Founded in 2003 and based in Uxbridge, ar18 Limited is one of the UK’s leading names in retail furniture, bespoke joinery, CNC routing and sheet metalwork. From its impressive workshops near London Heathrow, it increasingly works in every corner of industry – from point of sale, signage and modular furniture to displays, innovative structures and other bespoke projects including reception desks, feature walls and cladding panels. It also provides a full service offering to small joinery companies and sign makers without in-house CNC facilities.
“From humble beginnings, our business has grown exponentially” enthuses Mark Smith, Head of Operations at ar18 Limited. He continues, “Over the last 20 years, one common thread has been our philosophy of always investing in the best machinery available. On the joinery side of the business, HOMAG has established itself as our partner of choice.
“Our plant list of HOMAG equipment includes two CNCs, an automated storage and retrieval system with the woodStore storage management system, a sander and a small edge bander. Consequently, when we made the decision to invest in a larger, more powerful edge bander we looked no further than HOMAG.
“The advancements in edge banding technology over recent years have been considerable, particularly when it comes to speed and quality of the finished workpieces. As a business, we were experiencing a slight directional change, taking on more and more modular furniture projects which required added high quality edging.”
Selecting the HOMAG EDGETEQ S-500 with XES 200 service station
“In terms of selecting the right model for our business, we first looked through all the information on HOMAG edge banders on the company’s website. Once we had a
rough idea of the machine that would best meet our needs we asked our HOMAG area sales manager, Ian Woodall, to fine tune our choice of machine.
“Since Ian has been our main point of contact at HOMAG UK our relationship has gone from strength to strength. Ian is not only very knowledgeable regarding HOMAG’s portfolio, but he also has an excellent understanding of our business and we value his candid advice.
“Ian recommended the EDGETEQ S-500 along with the XES service station. To give us peace of mind, Ian arranged for us to visit another manufacturer that was already operating an S-500 edge bander. Seeing the machine in a real-life manufacturing situation was extremely beneficial; we pretty much sat down for coffee afterwards and ordered the EDGETEQ S-500 and XES 200.”
Quality, speed and versatility
“As you’d expect from HOMAG, the delivery and installation of the equipment was planned and executed exactly to schedule. One of the installation engineers also trained our staff on the new equipment so they were able to hit the ground running.
“The quality of the finished workpieces, along with the speed of throughput, is massively impressive. We are also benefitting from having the choice of two different glue types – EVA and PU. The XES 200 glue service station is a big benefit too, as it prevents glue from going off when the machine is not in use and rapidly heats the glue when we’re ready to run again. In addition, it gives us the ability to switch quickly from EVA to PU and vice versa.”
First class aftercare
“Apart from the robust, technically advanced, and reliable machinery and software, there’s another reason we keep going back to HOMAG. The company’s customer service is excellent; they’re always responsive and not only do they listen to feedback, but they also act on it.
“This level of support is vital for our business; we can’t afford for machinery to be out of action. The backup service we get from HOMAG gives us real peace of mind and allows us to keep our customers happy and satisfied at all times,” concludes Smith.
If you would like more information or a demonstration of any of the HOMAG machinery and software, please contact Adele Hunt at HOMAG UK on 01332 856424.
T: 01332 856500
