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Part of the Zund UK showroom in St Albans

Zund UK was established in St Albans in late 2017, since when it has become a successful supplier within its traditional markets of graphics, packaging, signage and display. The company has also found success in the broader leather products sector and the rapidly growing market for technical textiles and composites. More recently the business has begun to address the UK furniture market of upholstered furniture and bedding sectors, where it hopes to make a similar impression.

I recently spent some time with Zund UK’s sales and marketing director, Dean Ashworth, at the company’s impressive office and showroom in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Dean explains the company’s UK stance: “We operate across many industries in the UK we have had considerable success in our key markets since Zund UK was set up. When myself and managing director, Nicki Kay came into the business in early 2018, we had a specific remit to diversify the business, and to date we made impressive strides in all our targeted markets, and now our focus

Dean Ashworth, Zund UK sales and marketing director Jamie Taylor, Zund UK senior applications technician

includes the UK furniture sector.

“Across the world, in Europe and here in the UK, Zund has proven the efficiency of its technology and its approach to customers who use our technology for fabric, leather and other textiles. This experience helps us to readily generate partnerships with the upholstered furniture and bed/mattress manufacturers, a market which we feel has considerable potential for our digital cutting technology,” says Dean.

Currently on display at the professional St Albans showroom are Zund’s S3, G3 and D3 machines in a range of configurations with specific functions in mind. It’s typically the impressive D3 which would be of interest for the majority of operators in the furniture industry.

“Potential customers are very welcome to book a session to test and appraise the machines using their own materials and cutting patterns,” says Jamie Taylor, Zund UK’s senior applications technician.

“All our machines are incredibly well designed for their purpose and, being Swiss made, are put together with outstanding focus on quality components and precision.

“Generally speaking, within the furniture textilespecific arena, we sell more D3 variants which all have two cutting heads working independently in tandem on the single piece. The D3 comes in a range of sizes from 1880, 2270, 2740 and 3210mm x 3200mm and features a highly flexible tool configuration which is available on both beams.

“As a default, we will suggest always going single-ply, but many people have the mindset that going for multi-ply because it’s all about output … but what you find with single-ply is that it’s a more accurate cut, there is less wastage and it cuts quicker than a multi-ply cover – on fabric we are cutting at a 1m per second – and that’s just one roll!” says Jamie.

“And that’s a big thing, to try to change that mindset,” says Dean, “but what we find there’s a number of drivers for that – the need for increased flexibility, JIT production, and of course the price of textiles fabrics are going through the roof! In some cases we have common cut lines, so with multi-ply you need that buffer to accommodate the squashing of the material when they’re built up, but with Zund cutters you can share common cut lines so there’s zero waste between.

“You also don’t have the encapsulation material, and if you’re laying up multiple plies, the vacuum loses its effectiveness. We’ve run comparison trials against other technology available and the overall result was that we were more productive – not just in terms of speed and getting the products out the door, but both in terms of operating costs, overall efficiency, costs of running, also ROI.”

But still, many will hold fast to their beliefs that only a multi-ply solution will do for them. Dean reiterates his point further: “We’ve carried out a number of case studies where customers have been absolutely adamant saying ‘there is no way your equipment will be more efficient or more productive cutting single-ply, as opposed to what we do and what we’ve always done’!

And it’s not just a UK point of view, Dean says this a global misconception that the company sees all too frequently. “It’s there because it’s always been there, and it’s always easy to do what you’ve always done. Changing that mindset will be a challenge but what we always say to customers or potential customers, or people that are open to moving with technological developments, is test us out... tell us the startto-finish time and throughput of your production process and we can absolutely demonstrate the performance efficiency of the our cutters.”

One of the key tenets of the Zund technology is that it is highly versatile, almost all installations are bespoke, yet at the same time they are also future-proof – two key issues to bear in mind when carrying out any significant investment.

Dean says: “Being modular by design, Zund machines are made to be versatile and so have future proofing built-in. So for example, a furniture maker goes down a certain route on day one of their purchase, but their business evolves a little later down the road, for him to adapt it’s not a huge investment, it’s a small tool to slot into a universal module to enable that business to evolve.

“Another thing that sets Zund apart, especially in the UK, is our unrivalled after sales support service. We currently have 19 field-based service engineers – and we’re in the market hiring more at the moment – so any customer with a care plan is guaranteed next-day on-site support.”

Describing Zund UK’s current customer base, Dean says: “We have cutters installed and operating across the UK in all different sectors – many of which have been operational for up to 30 years.

“Unfortunately, he added, “that doesn’t really help me as sales and marketing director, but it does stand as an appropriate testament to the innate quality and robust performance characteristics of our machines.

D3 2XL-3200 with Projection System For further information on the benefits of Zund’s digital cutters, or to book a session at the St Albans showroom, call 01727 833003, or email infouk@zund.com. www.zund.com

The tried and tested modular tool system is available on both beams of the D3. Define which functions your cutter has to fulfil and configure your individual tool combination from the Zünd modular system.

Zünd distinctive modular design allows you to configure the required tooling in a few quick, easy steps. The resulting flexibility lets you react instantaneously to changes in production requirements.

Zünd high-performance cutters are made for shift operation. Which is why only robust and high-quality components are used. This is demonstrated in the excellent quality, highest reliability, and strong performance.

Quick, precise, time-saving: the setting of knives, routers, and creasing wheels takes place via the fully automatic initialisation system. Manual adjustment to determine the cutting depth is no longer necessary.

“We set ourselves apart with typically Swiss characteristics that are deeply engrained in our corporate DNA. ‘Swissness’ stands for superior precision in mechanical engineering, for extremely reliable production systems, and for sustainable manufacturing. These are values that are very important to us as family-owned and -managed business.”

For further information on the benefits of Zund’s digital cutters, or to book a session at the St Albans showroom, call 01727 833003, or email infouk@zund.com.

Zünd cutters are high-precision machines. All components – from drive system to cutting blade – are designed and manufactured to work together perfectly. This lets you produce efficiently and wow your customers with perfect results.

Depending on the job, the throughput can be doubled by using two beams that work independently of each other. The intelligent cutter controller allocates the work optimally between the two beams and thus ensures the highest possible productivity.

The D3 can be individually automated with cutter extensions and various material handling systems. This significantly increases the productivity of the cutter and manual activities are reduced to a minimum. The ergonomic design of the Zünd cutter simplifies the operator’s work, which increases efficiency even further.

High volume, high quality and flexibility – with the Zünd Board Handling System, you can run 24/7 non-stop production with minimal personnel. Fully automated board loading and unloading limits the necessary labour to bringing in/removing pallets of stacked uncut/ cut media.