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The Cutting Edge^™ August 2005

AWFS® Fair Recap

While the show floor was crowded Tuesday afternoon of the AWFS® Fair with exhibitors getting their booths ready for the show, the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America was hosting a booth tour of for the industry press, where some of the latest and greatest products were revealed. While it's not possible to cover all of the great equipment displayed at the featured booths, the one thing they all had in common was that they were proudly American made. One of the most common pieces of equipment seen on the tour was the saw, a standby for any wood shop. The press was treated to a demonstration of Saw Trax's Mini bream Saw, which it describes as a cross between a beam saw and a radial arm saw. The saw has a 6-in. depth of cut, a 32-in. capacity, uses a Makita 5402 NA Beam Saw and has dust collection built in. Cameron Automation showed the newly designed Quick Chop, a push feed chop optimization system that will automatically cut for highest yield, value or grade. It uses the familiar crayon-based marking to show where defects are and integrates a mechanically operated up-cut saw into the frame. The new ES52 panel saw, designed for high-production and tight-tolerance cutting, was demonstrated by Safety Speed Cut. The saw has two-axis sawing head movement for minimal material handling; rotary blade prescoring for chip-free cutting; and a shifting grid material support system that adjusts to accommodate saw blade positioning. Another great saw demonstration was seen at SawStop's booth where it showed its 10-in. cabinet saw, with a safety system that stops and retracts the blade within 5 milliseconds upon accidental contact, reducing the severity of injuries. Routers and machining equipment are another group of equipment that abounds on the show floor. Komo Machine demonstrated its new line of material handling systems for high-speed CNC routers and machining centers. One material handling system on display was for the company's Solution Traveling Gantry CNC machine, which now has a parts removal system. A second material handling system being demonstrated was for the VR Mach II SHO and will reportedly load, unload and clean the table in one pass. MultiCam introduced the new 5000 Series CNC Router line, which is the next generation to the company's MG Series. The machine is available in more than 40 standard machines, from 50 by 50 in. to 120 by 362 in. It produces speeds of 2,000 IPM single axis and 2,800 maximum rapid traverse, according to the company.

Dust collection equipment was something you were bound to see a lot of on the show floor, and Denray Machine made a good showing - its new line of dust tables, which will replace the company's manual clean filtered tables. The new line incorporates a new filtration system that reportedly has a 99-percent efficiency at 1 micron.=

American Fabric Filter Co. discussed how it now makes custom interconnects sister bags to maximize any dust collector's performance. According to the company, the bags, which are made of felt instead of woven fabric, capture dust to 1 micron and improve vacuum.

Sanding related equipment was also on display at a number of booths.

Carter Products Co. told about its SandTrack Width Utilization Prompter/Monitor, which showed wide belt sander users where abrasive belt wear is the greatest and prompts them to use less used portions of the belt. And Midwest Group One introduced the Patriot Series wide belt sanding machines to its product line, designed for solid wood applications. It features a heavy-duty frame, newly designed conveyor system, abrasive belt tracking and 60 percent more torque.

Guides and measuring devices also ranked among the most numerous items on display. Lacey Harmer showed its Lazer Tracker, a laser guidance system designed to control product damage, increase productivity and create a safer working environment. The patented fork tip laser guidance system will assist the forklift operator to accurately place the fork tip.

Accurate Technology unveiled its new wireless digital display for ProScale. The new display allows measurement readings to be transferred wirelessly to a PC or other device having an RS232 connection. It has a range up to 30 ft. and an estimated battery life of four months, depending on the amount of use.

Clamping equipment made an appearance on the tour, with JLT Clamps, demonstrating two models of pneumatic miter door clamping machinery. For the smaller shop is the Single Station Miter Door Clamp that is designed to clamp and square one door at a time in a matter of seconds. For larger shops, is a five-section rotating model, which will pneumatically clamp and square miter doors for high production.

Radio Frequency Services also showed off its clamping system, displaying its Model 4/5 Door Clamp, which can reportedly bring gluing time down to mere seconds.

Tooling also took the stage, with Gladu Tools showing a variety of tooling, from diamond and insert tooling to a new generation hogger, and Peerless Saw Co. offered a variety of tooling, including stock & custom made saw bodies, carbide tips and steel tooth saw blades for wood, metal or plastic.

Other noteworthy displays included Hendrick, which introduced the new 10 HP Mini Chip Grinder for processing offal from woodworking machinery, such as panel saws and cross cut saws. Designed to be placed at the source of the offal, material up to 1-in. thick can be processed through the cutter head, which has disposable insert tooling.

Also notable was Ritter Mfg. who showed the R75 CNC Single Row System Drill, which handles a range of panel processing drilling applications.

Mereen-Johnson Machine Co. demonstrated its impressive Model 110 Series CNC Dovetailer, which combines CNC technology with a unique 2-in. on-center multiple-spindle design for quick and easy dovetailing.

And all of this was just a taste of what could be seen this year at the AWFS® Fair.

Table of Contents
The Chinese Revalue
Coming Attractions - A Uniform Simplified State Sales and Use Tax System
WMMA Offers Free Workshop on Ex-Im Bank's Export Insurance Programs, October 12, Philadelphia
Free ANSI Compliance Workshop, October 12, Philadelphia
Value Stream Mapping Workshop - September 15 & 16, Grand Rapids
PLP&D Fall Workshop - September 29-30, 2005 Lansdowne Conference Resort - Leesburg, Virginia
Born in the U.S.A. - A Review of the Products Highlighted on the WMMA Press Tour
How to Make Your Web Site a Lead-Generation Machine
Notice Regarding Your NAM Membership through WMMA