Frequently asked questions

• cabinet doors
• parquet
• doors

• wood and wood-based materials
• glass
• cork
• plastic
• fibre cement
• metal
• roll-to-roll for edges etc.

High flexibility in terms of output rate and choice of cycles/processes according to the line make-up.

Zero solvent emissions thanks to 95% use of products with high dry residue (UV) content.

Possibility of using the roller technique for any application on all flat surfaces.

Lamination and roller coating are two different processes. A coated product is generally considered more sophisticated than a product laminated with paper or plastic film. Laminating a panel is practical when we have to process small production batches.

Roller coating, on the other hand, is definitely more cost-effective to treat matt or glossy methacrylate sheets.

• reduce coating and sanding unit setting times to a minimum
• increase the number of machines to reduce product handling

Any type of wood can be used as veneer, but their flexibility varies. It depends on texture and structure. Beech and maple are quite easy to apply while macropore trees like oak and ash are more likely to crack when trying to wrap radii. 

• That the coating must match the substrate material to ensure proper adhesion.
• That the piece being coated must be able to pass through the machines/systems.

• Those who opt for a paper conveyor machine will observe many similarities with manual coating methods: start-up, spray gun feeding, cleaning and replacing filters.
• Those who go for a machine with continuous belt conveying will need to perform preparation and maintenance associated with the retrieval and cleaning trolley; nevertheless, these tasks are simple.

• Anthropomorphic robot: more freedom, virtually unlimited 3-way movement. Unlimited spray gun positioning.
• Cartesian robot: less freedom, but can accelerate and move much faster. Limited spray gun positioning.

• On machines with paper conveying and paper filters, very little time is needed.  All you need to do is clean the guns and pump, and replace and discard filters as necessary.
• Continuous belt machines require more time at the end of the shift as maintenance tasks concerning the belt retrieval and cleaning device needed to be performed.

Many! Each requiring its own specific pre-treatment, curing level, finishing etc.
Examples: MDF and other wood derivatives – fibre cement – PVC – SPC – WPC – ABS – PS – Aluminium and other metals – glass – leather.

1. Printing resolution will affect minimum printable detail.
2. Specific surface characteristics of the substrate.

1. Ink droplets will not reach vertical or severely inclined surfaces.
2. Print heads must be less than 7 mm from the surface to avoid blurred printing.

1. Resolution or dpi (dots per inch) is a measurable value. Our range of industrial digital printers work at resolutions of 400x400 dpi or 400x800 dpi (where 800 dpi is parallel to the direction pieces travel in single-pass printers)
2. Colours are a measurable factor using a spectrophotometer, providing the area measured is large enough for the sensor. The naked eye evaluates colour more effectively, but it is subjective.
3. Image sharpness will also depend on the base coat and printer set-up.
4. Colour shades and contrast will be affected by the layers of top coats

1. Check hardware set-up daily: align the print heads, clean the nozzles.
2. Check software set-up regularly: ensure nozzle compensation and shade uniformity across the conveyor.
3. Ensure correct workflow and follow it strictly at all times: coating process control, colour profiling, image management, raster image processing (RIP).
4. Define and perform Print Quality Assessment & Maintenance daily.

Firstly, this does not mean “rapid prototyping”. It means creating a superficial 3D effect, a texture.
Yes, it is possible.
Achieved digitally on single-pass and multi-pass printers, there are 3 methods we advise to obtain different characteristics, all of which create a 3D effect. Depending on the end usage of the finished product, we would recommend one of these methods.
The first two methods are suitable for single-pass lines; both are "subtractive methods" (meaning that the "grooves" are obtained displacing/removing part of the high-resistant top-coat); the two methods differs for the way the grooves are obtained, one by displacing/rejecting the high-resistant top-coating, the other removing the high-resistant topcoating by brushing with suitable brushes the coating in the "to-be grooves" areas.
The third method is suitable for multi-pass machines and is an "additive method" (meaning that the "reliefs" are obtained by adding a specific ink, like in the additive manufacturing processes).

1. Flexibility. It is simple to change from one design to the next as often as required.
2. Unit cost is in no way connected to batch size.
3. Quick response to fast-changing market demands and fashions.
4. Very short lead time from the idea to the first sample.
5. Ability to test countless variants, evaluate and pinpoint market trend instantly.

1. Handling large volumes. This technique is not for mass production.
2. Economies of scale. Unit cost does not drop in line with higher volumes.
3. Learning curve. Many end-users are at the start of the learning curve and need to develop some skills and knowledge to exploit the technologies. We can support you.

• Flooring
• Panel decoration
• Door decoration
• Edge-banding
• Fibre cement decoration
• Profiles
• etc.

• Industries processing derived timber products
• Woodworking industry
• Industries processing wood composite materials
• Plastics industry
• Metalworking industry

• Particle board
• Medium density fibreboard (MDF)
• High density fibreboard (HDF)
• Plywood
• Extruded wood (plastics+sawdust)

• PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
• PP (polypropylene)
• ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene)
• Expanded polystyrene
• and others

• Aluminium
• Steel
• Others

The following end products may be made of the listed material combinations. Please keep in mind, that the table below reflects only a fraction of material combinations. Other combinations are possible.
The decision as to which adhesive should be used also depends on the temperature influences on the transportation route or ultimate destination of the wrapped end product. Therefore, the material combination specified before can change.

Yes. Anyone evaluating a new finishing system can test its production process at the Cefla Finishing LAB before finalizing the investment. The goal is to verify, with your own materials and alongside Cefla technicians, that the solution delivers the expected results in terms of quality, yield, and productivity, so you reach the purchase decision backed by concrete data rather than theory.

Why test the process before buying a new finishing line

A finishing line is an investment that affects productivity for years. Testing the cycle in advance answers decisive questions before you spend: does the finish obtained meet the required quality standard? Can the line handle the planned production volumes? How long will it take for the investment to pay for itself? The Cefla Finishing LAB exists precisely to provide these answers in a measurable way.

What you can do during testing

• Test the cycle with your own materials: your substrates, basecoats, and coatings are processed on Cefla machines to reproduce the conditions of your future production.
• Fine-tune the parameters: every stage is calibrated to ensure a consistent, repeatable result once the line is up and running in your plant.
• Measure productivity and return on investment: the actual output of the configuration under review is estimated to assess its economic viability.
• Design a custom configuration: our technicians design the solution around your specific space, volumes, and finishing requirements, verifying its integration with your existing equipment.

Where do the pilot-line tests take place?

Cefla Finishing has three laboratories providing international coverage, with more than one hundred machines installed and running in total:

• Imola (Italy)
• Charlotte (USA)
• Tianjin (China)

How long does a test session last?

We recommend setting aside a full day for testing at the LAB. This is the time needed to run the trials with the proper care and to review the results together with our expert, so you leave the session with clear guidance on the solution best suited to you.

How to request a test session

Access is by appointment, through the website's contact form. For more on the laboratories' activities and equipment, a dedicated LAB catalog is available.

Yes. Cefla Finishing designs wood finishing lines in which reducing VOC emissions is a design criterion, not something added on afterward. Our solutions work on two complementary levers: compatibility with low- or zero-solvent coatings and maximum product application efficiency, so that waste and emissions are reduced at the same time.

How Cefla Finishing lines reduce VOC emissions

VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are carbon-based solvents that evaporate during coating application and drying. Their content depends largely on the formulation of the coating product, but the line plays a decisive role on two fronts:

• Enabling the use of low-emission coatings: Cefla lines are designed to work with high-solids UV products, water-based coatings, and reduced-solvent cycles. In roller coating, for example, using high-solids UV products for 95% of the process makes it possible to eliminate solvent emissions.
• Maximizing transfer efficiency: the more coating that reaches the workpiece, the less product (and therefore less solvent) is dispersed as overspray. Increasing transfer efficiency means cutting waste and emissions in a single move.

Cefla Finishing technologies for low-VOC finishing lines in the wood industry

• Vacuum coating: applies a 100% solid, solvent-free UV product in a single pass within an enclosed system. With no solvent, there is no VOC to release, and transfer efficiency approaching 100% also eliminates overspray.
• Roller coating with high-solids UV products: using high-solids UV products for 95% of the process makes it possible to eliminate solvent emissions on flat wood surfaces.
• Easy FCS (Fast Color Switch): cuts the color change to under 30 seconds, with up to a 75% reduction in the consumption of catalyzed coating and cleaning agent. Fewer washes mean less cleaning solvent dispersed, an indirect but real contribution to reducing VOCs.

Because we don't tackle paint waste with a single measure, but across the entire finishing process: from application to product recovery, all the way to color change. Some of the technologies we build into our machines are covered by our own patents on precisely these areas, transfer efficiency and overspray. It is this multi-level approach that sets our solutions apart.

Here are the fronts on which we act:

• More efficient application: our sprayers feature the "Airsphere" air-diffusion plenum, a patented Cefla design that stabilizes the airflow inside the cabin and increases the share of coating deposited on the workpiece.
• Paint recovery: on sprayers such as Roctre and Easy, the carbon fiber belt (CFB) combined with a patented counter-rotating roller recovers usable product from the belt and eliminates overspray on the underside of the workpiece: the coating that isn't deposited isn't lost, but goes back into the process.
• Zero-overspray technologies: with vacuum coating, we apply the product in a fully enclosed system, with transfer efficiency approaching 100% and virtually no overspray. It's a technology we pioneered.
• Less waste at color changes: the Easy FCS (Fast Color Switch) system cuts the color change to under 30 seconds and reduces the consumption of catalyzed coating and cleaning agent by up to 75%, cutting the product lost at every changeover.

The combination of these fronts lets us choose, for each substrate and each line, the solution with the least product dispersion.

Want to know how overspray is reduced in practice during spraying? Read our article.

Yes. Cefla Finishing finishing lines and machines are ready to fit into a digital factory environment and to exchange data with company management systems. We make this possible through our software and IoT suite, with which we control the line's key parameters and share information with the customer's management system (ERP). Integration isn't an add-on that comes later, but a capability built in from the design stage.

Here are the tools with which we enable integration:

• cTracker is our line supervisor (a SCADA solution): from a single multitouch interface installed on the line, it lets you set up and control the entire line (including third-party machines), track batches or individual pieces, manage recipes and color/thickness changes in real time, and export reports on alarms and production. Individual-piece tracking works even without RFID or QR codes, thanks to a virtual tracking function.
• cLink is the module, connected to cTracker, that handles the two-way data exchange between the line and the company ERP system: it pulls production orders and the data to build line recipes from internal systems, and returns batch processing data once the process is complete. Data exchange takes place via an SQL Server database or text files (TXT/CSV), and every implementation is customized to the customer's needs.
• cMaster is our IoT tool: a web-based application that provides access to machine and line data, including detailed telemetry and production statistics, from any internet-connected device, anywhere and at any time.

Thanks to these tools, a Cefla Finishing finishing line is not a production island, but an integrated node in the factory's information system, in line with the principles of Industry 4.0.

Yes. At Cefla Finishing we design and build automated spray coating systems created specifically for complex three-dimensional wooden objects: from doors and windows to small pieces with intricate shapes.

At the heart of this offering is iGiotto, a complete coating system based on a high-performance 6-axis anthropomorphic robot, designed in particular for objects like doors and windows and, more generally, for any complex-shaped piece. It applies water- and solvent-based products and, thanks to its management software, carries out the entire work cycle autonomously.

What makes the process truly automatic is the pairing with cVision, our latest-generation 3D reading barrier (laser + ultra-high-resolution cameras). It captures the position, size, and shape of the pieces in transit and generates the spraying trajectories on its own, even on the most complex shapes, based on the "families" of objects stored in its database. This eliminates manual trajectory programming, with a time saving of at least 50%, consistent quality from the first piece to the last, and lower coating consumption.

Alternatively, iGiotto can be paired with T-Mate, the system that simplifies teaching spraying trajectories to the robot. The operator uses the device, coating directly on the workpiece, and the system translates these movements into trajectories that the robot can then reproduce, making even complex geometries simpler and faster to manage.

We did exactly this, for example, for a cajón manufacturer that came to us to bring in-house a coating process previously outsourced to a third party: we used iGiotto on a ground-level conveyor, with a 3D reading barrier to define the spraying trajectories, a pressurized dust-free cabin with vertical overspray extraction, and a drying oven, achieving a dust-free environment and full control of the process.

It is this combination of an anthropomorphic robot and advanced technologies for geometry acquisition and the automatic or assisted definition of trajectories that allows us to automate the coating of complex-shaped objects, drastically reducing the lengthy manual setup that other systems can require piece by piece.

Our experience with musical instruments is a good example of how we tackle complex-geometry 3D wooden pieces, adapting the solution to the shape of each object. Discover our projects for musical instruments.

Yes. We have a North American headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, from which we directly manage service, training, and spare parts for our U.S. customers. We don't rely on third parties for support: the service is coordinated from our U.S. office and reaches customers wherever they are on the continent.

From the Charlotte facility we provide specialized technical support, training, and a dedicated spare parts warehouse holding over $4 million in components in stock, so we can reduce waiting times when a part is needed urgently.

Rounding out this support is the Ubiquo service suite, which combines service packs and software tools for the preventive and predictive maintenance of coating and industrial digital printing lines for U.S. customers.

The Charlotte facility is also home to the most equipped finishing laboratory in the United States, where customers can test substrates and finishes under real production conditions.

Yes. We design and build turnkey finishing lines for the wood furniture sector, and our North American operation, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been building turnkey coating and finishing systems for woodworking in the United States since 1985. We don't just supply individual machines, but complete integrated lines, designed, built, installed, and serviced as a single system.

In the furniture sector, productivity is measured by the ability to process large quantities of panels while maintaining consistent quality. Our integrated lines meet this need by combining the required technologies into a single flow, from preparation and sanding through the various application techniques (roller, spray, vacuum) to drying and curing, with a high degree of flexibility in terms of output rate and choice of cycles based on the line's configuration.

Backing the entire process, we are ISO 9001:2015 certified for the design, production, installation, and after-sales service of finishing machines and lines for wood and other materials. In the United States, this translates into support managed directly from the Charlotte facility, with technical assistance, training, and spare parts available to customers across the territory.

Yes, it does. We don't only offer large lines: we are a go-to partner for smaller players that are growing, too, with cost-effective entry-level automatic solutions designed specifically for the move from manual to automatic spraying. It's a path we support all the time, from small furniture manufacturers in the United States to Italian craft workshops. The best choice then depends on the company's volumes and goals, and it's something we assess together before any investment.

Compared with manual or semi-automatic processing, automation brings the benefits a growing furniture company needs most: consistent, repeatable quality across the entire batch, lower coating consumption, and less dependence on the skill of the individual operator. This doesn't remove the human element, since you still need at least one trained operator to supervise and to load and unload the pieces, but it shifts that role from the manual task to process control.

For those taking their first steps toward automation, a good starting point is Prima EVO: a simple, intuitive sprayer with contained costs, able to handle fast color changes and therefore small production batches as well. It's designed precisely to make the move from manual to automatic spraying an easy one. From there, the range grows with modular one- or two-arm configurations suited to small and medium production runs, so you can start with a system sized to your needs and expand it later, thanks to our modular approach.

Since this is still an investment, one that requires an initial outlay and adequate space, the most concrete way to find out whether it's worthwhile is to measure its output in advance: at our LAB you can test the process with your own materials and assess productivity and return on investment before deciding. Book a visit now!

Very much so. Our starting point isn't a catalog of standard solutions: every line is designed and assembled to measure, based on your production goals and the specific product to be processed. Since every product is different and calls for different coating and drying techniques, we develop custom projects rather than fitting the company to a ready-made configuration.

At the root of this flexibility is our modular approach, where modularity means customization: machines and software integrate easily with one another, and a line can be composed, expanded, or modified by adding or replacing individual machines to change the process, increase productivity, or handle batches of different sizes. This applies to existing lines as well, where our solutions can slot in and integrate into the production flow without having to redesign the entire line.

Customization also extends to the geometry of the layout. We build both overhead and ground-level lines and, depending on the space and the workpiece, horizontal, vertical, or mixed configurations, integrating elements such as lifting systems, reading barriers, and drying solutions to form an ecosystem consistent with the plant. Where needed, we also integrate the iGiotto robot into the line or, on request, machinery developed with third parties.

When the layout is particularly unusual, the best way to validate the configuration is to test it first: at the Cefla Finishing LAB you can test the process with your own materials and fine-tune the custom solution before installation. Book a visit to the LAB!

Yes. Remote assistance lets us connect to a machine or a line wherever it is, including plants in the United States, and provide immediate answers, accurate diagnostics, and real-time corrective actions, without having to wait for an on-site visit. Distance from headquarters is no obstacle: it's precisely where the miles are many that remote support makes the difference in resolution times.

At the heart of this service is cMaster, our cloud-based IoT software that keeps machines connected and provides access to machine and line data from anywhere in the world. It's the enabler of remote support, which we deliver through video-call applications on a smartphone or tablet: together with cTracker and our specialized technicians, it lets us check parameters and settings and step in right away, through secure, certified connections.

The level of support is scalable with the UBIQUO Service Packs, which range from real-time remote corrective actions and PLC and HMI software updates to data analysis for predictive maintenance.