WIN woodworking INTERNATIONAL 2024/1

DECORS
MATT FINISHES
STILL UP-TO-DATE
The trend for soft-touch, matt finishes is
not over and whether you are a furniture
manufacturer or a third-party company
dealing with the coating and finishing process,
you may be interested in incorporating
excimer matting capabilities into your
current line.
Excimer matting technologies have not
stopped evolving and Cefla’s latest line of excimer
ovens boast benefits for companies wanting
a cost-efficient, sustainable solution. Above
all, Cefla has a team of specialists who will
support you if you need to integrate an oven
into an existing process/line. Anything Cefla
can do to optimise your production will be done.
Recently Cefla checked out how one of its
first customers to choose our EXYDRY oven was
getting along. Desicor is a Portuguese furniture
manufacturer exporting almost 100 % of its production
– 40,000 pieces weekly. In 2019, they
installed our excimer oven and we made sure it
adapted seamlessly to the smooth-running process.
Today, Desicor underlines how we managed
to make it all work perfectly, simulating the
outcome at our Finishing LAB and determining
the expected ROI. All the challenges were met
with answers, obtaining a matt finish even on
panel edges and with heavily reduced nitrogen
consumption.
THE CUSTOMER
Desicor is a renowned Portuguese producer
of furniture and decorative panels, the sheer
quality of its furnishing components making it a
market stand-out. It manufactures over 40,000
pieces a week and exports 99.8 % of them
worldwide via its Oneskin brand.
THE CHALLENGE
Desicor wanted to renew its production line
and obtain high-quality surface finishes: deep
matt, hard-wearing and scratch-resistant. To
achieve this goal, it was necessary to merge the
most recent drying technologies with those already
used by the company and help workers
get used to the new system.
THE CEFLA FINISHING SOLUTION
Integration of the innovative, patented
Exydry oven into the existing coating line has
allowed Desicor to provide the market with an
ultra-matt product, even with objects that have
complex shapes. The excellent results stemmed
from close collaboration with the customer all
the way up to full adoption of the new plant, an
approach designed to continuously maximise
productivity.
RESULTS
Thanks to the new finishing line, Desicor is
now able to offer retailers innovative products
and strengthen the reputation of its Oneskin
brand. The company has overcome the pitfalls
of integrating new technologies into an existing
production framework and personnel are now
skilled, trained and able to use the new line
confidently. By partnering with Cefla, Desicor
has surmounted a prickly transition phase and
can now enjoy the advantages of an innovative
high-performance plant.
The decision to renew production facilities
is always tricky for a manufacturer. On the one
hand, there’s an awareness that technological
innovation will yield competitive advantages,
such as higher productivity, better-quality products
or a broader product range to offer the
market. On the other hand, companies need to
carefully consider the ROI and the impact new
production lines can have on established business
processes.
A NEW PLANT WITH CEFLA FINISHING
Those who turn to Cefla can count on
straightforward ROI estimates: simulations
performed in our LAB allow Cefla solutions to
be tested with the customer’s products, thus
streamlining the calculations. However, that
same mathematical precision cannot be applied
when calculating the impact of the new
line on the company’s production ecosystem. To
respond to this uncertainty, Cefla Finishing offers
customer service and assistance throughout
the life cycle of the new line. While there’s
no mathematical formula to support this statement,
there are plenty of case studies we can
turn to – such as Desicor – that offer tangible
proof of it.
THE NEW FINISHING LINE FOR DESICOR
Desicor has chosen Cefla Finishing as its
technological partner for surface finishing operations.
In 2019, the Portuguese company decided
to renew the production line to give its furniture
range distinctive characteristics and ensure
ultra-high quality. To be more specific, Desicor
was interested in Cefla’s flat panel and 3D finishing
technologies, which provide ultra-matt,
soft-touch, anti-fingerprint and highly scratchresistant
finishes. Furthermore, the company
wanted to produce self-healing surfaces and
edge finishes that match the panel surface to
perfection.
COMPLEX TECHNOLOGY...
AND AN UPHILL START
To achieve those goals, Cefla Finishing
came up with a customised solution that could
be combined with the existing technology to
give rise to a new production line. The new finishing
process starts with cleaning of the panel,
which has already been prepared with a primer.
Then comes spray application of the finish, followed
by an evaporation stage and final drying
with an excimer oven and UV lamps.
Despite the enthusiasm for the new plant,
the production start-up process was demanding.
A combination of innovative coatings and
complex technology proved to be a significant
challenge: this was particularly evident in certain
product categories, such as doors with glass
panes or doors pre-drilled for hinges. So how
should these challenges be addressed to ensure
24 No. 1 • March 2024