Furniture manufacturers today are arguably familiar with HOMAG’s EDGETEQ series of edgebanding machines, but it is the history of the manufacturer’s innovation that has helped accelerate the group’s reputation as a specialist in this segment. This year, as HOMAG celebrates 60 years of edgebanding excellence, witness how their edgebanding technology has evolved and improved in breadth, complexity and performance.
Sixty years ago, HOMAG launched its first throughfeed edgebanding machine using the hot-cold application process. The machine was well received by the industry, and what followed over the years was a series of innovations and further developments.
Hitting milestones from the beginning
In 1962, two years after the company was founded, HOMAG registered a patent for what was reportedly the first automatic edgebanding machine, the KH 2/18, a series machine with a veneer strip magazine, gluing unit, pressure zone and flush trimming unit. This technology was to become the starting point for almost all further developments by HOMAG in this segment. In the same year, at the Hanover trade fair, HOMAG launched a new type of edgebanding machine that utilised the hot-cold application process. In comparison to competitors, this machine allowed edges to be glued faster and more economically.
From then on, HOMAG concentrated on the production and further development of this gluing technology, and the process was further driven in particular by an innovative glue technology: hotmelt glue.
In 1965, HOMAG launched a double-sided edgebanding machine with a new base frame- and width-adjustment device. Two years later, they developed the first single-sided edgebanding machine: the KH 12.
Another milestone in furniture production was reached with the KF series, as it was the first combined sizing and edgebanding machine, as claimed by HOMAG. The KF 60 also incorporated snipping and sanding units in addition to edgebanding and flush trimming. Today, up to 15 units are installed on these types of machines, allowing workpieces to be processed in a way that makes them ready for installation.
To offer smaller furniture companies a suitable edgebanding machine, HOMAG launched the KH 10-13 series in 1973. These machines were offered with two different gluing stations to allow coil material, solid edges and pre-coated edges to be processed.
At the 1975 LIGNA trade fair, HOMAG presented the cold-glue activation process to the industry for the first time — a technology for edge gluing using polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) glue. The following year, a majority stake was acquired in Heinrich Brandt, later BRANDT. This move strengthened HOMAG’s position in the woodworking sector.
In 1982, a new generation of edgebanding machines, the KL 70, was shown at a trade fair for woodcraft in Munich, Germany.
Curious to know more? Click here to find out more in the May / June 2022 issue of Panels & Furniture Asia.
