Edge coating

To coat edges you need a specific machine that coats, putties and sands the product edges. That's why we've designed and developed Smartedge, a machine for coating, puttying and sanding edges. It can be configured to suit the customer's specific needs, edge shape, product type and the required productivity.

Coated edges become an integral part of the panel, ensuring insulation against steam and water after total coating with sprayers. In general, coated panels are of higher quality than lined panels.

To coat edges correctly, vacuum and roller technologies are required. It all depends on the shape of the edge and the product type, which might be MDF, veneered, reconstituted veneered or wood. 

Edge types are generally defined by their shape: today's technologies allow manufacturers to coat all the shapes on the market.

MDF, veneered, reconstituted veneered or wood edges can all be processed. Chipboard products can also be assessed for edge coating.

For quality coating of straight edges with radii and shaped edges, vacuum technology is needed. If, however, edges are straight with small radii, roller technology will be more suitable.

The standard edge coating machine designed by Cefla Finishing can process panels that are between 5 and 60 mm thick.

Edge coating machines are not cleaned like classic roller or spray coating machines: in fact, unless it's necessary to change the primer or finish, only the vacuum heads or rollers are covered. If, on the other hand, a colour change is needed, it takes 15 minutes with a vacuum tower or per individual roller.

Coating consumption can now be controlled manually.

Where there is a specific need for high flexibility, the configuration of the machine (i.e. the number of application and sanding units) determines the machine-set-up time, which can vary from 10 to 30 minutes.

On a coating machine, routine maintenance involves monthly tasks such as conveyor cleaning, lubrication of ball bearing pads and all metal parts with horizontal and vertical movement.

Thanks to a PLC with 100 programs, Smartedge can keep tabs on production data (number of pieces machined, number of metres, number of hours worked) and belt sander/wheel inputs-outputs, tool speed and conveyor systems.

When you need to raise productivity, you can proceed in two ways:

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

With the patented Edge & Go system, consisting of an application head with interchangeable straight or shaped slats, you can coat edges of any type, making the Smartedge machine highly flexible and user-friendly. Edge & Go, incorporated in Smartedge, lets you change the edge shape without turning off the vacuum tower. In terms of speed, switching from a straight edge with a 3 mm radius to a J-Pull handle edge, for example, takes less than 15 seconds.