CabinetMaker+FDM - October 2011

specialized contract manufacturer

of employees by offering a good salary.

“We’ve done a lot of training, and people that are more flexible and capable in different areas have the most growth opportunities,” Friebel says.

Optimizing the operation

Cooper was introduced to Eurosoft through a program for saw optimization, and it is also used with the TigerStop system to automate strip cutting.

“When we got into Microvellum we called on Eurosoft to help us to devise something that would allow us to take the information that Microvellum generates (code, reports and parts lists) and send it to the saw of our choice,” Friebel says.

“Eurosoft partnered with Dakota
Automation, and they did an audit of
our plant, going over all the fine details.
They came back with recommendations,
which we’re analyzing.”
From the audit, one recommendation
was an inventory retrieval system. Another
suggestion was improving storage of
laminates. Another program, Smart Clients,
is designed to correct the lag between
the time material is stocked and when the
office knows it’s out there and available, al-
lowing faster throughput through the plant.

“We know as a rule that every time you touch a part, you’re incorporating cost,” Friebel says. “Sometimes it’s more costly to eliminate handling and storage. Sometimes it warrants moving work from point A to point B because the equipment is so efficient.”

Cooper has a lineup of heavy-duty Heian routers, including a 5 x 16 machining center
with two heads that are fixed. Plenum tables, installed over the original pods, hold
parts in place.

machine while it is cutting at the front. It
keeps everything in motion.”
“It increased our efficiency in labeling,
because the old way, you had to pull the
parts out, pull the label off the machine
and stick it on the part,” Murray says.
“Now, the machine is actually sticking the
labels on the panel before it’s cut.”
Also, Friebel says the saw blade has
a shorter distance to travel, and over the
course of a shift that can result in a large
time savings. Two different length cutoffs
can be made at the same time.

“The Duplus feature enables us, after doing rips, to have two strips cut off at 18 and 20 inches simultaneously. That really helps throughput, especially if

Panel saw flexibility

Programs on the server can go to any machine. A Schelling fh4 panel saw was added in January and it incorporates label printing and a turntable that allows the entire book to be turned, using Eurosoft Ardis.

“The biggest advantage is with casegoods and nest cutting when we’re cutting one or two parts, or one sheet at a time,” says Friebel. “It enables label printing to go on at the back of the

Many companies keep a few spoilboards around, but Cooper Enterprises keeps spoilboards at least 18 months, and has a large selection on hand.

“If the same job comes in,
we retrieve the spoilboard from
storage,” Edward Friebel says..
“Our programs are all cataloged,
we have all the information,
the tooling that has to be used.
It identifies the spoilboard, all
pertinent information for the
setup. The program identifies
the pin locations we need to
locate spoilboards, depending
on the machine. We’ll have
multiple programs, one for
5 x 16, another for 5 x 10.
We can use spoilboards on
multiple machines. They
locate the spoilboard, tools
are set, locate the program,
do a setup check. Once it’s
signed off by the operator
and quality control, they
just have to continue to do
those quality checks while
we’re machining those parts.”
Spoilboard stock