By Christine Koestner

Moulders are being built to run at faster speeds more than ever before, and Leuco constantly develop tooling to help them maintain accuracy and quality. As can be seen in routers, edge-banders and in all kinds of machinery, speed has become a major part in general woodworking trends. As the machines are running faster we at Leuco have to continuously respond by formulating tool designs that will perform at these high speeds.

Due to the competition from our neighbours in the Far East, a lot of people are concentrating on improving production on their moulding machines. Higher speeds have become a trend for production-type moulding houses as the faster they can produce something, the cheaper it’s going to be. Not only large-volume factories are interested in speed, a lot of small-medium companies are investing in machinery with these high speeds as it means faster delivery times for which in turn provides enhanced customer service and ultimately creates more business for them.

A couple of years ago, the maximum speed for most moulder spindles was about 6,000rpm, nowadays there are more and more moulders with 8,000rpm and even exceptional moulders with 12,000rpm. The motors on these machines are just getting faster and faster.

The increased spindle speeds are confronting tooling manufacturers with a variety of challenges. For example, balance becomes more important as rpm is increased, calling for “a tool designed under strict guidelines” LEUCO is producing tools that have better balance tolerances, have more wings and are more stable to accommodate these faster feed speeds and all our tooling is ISO 9001 certified.