Case study showing how Ureka helped Herman Miller to overcome their bonding issues and drastically reduce reject rates, and significantly increase throughput
Herman Miller is a well-known and well-respected manufacture of office furniture. The company is over 100 years old, and they place great importance on design, the environment community service and the health and well-being of our customers and our employees. The hallmark of the way they design their furniture is creating innovative ways to improve the performance of their customers organisations
For many years, Herman Miller have manufactured table tops, and screen dividers at their state-of-the-art factory in Wiltshire. Using a variety of surface types, laminate, impregnated paper and veneer, they had been bonding to core panels using a Burkle shuttle press line. This line had become outdated, so Herman Miller invested in a new press line in view of improving their production throughput.
The new line they installed was set up using PVA as the adhesive to bond laminate, veneers and impregnated paper. Unfortunately, the bonding results were very inconsistent and poor, and they experience blistering and bubbling of the veneers and laminates. There had been a lack of training on how to successfully use the new press, so the Operators were struggling to get to the bottom of the problems they were experiencing.
The reject level got to an unacceptable level, so Herman Miller began to outsource the work to sub-contractor veneering companies. Whilst in discussions with one of these sub-contractors, they recommended that Herman Miller should contact Ureka as we had the expertise to help solve these veneering and laminating issues.
Herman Miller called Ureka and arranged an initial exploratory visit to see if Ureka would be able to help. Armed with adhesive samples, our technical consultants Richard and Donovan visited the factory and talked through the issues they were experiencing. One of the recommendations was to use a UF resin system which is by far the most effective at bonding veneer. Although Herman Miller would have preferred to stay with a PVA type product, there was really no option if they were to get the results they needed. UF resin has a far better success rate when veneering compared to using PVA. See here for more information as to the differences between UF and PVA.
What was also apparent was the correct application equipment was not being used. Incorrect application equipment and techniques are often a good proportion of adhesive failures. Paint rollers and other DIY type equipment were being used, so Ureka introduced the Pfohl glue roller which dispenses adhesive evenly and at the correct coverage level. To enforce the effectiveness of using the correct equipment, a panel was bonded up using a paint roller and another panel using the Pfohl roller. The first failed and the second held firm. Applying adhesive with paint rollers gave a very uneven coverage of adhesive, whereas using a proper glue roller gave an even coverage and allows the operators to forecast spread the correct amount of adhesive required.
Further tests were made using Prefere 4114 UF resin along with Prefere 5278 hardener. Herman Miller had been incorrectly told advised that they could not press above 60C. This is incorrect and Richard and Donovan were able to significantly reduce press time by increasing the press temperature to 90C. Originally, they were pressing for 8 minutes at 60C but this has now reduced to 3 minutes at 90C, significantly increasing their production throughput.
Herman Miller have continued to use Prefere 4114 for all veneer bonding and have already noticed a significant fall in reject rates enabling a sharp increase in product capacity. The production engineer commented to Richard and Donovan that “we didn’t know anybody who could help us with the information you have share with us, and you have given us the answers we were looking for”. Herman Miller have since started looking at transitioning other adhesives to Ureka to make us a single source supplier of adhesives.
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