Much has been said in recent years about the evolution of edge technology both with the edging themselves and the machines designed to do it.
Discerning manufacturers and their customers want no glue line on their panels and more importantly need the edges to stay where they are and not peel off when exposed to harsh environments like water damage as demonstrated in the photo below where these cross sections were soaked in water overnight.
Courtesy OTT GMBH
But how practical is this solution for the shop who edges a multitude of materials over a multitude of varying applications? Let’s take a quick look.
Laser edging if we were to simplify it, is basically the hot air edgebanding of yore with pre glue tape and a hot air blower to melt the glue before it hits the pressure section. The difference here is that instead of a blower, the glue on the co extruded edge is melted by way of an extremely intense light.
It’s a high-tech advancement of an old concept that works however.. the available flavors of co extruded edging are still limited, the technology itself is prohibitively expensive due to its novelty and will not work with HPL, veneers and solid wood.
The main objective for people looking towards laser edging is the goal of an invisible glue-line.
In truth, PUR systems are capable of achieving the same result while also allowing greater glue volume to penetrate into the pores of the panel. As a service tech of over 25 years of experience with edgebanding machines, the glue application albeit important, is not the focus when the panels come out the other side, the quality of the trimming, corner rounding and clean up is what hits the eye first.
“You can have a high-performance engine in your car but one flat tire, and the performance of the engine becomes moot.”
A PUR system coupled with a properly tuned Edgebander will achieve this goal with the added benefit of being usable on a variety of different materials.
Sean Kovacs is the founder of KovatechCNC with 25 years of service experience with Edgebanding and Woodworking equipment. For more information about OTT edgebanding solutions contact him directly at 514 781 4483 or info@kovatechcnc.com