Printed and wrapped

16 May 2016


Technology and innovation in furniture, doors, windows, panels, parquet, profiles and packaging industries. These, says Spanish headquartered machinery maker Barberán, are the results of its more than 85-year history in making machinery for finishing systems.

Barberán is an internationally trading company headquartered in Castelldefels, near Barcelona, Spain. The company says that its long experience has made it a world reference in designing and manufacturing machinery for finishing systems.

Since its establishment, Barberán says it has been characterised by continuous technological innovation, resulting from a constant search for improvement and clear customer focus. That, it claims, makes it a leading company in the sector today.

Great experience and creativity also allows the company to design, develop and produce new systems with high reliability, obtaining an excellent surface finish and reducing processes and manufacturing costs, it says, while it adapts each solution to the customers' technical needs, for both large- and small-scale production.

Barberán also claims to offer greater flexibility in production, the best solutions, and response to growing demand. In order to achieve better surfaces in each business area (laminating, profile wrapping, coating and digital printing), Barberán's engineers have developed new methods and these will be presented at the Xylexpo exhibition in Milan in May.

Compact Line Foil

This model is equipped with an upper gluing head that spreads PUR hot-melt glues on a foil's back surface. The low glue grammage necessary in this type of application greatly reduces glue consumption. Furthermore, says Barberán, the glue pollution rate due to particles detaching from the panel is 0%, so that the glue can be used with higher bonding effectiveness; and for longer without having to be replaced. It is also said to allow the lamination of thin panels without 'spotting' the counter-pressure roller in the press zone.

The machine is equipped with an automatic cutting system for separating the panels at the outfeed and allows edge-postforming, simply by including a cassette of tools in line after the laminating process.

Barberán says this economic, compact laminating machine is suitable for PUR hotmelt glue and paper foil, PVC, PET, CPL, etc, with both high-gloss or matt finish and a minimum thickness of 0.2mm.

Digital Print on any Surface

Inkjet printing in CMYK, and UV finishing, is carried out on the new Jetmaster 350 FC. This, says the company, is a new, compact digital printer for coil material and can, optionally, finish the process with UV lacquering.

The Jetmaster printing systems use UV inks for their excellent printing quality and output. Intensive, vivid, natural colours with a great originality and a reduced consumption are offered, says Barberán, adding: "The spectacular chromatic quality combines advantages such as major durability of the print heads with lowest annual maintenance costs. "Jetmaster printers have a resolution of 360dpi, with more than 500,000 ink drops in an area of one square inch (25.4 x 25.4mm). That 360dpi, combined with three drop sizes, allows a perfect result, including images in which areas with intensive colours are combined with soft colour gradients," says Barberán.

"Due to our knowledge about surfaces, the Jetmaster printers have a spectacular resolution," adds the company. "We know the materials and how to prepare them, so that the output, position, angle, and the expansion of the drop, will be excellent."

Barberán continues: "We have a wide range of printing possibilities, quick and at controlled costs on any type of surface: rigid, semi-rigid or flexible. Also paper, cardboard, melamine, MDF, glass, cork, plastic, etc.

Integrated handles in one go

With the implementation of the new systems for continuous postforming in its series SpeedPress and PUR 46-FR, Barberán says it unites the three traditional steps for manufacturing an integrated handle in kitchen and bathroom doors - as well as in furniture in general - in only one continuous production line.

Flat lamination, trimming and edge-banding of panels is now faster, with machines that are able to laminate the whole board, postform the edges and trim the overhang.

The result, says the company, is a completely finished board which is ready for further processing in less time and with only one production line: "Low costs and high quality for an integrated handle without any joints and overlaps with only one-pass wrapping."

The SpeedPress series, with a maximum width of 1400mm, and the PUR 46-FR with 460mm, can work with paper foils, PVC, PP, PET and CPL on coil with speeds from 20m/min up to 40m/min, depending on the characteristics of durability and rigidity of the foil that is used.

A machine that, above all, allows the production of most common postformings used on doors, with a simple, quick tool change: This means an angle of 90°, with a radius from 0.5 to 5mm, and angles of 45° and of 30°.

With this new method of continuous production for integrated handles, Barberán says it offers its clients, and manufacturers of kitchen and bathroom doors, the perfect machine for producing the latest trends in door design, quickly and at low cost.

In 2-D wrapping, Barberán offers a process for filling and smoothing irregular edges. This new system applies filler on irregular board edges, expanding the wrapping possibilities by being able to obtain a perfect finish - even when thin foils are used.

The MS 25 filling/smoothing system has been designed to be placed in line with existing, or new, wrapping or laminating/ postforming machines. The process starts with accurate surface cleaning before the hot-melt filling product is applied and smoothed on the edges in order to obtain an edge surface as flat and smooth as the board's surface.

After this treatment, the board is ready to be wrapped with thin foil types. More perfection is achieved when the edges are smoothed, even after wrapping at the line's outfeed, says Barberán.

New gluing system for door frames

The joint in the front bar of the extendable door frame is no longer visible, even with CPL, thanks to the new L-shaped profile forming system from Barberán, which forms the joint in the internal side of the door jamb.

The new L-shape profile former, model CA-P, uses hot-melt adhesives of any type, as well as PUR glues, with high speed and great precision by point and line application with low glue consumption and a maximum speed of 50m/min, says the company.

This new gluing method for the L-shaped profiles can make several line applications with automatic weight control and a constant pressure controlling system without excessive glue remnants being squeezed out at the beginning and end of the work pieces: "A clean and effective tool that only needs maintenance in case of longer production shutdowns," says Barberán.

This Spanish company obviously offers a range of different machinery for finishing systems for wood based panels (and other substrates), taking panels from 'raw boards' to finished furniture component

Samples of integrated-handle boards
A profile wrapped with thin foil in a CA-P machine
The new Barberán system for postforming