When Zero is More

Straight edges, curved edges – Biesse has a zero glueline solution for the edgebanding of both

With more and more manufacturers upping their game and increasing the quality of the products they make, it’s not hard to see the appeal of a zero glueline.

There are numerous ways to reduce an unhygienic and unsightly glueline between the edging tape and the surface of a board but, unless you’re going to encapsulate the entire board with a coating, there’s only one way to eradicate it completely: fuse the two together so there is no join.

Biesse offers two solutions: Airforce for straight panels; Rayforce for curved components. Airforce is Biesse’s hot air fusion system for straight line edgebanding operations and it works very simply by blowing hot air at a temperature of between 520 and 580 degrees onto a co-extruded edging tape.

The heat melts the co-extruded adhesive layer, affixing it to the edge of the board, and simultaneously welds the edge of the tape to the decorative material on the top surface to create an absolutely seamless finish.

“The important point to make here is that you must use a co-extruded edgebanding tape to get a zero glueline,” says Malcolm.

To cope with the heat on its Airforce-equipped machines, Biesse has replaced the more usual infeed device that cuts the tape and leaves it in place with an automatic tape feeder that retracts the edgebanding after it's been fed and cut so it doesn’t melt. The added benefit is that when you change edging reels, you don’t have to open the door.

Malcolm also confirms it’s very easy to use an Airforce-equipped edgebander.

.....but it doesn’t prevent you from switching freely from hot air technology to PUR or EVA when you need it. Biesse even offers a hybrid gluepot that will take both EVA and PUR and a skilled operator can make the switch in about 10 minutes.

If you needed to produce curved components for such as desk tops, Biesse’s solution starts with the Rover A Edge – and to achieve that all important zero glueline, it can be equipped with the Rayforce system. Rayforce achieves with infra-red the same as Airforce achieves with hot air, melting the coextruded adhesive on the back of tapes up to 60mm wide and fusing the edges with the décor material on the surface of the board.

It’s an ideal machine for the office market where a lot of desking is curved. Typically, you’d do the straight edges on a straight line edgebander and the curved edges on a Rover but it will do both.

There are no foot pedals to apply suction, just a light beam – it’s true pendulum loading without a pedal to push or a cup to move, and for any manufacturer who wants a seamless, easy-to- use system for the automatic cutting and edging of batch-size-one curved components, this machine seems to have everything.

For more information on Airforce and Rayforce, or to find out more about the new Rover A Edge, fill out our Contact Form to get in direct contact with a product expert

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