids this problem. The machine operator simply moves the finished parts to the buffer next to the first air table. He then positions the next strip(s) at the angular fence, starts the saw and now has time to destack the buffered parts – without sorting problems thanks to the fully-automatic labelling. Everything follows the principle of "parallel processes".
Domino tile: "controller software"
The Domino System also includes machine control via the HOLZMA CADmatic PROFESSIONAL software. This is available with the "integrated destacking display" option if required. The operator specifies the number of destacking carriages (or pallets) for stacking parts. The system then automatically prints the correct carriage or pallet number on the label. The tool manages up to six destacking carriages, systematically helping to avoid errors. Another advantage is its intuitive, easy-to-understand user interface.