Edgeband Symposium 2022

Tools & processes: matt trend, protection against moisture, fully automated edgeband handling and internal corner gluing

Tools & Processes, the next section, was opened by Henrich Altenhoff from Business Development at RIEPE GmbH & Co. KG. He presented RIEPE’s hydrophobisation system, which provides additional protection against the swelling of furniture panels due to steam and moisture where the edgebands are glued. The system, which improves the water resistance of glued joints many times over, can be used both as a spray system on the KAM or subsequently by means of a hydro-pen. Attractive solutions were also presented for the matt trend, which is popular at the moment: matt edgebands RAUKANTEX scratch.protect and RAUVISIO noir surface finishes can be perfected in production via the frosted edge procedure for matt milling radii. IMA also offers clever innovations for 90° interior corners: new gluing units enable any user to create sophisticated contours in one process, with no need for manual intervention. The final results were clearly illustrated using components with RAUKANTEX pigmento edgebands. This was followed by a presentation from Dennis Reddig of the Product Management Edge Processing division at IMA Schelling, who reported on current challenges in the industrial production process, including the fact that edge magazines are large and confusing. Manual settings and actions have to be performed, he explained, and material properties can differ. Generally speaking, according to the vision of IMA Schelling, many sources of error and inefficiencies could be significantly reduced by means of fully automated edgeband handling. The main part of this presentation focused on what such a system looks like and looked ahead to the future of edgeband processing.

Design & materials: the success story of the laser

Matthias Hacker introduced the third section, which was devoted to Design & Materials, with a brief recounting of the success story of zero-joint edgebands: turnover has doubled since 2016, he revealed, with some 100,000,000 RM sold in Europe alone in 2021. More and more countries around the world, such as India, are adopting the technology. The edgeband technology is so successful, he said, simply because it works. Only laser technology allows seamless components to be produced that are visually flawless and functionally durable. REHAU is supportive of the trend with 15 years’ expertise and legal compliance in the purchase and processing of laser edgebands. Matthias Hacker used a number of new products to highlight the innovative flair of REHAU, introducing RAUKANTEX folding as an edgeband specifically suited to angled edgebanding/soft-forming. For example, handle-free front panels or doors without paint cracks or stress whitening can be implemented . I-KFA from the IMA Schelling Group is the ideal solution for post-processing in transverse edging. In the future, though, the perfect component from REHAU will offer even greater functionality as well as impressive looks: RAUKANTEX scratch.protect, fire.protect, health.protect and eco.protect are new product lines offering genuine added value across a range of usage areas.