Panels & Furniture Asia January/February 2024

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING
Nesting processing centres:
Ideal sizing mode for batchsize-one
production
Nanxing Machinery’s
NCG3021L production line
During the sizing process of panel furniture
production, panel dividing saws CNC nesting
machines are the main equipment. The
computer panel saw, popular relatively earlier
in the industry than processing centres,
can stack and cut multiple large panels at
once, making it more efficient and accurate
compared to traditional sliding table saws
and reciprocating saws. However, the panel
dividing saw tends to be more suitable for
the mass production of finished furniture;
its processing accuracy and flexibility
cannot meet the requirements of high-end
customised furniture.
In contrast, nesting processing centres,
driven by a digital control system and
equipped with optimisation software, are
more intelligent and flexible. These centres
excel in accuracy, standardisation, and
material utilisation. From several standpoints,
they are ideal for cutting in batch-size-one
and customised production:
FUNCTIONALITY
Take Nanxing Machinery’s production line
NCG3021L as an example: It features 21
vertical drilling heads, a 12kW automatic
tool-changing spindle, and a 12-tool automatic
tool-changing magazine. The entire stack of
raw material boards is placed on the material
lifting table, and the line can automatically
complete labelling, feeding, vertical drilling,
top slotting, milling, carving, hollowing, and
cutting of rectangular and irregular boards in
one go. It then automatically unloads, saving
other processes. The 12-tool automatic
tool-changing magazine allows the spindle
to automatically change tools according to
processing needs, providing greater flexibility
in customised furniture production while also
reducing a few of the subsequent processes.
In comparison, a computer panel saw can
only be used to cut rectangular boards, and
each board needs to be manually rotated and
positioned for cutting. Its advantages are
better utilised in mass production mode.
FLEXIBILITY
The term ‘flexible production’ is frequently
mentioned in the whole-house customised
furniture industry because customised
furniture involves personalised products —
orders with batch-size-one. Without flexible
production, there will be material waste,
time-consuming difficulties, and increased
costs. Flexible production involves merging
multiple personalised orders through the
furniture design software, optimising them,
and processing them with flexible equipment,
thus saving time and materials.
Nanxing reports that their nesting processing
centre has high flexibility. Its high-speed
spindle allows flexible cutting of single large
boards without restrictions. The in-built
optimisation software uses algorithms to
automatically optimise the best layout for
processing orders received from the furniture
design software, achieving the highest material
utilisation rate of up to 92%. In contrast,
panel dividing saws, although equipped with
optimisation software, generally achieve
utilisation rates of only around 85-88% and are
not suitable for flexible production modes. The
intelligent control system and optimisation
software of processing centres thus make
them more suitable for smart workstations or
Industry 4.0 smart production lines.
PRECISION
In terms of structure, although computer
panel saws rely on servo positioning — which
allows a general precision and accuracy of
0.02mm — the actual cutting involves the
continuous movement of the panels, and many
mechanisms, including pressure beams, saw
carriages and machine vibrations contribute to
mechanical errors. Even well-made computer
panel saws have processing accuracy errors of
0.2mm or more.
In contrast, the CNC nesting machine uses
vacuum pumps to fix the board securely to the
44 PANELS & FURNITURE ASIA | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024