… is being put into operation at Cordes in Bremerhaven © Rex
With its profile management system, planing machine specialist Rex offers its customers a tool which is designed to make everyday work easier, while reducing the time needed for retrofitting the machines. “Our optional profile management system is not just an idea on paper. It has been successfully in use at many of our customers for years,” Rex’s Managing Director Joachim Schwarzbeck emphasizes, giving A.J. Scott in Great Britain, the Cordes group and Holzwerke van Roje in Germany (see article “The wood-saving planer”) as well as installations in the US as examples.
“We are known in the industry for our heavy and robust machines. In fact, our machines are not limited to planing or cutting wood of bigger dimensions. We also offer planing machines which customers can use for profiling. This is what we originally designed the profile management system for,” Schwarzbeck explains. In fact, the system has also proved itself in classic plants where cross-sections or the type of processing are changed regularly.
Fully-automatic adjustment of settings
With Rex’s optional profile management system, all machine data can be accessed at the click of a button © Rex
All Rex planing machines are equipped with servo-controlled axes. The profile management system benefits from this. The user selects the desired profile and the planing machine independently adjusts the settings, such as the position of the tools or the depth of the profile, based on the data stored in the profile management system. Each profile only has to be created once. This makes work much easier for the machine operator and also saves valuable time. “The fully automatic adjustment of the settings results in high repeat accuracy in the production of planed and profiled timber. It doesn’t matter to the system whether it’s 4 a.m. or 8 p.m. – its performance is always constant,” Schwarzbeck explains. The Multitool system even goes one step further. Several tools can be positioned on one spindle. The operator only has to enter the tool and profile data. This way, profiles can be changed without the need to exchange the tool or stop the machine, which further increases machine availability. “The combination of the profile management and Multitool systems results in extremely high productivity,” Schwarzbeck adds. If the tool diameter changes due to repair work, only the new dimensions of the tool need to be entered. The planing machine then works with the new data automatically.
“Our product range includes calibration machines like the Speedmaster as well as wood-saving machines like the Supermaster HC. Our machines are the only ones on the market which actually save wood,” Schwarzbeck emphasizes. Rex also produces planer head grinders and offers its customers tool measurement on request. “We receive an increasing number of orders as part of which we are hired as general contractor. In those cases, we are often asked to supply the mechanization, too,” Schwarzbeck says, satisfied. One of those projects, which will be carried out soon, involves a customer in the north of Germany.
