The W. Rüegg AG in Kaltbrunn has stood for high-quality timber construction and carpentry work for 120 years. This traditional family business covers the complete range of services with around 70 employees: from custom kitchen cabinets to turnkey wooden houses. Essential to this is the company's own element production. The company has fundamentally renewed this in collaboration with TBS Swiss..

 Long material routes, little space in front of the element tables, and machines that had already amortized years ago: This combination had created a need for action at W. Rüegg AG. The focus was on a roughly 13-year-old Hundegger SPM 2 for panel processing and a nearly historical, about 24-year-old Hundegger K2 for timber framing. "Due to the advanced age of the machines, we increasingly encountered problems in production," says Managing Director Marcel Rüegg. He therefore decided to completely renew the element construction..

 Element manufacturing with new efficiency

The goal: The element manufacturing should be raised to a significantly higher level of efficiency. For this purpose, W. Rüegg AG developed a comprehensive concept with intelligent processes and state-of-the-art machining technology. To create space for implementation, TBS Swiss was tasked with the sale of the long-operated Hundegger machines..

 The balance sheet? "It worked out great," confirms Marcel Rüegg, "the revenue from the sale of the old machines was higher than expected, and the processing by TBS Swiss was clean and efficient." This allowed additional capital to be released and the necessary space in the hall to be created in a timely manner.

 The company has utilized it and implemented a forward-looking overall solution. Key points: Data for cutting and processing is no longer created at the machine, but largely in the work preparation phase and transmitted via server. This saves time and reduces the error rate. The processing of the timber is now handled by a Hundegger ROBOT Drive. The new processing machine – delivery and commissioning were carried out by the manufacturer itself – offers technically many more possibilities and is much more than just a replacement for the Hundegger K2.

 To bring the panel processing technology up to date, the Hundegger SPM 2 has been replaced by an innovative nesting center from HOMAG: the CENTATEQ P-510. This is fed by a newly installed handling crane from Fezer. For element construction, assembly tables from Fankhauser are used. New: The length of the tables has been significantly increased, and now semi-portal cranes are available next to them, providing an increase in efficiency and ergonomics. This allows a single employee to apply the panels to the elements or to turn and transport entire elements alone. The operation is simple – loads of up to 1000 kg can be easily moved..

 Significantly tighter production flow – also thanks to N.CAD

“Through the renewal, our material flow in element production has improved significantly,” Rüegg summarizes. Shorter material paths, better-coordinated processes, intelligently optimized stacking sequences, and consequently less effort in sorting contribute significantly to this. A milestone on the path to higher efficiency was the installation of the N.CAD software. The powerful CAD/CAM system supplies the new HOMAG nesting machine with all the necessary production data..

 N.CAD Advantages at a Glance

-          Simple CAD + CAM programming on a single platform – from design to CNC machine without media breaks

-          Manufacturer-independent – N.CAD supports all common CNC machines

-          Highly automated – Configurators automatically generate bill of materials and manufacturing data

-      Resource-efficient – saves material through intelligent nesting and reduces the need for storage space by up to 90 %

Good to know: TBS Swiss has recently become an official market partner of N.CAD in Switzerland.

 5 stars for TBS Swiss

The conclusion of W. Rüegg AG is clear. "We would give 5 stars for the collaboration," says Rüegg, adding: "We were on track with TBS Swiss from day one. The organization went flawlessly. It was excellent, would love to do it again!" The element manufacturing in Kaltbrunn is now technically up to date and ready for the future. ​