Quality in large quantities

Since 1993, Novalegno has been transforming rough sawn softwood in finger-jointed semi-finished products at its production site in Ampezzo in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. 70% of the annual production volume of around 18,000 m³ are door frames, facades and baseboards. Window scantlings, moldings, solid timber panels and slats account for the rest.

€ 15 million investment

“Our market, especially the door industry, demands a very high product quality, such as straight wood, precise dimensions and a stable moisture content. I receive many requests from the market, but I don’t have the capacity to respond to all of them. This will change with our new production site in Amaro”, explains Federico D’Ambros, CEO of Novalegno. He sees growth potential mainly in Europe. Since 2018, the 30-year-old entrepreneur has spent € 2 million on new machines at the Ampezzo site. “Out of conviction, we only use Weinig planing, cross-cutting or finger-jointing machines and Microtec systems for quality control,” explains D’Ambros. “Thanks to those manufacturers, I can best meet my customers’ requirements.”

Novalegno invests € 13 million in the new site, the buildings and the machine equipment in Amaro. The production site is to be started up in summer 2021. The new finger-jointing line in Amaro is supplied by Weinig-Dimter as well. The scanner technology is provided by Microtec. At the new site, only dried sawn timber is going to be processed and transported directly to the other sites. “Amaro is located right next to the motorway from Villach to Udine which reduces transport costs,” informs D’Ambros.

In addition, seven industrial robots were purchased from Kuka Roboter of Augsburg/DE in the summer. “The robots can be used in a very flexible way and I can produce larger quantities with the same staff,” explains D’Ambros. The robots manipulate individual packages and support the handling of the wood between the machine components, which so far required manual loading.

Diversification in sales

The company, which defines itself as a “small family business”, has an export share of 70%. In sales, diversification is key according to D’Ambros, both when it comes to countries and customers. During lockdown, production continued uninterrupted in two shifts and in summer, three more people were hired for production.

At the site in Padola/IT, the rough sawn timber, which arrives by truck from Germany and Austria, is sorted. “I prefer long-term delivery agreements over six months with the highest possible volumes. This way, we can guarantee our customers both the volumes and the prices of the semi-finished products”, explains D’Ambros. 800 m³ of the required sawn timber (2300 m³/month) are already dried when they arrive. The remaining fresh wood is dried on-site in four De Nardi drying kilns which have a total capacity of 1500 m³.

“We have complete control over the moisture during the drying process”, says D’Ambros referring to the importance of a stable moisture content. Two of the company’s own trucks bring the sawn timber to Ampezzo and transport the wood waste, which accumulates during production, back to Padola where it is used to generate heat for the drying kilns and the office building. The remaining wood waste is processed with a Di Più briquetting press. The main customers are hotels in South Tyrol.

Total control over the end product

Every month, 90 trucks with various loads reach both production sites – from the delivered sawn timber and the transport of dried sawn timber and wood waste between the two sites to the delivery of the end products to the customers. A QR code is assigned to each individual package.

“We have digital documentation of every single step of the sawn timber’s ‘life cycle’,” tells us D’Ambros. “I can always see which sawn timber package the wood comes from, which employee dried it and when it was dried.”

In Ampezzo, Novalegno provides an average of two trucks per month for end customers. However, customers can also request up to 50% of the total annual volume they need on short notice. “When one truck is ordered per month, we always have three trucks available for the customer. This way, 2,000 m³ are always in stock and ready to be dispatched. Every single piece of wood is tailored to the customer’s requirements,” the CEO proudly emphasizes.

By means of a vacuum lifter, the dried sawn timber is transported to the first visual quality check and then fed into a four-sided planing machine by Weinig. After that, the Microtec M3 scan measures the wood’s moisture content quickly and precisely and, according to the manufacturer, automatically compensates for the influence of strength. After a buffer, the Microtec Goldeneye 302 multi-sensor quality scanner follows, which was purchased in 2019. This scanner reliably detects wood defects, and sorts and classifies the sawn timber for the two Weinig cross-cut saws which then pass the cut wood on to the two Weinig-Grecon HS120 finger-jointing lines. Weinig-Grecon Turbo-S1000 complements the lines. “Flawless finger joints, joint-tight surfaces, straight-grained wood and balanced structures are a matter of course for us,” says D’Ambros about quality always being the decisive factor.

In April, a Weinig-Dimter OptiCut S90 Speed optimizing cross-cut saw was purchased, which is automatically unloaded by a Kuka robot. Since summer, a scanner developed by D’Ambros himself has been in use behind a completely overhauled Weinig Hydromat with a speed of up to 100 m per minute. The scanner again measures the dimensional accuracy and quality of the profiles and boards. “The door industry demands dimensions with an accuracy of ± 0.1 mm. Now, we even guarantee ± 0.05 mm,” D'Ambros proudly says.