Clamps: Joinery Clamps For Gluing Furniture Panels, Mechanical And Pneumatic Press Clamps For Assembling Facades. What It Is?

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 04:10

It is no secret that the quality of furniture directly depends not only on the professionalism of the craftsmen, but also on the tools and special equipment they use. It is for this reason that it is worth paying attention to the types of devices such as winders and the secrets of their choice. Such devices are widely used in joinery when assembling furniture boards from different types of wood, as well as many products and their structural elements.

What it is?

Regardless of its type and characteristics, any clamp is a squeezing mechanism. Such devices are widely used for the production of:

• various pieces of furniture;
• frames made of wood;
• furniture boards;
• frames and much more.

Compression devices are responsible for the most reliable fixation of the fastened structural elements until the adhesives are completely dry. It should be noted that glued blanks of large sizes, in contrast to their analogs made of solid wood, are less susceptible to such a phenomenon as warping. Moreover, all characteristics and performance indicators directly depend on the quality of bonding. In this case, the following points will be the most important:

• the thickness of the future workpiece and all its elements;
• features of the glue used;
• orientation of layers;
• amount of elements.

Now in the furniture industry and other areas, various clamping structures are widely used. With their help, they quickly and efficiently connect not only the timber into wooden panels. If we analyze the main operational qualities possessed by modern press-clamps, then it is worth focusing on the following clear advantages of their use.

• Maximum uniform distribution of pressure over the entire surface, which ensures the appropriate quality of manufactured products from any type of wood, regardless of design features.
• Minimizing the risk of gaps between the parts to be joined after the adhesive has dried.
• Possibility of individual positioning of each element, depending on the characteristics of the future product.
• Many devices are relatively small in size, and are also as mobile as possible. Due to this, their operation does not provide for the allocation of a separate room.
• The overwhelming majority of models are characterized by the utmost simplicity of design and operation. This allows even novice craftsmen to use them successfully. The main thing is to take into account the manufacturer's recommendations.

What are they?

First of all, it is worth paying attention to manual, mechanical models, which are:

• cam;
• screw;
• lever.

Such devices consist of a sturdy bed and two or four stops. The latter are driven by rotation by a screw, flywheels or handles. In addition, manufacturers present their models on the market, which can be divided into two main groups.

Hydraulic Assembly Units - Clamps , used most often in the process of assembling window and door structures. In tandem with frontal clamping devices, they are effective for gluing furniture and other panels. One of the important advantages of this type of equipment is the ability to quickly adjust the nip.

Pneumatic devices, which are high-performance machines for the assembly of joinery structures . Their list includes door and window blocks, as well as frame and frame products, furniture boards and many other wooden structures.

As already noted, regardless of design features and technical characteristics, the main task of any clamp is to create maximum pressure for high-quality joining of wooden parts. Moreover, such devices are classified according to their purpose.

For gluing

This type of the described devices is used when gluing workpieces made of timber along the edges and planes. This is important in the process of manufacturing doors, windows, as well as shields and laminated veneer lumber, including for housing construction . The simplest design of this type is a metal frame in tandem with hinged hold-down devices. On one of its sides there are movable stops, with which you can change the gluing zone.

Often such structures are made "multi-storey", which allows providing the necessary load for a certain time during gluing without compromising the free space of the workshop due to the increase in working areas. One- and two-sided clamps with vertical positioning are now widely used in the production of glued laminated timber on an industrial scale . Such devices are often combined into whole blocks, allowing you to connect workpieces, the length of which reaches 6 meters. By the way, the latter are fed by conveyors, while the glued package is formed by workers manually.

Another type of equipment used in industry is fan-type clamps, one of the main characteristics of which is the presence of a large number of areas for gluing . The structural element of such systems is a screw mechanism, which is driven by electric or pneumatic screwdrivers. The latter are equipped with adjustment and torque limiters, which allows you to create the same compression force in all working areas.

For gluing

Initially, it should be noted that edgebanding installations are now quite widespread. Such machines are successfully used for gluing plates up to 24 mm thick using a special hot melt adhesive . But, in spite of such a trend, the relevance of the connection of the plug-in veneer and the bar according to the “crest-groove” principle has remained. This is primarily due to the maximum strength of the resulting compound, which is of particular importance for furniture production.

As a striking example, we can cite a vayma, the design and operation of which provides for the location of a bar with glue on a horizontally installed pneumatic clamp (pneumatic chamber) so that the elements to be faced (shield) can be installed vertically on it. The fixing of the parts takes place using screw or pneumatic pressure devices . After starting the said chamber, the pressure necessary for high-quality gluing is injected. Often, such installations are used in tandem with miter machines. Such a symbiosis is relevant if you want to glue the lining of the shield, cut on the mustache on four sides, with the exception of the risk of gaps in the corners.

The algorithm for using such a vim includes the following steps:

• the covers are glued on 2 opposite sides of the shield;
• the installed elements are trimmed on the machine;
• the rail is processed in the same way;
• the fitted and trimmed strip is glued in the same clamp.

Furniture makers often use universal structures in their work. They are almost vertical perforated panels made of sheet metal or plywood. Taking into account the characteristics of the product being created, stops and hydraulic cylinders are installed in the indicated holes. Such devices are:

• one-sided;
• bilateral;
• rotary with a horizontal axis of rotation.

They are widely used for the production of elements of frame blocks with tops of any shape, including arched ones.

For assembling products from bar parts

In modern carpentry, the described devices are often used to manufacture:

• window sashes;
• door leaves;
• boxes of window and door blocks;
• vents and other products.

Another common type of wedge focused on achieving these goals is semi-automatic systems. Their functioning is carried out in two stages:

• maximum and uniform compression of spike-type joints in the area of the impost;
• fixation and compression of all remaining corner elements of the assembled frame structure or shield.

It is worth paying attention to the peculiarities of the work of the vimes intended for connection "on the mustache ". As a rule, this type of equipment is relevant when used as blanks of profile moldings with facing. We are talking about installation using dowels and dowels of the Lamello type. It is important to note the need to simultaneously ensure the same load along the axes of all parts of the future structure.

When creating paneled products (door leaves and furniture facades), pass-through, semi-automatic installations are used. So, when assembling the door, perform the following actions:

• the web with pre-baited parts is placed on the conveyor belt;
• advance the future product to the transverse support;
• compress the frame of the structure due to the movement of the rear and side stops;
• when the timer is triggered, the front stop moves up;
• the conveyor mechanism removes the finished product from the chamber.

This type of equipment allows you to work with connections at 90 degrees and "mustache" without additional time and adjustment . The fact is that all stops of such installations are automatically positioned taking into account the dimensions of the product. This, in turn, provides the ability to produce small batches with a productivity comparable to industrial production. Another important feature is the ability to adjust the compression force separately for each zone, and the duration of the process is regulated by a timer located on the control panel.

For assembling chairs

This category of the described equipment deserves special attention. It should be noted that these are quite compact, in comparison with many others, devices used for mounting workpieces, the length of which varies within one meter. In the context of performance indicators, it is worth noting that some of them are relevant for the production of three types of chair combinations (front, back and side).

The second type of installations is intended for assembling all of the listed structural elements and intermediate parts into a single volumetric product. In addition, you can find clamps that allow you to connect all the blanks at once into a single whole. However, in practice they are used much less frequently than the other two types.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, when assembling chairs and in many respects similar to them in the design of chair frames, spike-type joints with the so-called interference are used. It is this approach that requires the appropriate pressure, which is created by the hydraulic drive. It is important to take into account that such equipment, due to the complexity of the design, cannot be classified as budget devices.

For the assembly of cabinet products

These clamps are in many ways similar to other varieties and are intended for the manufacture of small-sized furniture items. In the frame of such systems, the working cylinders of the hydraulic circuit are also located, which is responsible for creating the required pressure at the connection points (clamping). The key differences between the models boil down mainly to the presence of a conveyor feed of blanks in the process of creating products and assembling structures.

Joiner's presses equipped with similar plate-type units also have special platforms for placing the assembled structures . They automatically move upward each time the system is loaded and unloaded. It is worth considering that the details of the assembled (compressible) product must be manually baited before fixing and creating pressure. Unlike their counterparts with conveyors, presses that are not equipped with such devices are somewhat easier to operate. The point, in particular, is that there is no need to bait the elements of the future product before compression. Parts are placed in the appropriate positions, which, in turn, are preset taking into account the features and dimensions of the structure to be mounted.

During the holding of the product in the clamp, the following operations are most often performed:

• hang up the doors;
• install fittings;
• fasten the supports;
• adjust the front surfaces of drawers, if any;
• install the polic.

Such devices are often combined into a kind of semi-automatic complexes, equipping them with a chain drive and supports on wheels. During operation, the presses with fixed blanks stop at the right places to perform the manipulations provided for by the assembly technology.

Today there is more than a wide assortment of different vyme models . Unfortunately, many manufacturers of furniture and other joinery products often neglect their use. Also, some are trying to save money by making structures on their own. But if this is true for small workshops, then such an approach for large production volumes is counterproductive. Modern manufacturers offer on the market high-quality, reliable and functional systems that ensure maximum accuracy in assembling products of any configuration.

How to choose?

A wide range of models of the described equipment, on the one hand, allows you to equip the workshop with the most suitable installations. At the same time, such a variety can be confusing for a potential buyer. When choosing a vim, you should pay attention to the following important points.

• Type of load and pressure generation. This refers to the selection of rotary, hydraulic and pneumatic devices. The latter option will be the best solution for small-scale production.
• Specifications. We are talking about the dimensions of the installation, as well as the number of chambers and working cylinders.
• Indicators of the created pressure.

When choosing equipment of the type in question for equipping a carpentry workshop, among other things, it will be useful to consult with experienced specialists.

Where and how are they used?

The appearance and performance of any wooden product directly depends on the accuracy and reliability of the connections of all structural elements. Otherwise, the production technology will be violated, which, in turn, will negatively affect the corresponding characteristics of the structures. For the overwhelming majority of the types of joints used in the joinery, it is necessary to ensure the compression of parts with a certain pressure during a specific time interval.

It is the winders that allow you to create the required conditions. Thanks to the use of such installations, it is possible to minimize, and more often completely eliminate the risk of gaps at the joints. With the help of purchased and home-made presses, the following operations are performed:

• connection in various ways of structural elements of almost any shape;
• cladding of flat, as well as embossed and even volumetric surfaces;
• creation of frame structures of any configuration;
• manufacturing of stair steps;
• production of individual elements and assembly of furniture;
• gluing boards and timber.

If you need to glue the bars, then a vertical or horizontal hem will be enough. When assembling furniture structures, rotary and fan models are used. Rotary mechanisms are no less common. The choice of equipment is carried out taking into account a number of factors.