Nover was founded in 1954 and has been a family business for almost seventy years. It’s now run by Steve Cowley and his sister Lynn. An Australian specialist wholesale distributor and supplier of essential products for the Kitchen; Joinery; Shop-Fitting and Furniture industries, Nover has only recently ventured back into manufacturing. Managing Director Steve Cowley says “Our aim was to put a finished product in front of our customers that made them go Wow!” Putting together a high-tech workshop in their Eastern Creek facility, Steve and Production Manager Brett Ezzy installed a CNC router and Holz-Her Lumina 1584 edge banding machine to produce an extensive range of quality products where the cutting and edging matched the quality of the product itself.

Steve said “We’ve had a history of manufacturing since the early 1960’s and when I joined the company in 1976 I learned a lot about that side of the business. We bailed from manufacturing in 2001 because at that time everyone was doing the same thing. However we now have a terrific range of high-quality decorative products and we know we can offer a superior service supplying cut and finished products to our customers.” And so, late in 2017 Nover once again started out manufacturing but this time with edge banding equipment capable of delivering the Wow factor Steve wanted.

The machine of choice was a Lumina 1584 from Holz-Her, a machine that was highly recommended by many of Nover’s customers as a machine that would produce the quality edge Steve was looking for. Brett Ezzy said “Edge banders have many more moving parts than almost any other wood working machine so we wanted something that was simple to operate; a machine that we could rely on to keep on producing with consistent quality results. We try never to let our customers down and the edge bander for us is a key piece of equipment. If we needed help, our Holz-Her rep would be there for us, he visits us regularly so he knows what we do and what we need; it’s a really good relationship.”

“We’re supplying the industry with a superior product; cutting and edging decorative products such as our Luxe; Syncron and our award-winning Fenix product” said Steve. “We demand an excellent edge bond on both highly textured and high-gloss boards,” he says. To achieve this, Steve needs a reliable edge bond and depends on the security that PUR glue provides. All Holz-Her edge banders are capable of using both EVA and PUR glues but the definite advantage with the Holz-Her machine is in the cartridge system. It’s amazingly quick to change over; in fact almost ten times as fast as a pot system. It’s clean; uses less glue and produces a glue-line that’s almost invisible.

Holz-Her are leaders in edge banding machines and have championed the development of PUR systems. On a white board with white edge and white glue; the finish Holz-Her can achieve is as near as matters to that of a laser edge. While Nover’s machine is also capable of EVA glue, it’s not what Steve was looking for. “It’s not our business to produce with EVA, our business is quality. PUR is waterproof and permanent and it was absolutely essential on any machine we bought. We’re very, very happy with the performance and finish of our edged panels and the management of the PUR adhesive is a very small price to pay compared to the quality we achieve from the Lumina machine, in most cases with the very first piece we put through it.”

Brett adds “There’s almost no issue managing the PUR glue. We know how many metres we get from a cartridge so glue wastage is almost nothing. When the machine tells us to refill the glue we know we have about thirty metres of production left on 16mm or 18mm board. We add the neutralising cartridge and when we hit the thirty metre target we stop production and press the ‘purge’ button. It takes about three minutes; we usually only do this once a week and it’s really that simple,” he says.

Nover’s machine is a Lumina and this means that in addition to the excellent results produced with the PUR glue; it’s also possible to produce the so-called ‘laser’ edges very popular in Europe and becoming widely accepted around the World. Dozens of ‘laser’ machines are already in operation in Australia and New Zealand. Compared to a traditional laser system; Holz-Her use near-infrared radiation (NIR) called Ltronic that is a fraction of the cost of a laser system. Not only is the purchase price highly affordable but the running costs are far less and the running time between changing ‘globes’ is far greater. Steve says “While our PUR edges are as close as makes no difference to a laser product, the small additional cost future-proofs our company and allows us to offer a ‘laser’ product when the demand is there. If we need to change from PUR to laser it’s really fast. We don’t need any downtime at all and the Lumina machine is very efficient. We think it’s a sound business decision.”

Nover’s Holz-Her is also equipped with the MultiTool system that allows multiple edge banding profiles to be machined by a single tool, whether it is one, two or three millimetre rounded edges. Daniel Tasich is Holz-Her’s sales tech and says “This award-winning technology was developed together by Leitz and Holz-Her. It combines machinery with tooling engineering ability and is perfect for short runs. The profiles are changed on the machine computer through a gear system in the tool. It produces excellent results every time and there’s no manual adjustments needed.”

To meet their expected quality requirements Nover demanded a machine with the most exacting tolerances. The Lumina; with its digital NC servo motors and complemented by the MultiTool is capable of getting excellent results on a cross-grain textured board. It can easily finish all Nover’s decorative panels from the incredible Fenix board to the high-gloss Luxe products with the touch of a button. Even the protective plastic film on high gloss boards, often with different thicknesses, can easily be taken care of by the servo motors and all at the touch of a button.

Steve says “We find that the Holz-Her Lumina is delivering a consistent quality product that both we and our customers can rely on. Our next delivery has to be as good as the last and we can achieve this every time. High on our list of ‘must-have’s’ was the ability to use PUR glue. We needed a high performing bond with an almost zero glue line. When we ran a test on white board and edge with PUR glue, we found the finish was actually as good as a laser edge.

There is no line between the board and the edge tape; it’s seamless. The interchangeable glue unit is very efficient and takes almost no time at all to change. It’s literally only a few minutes. We bought the machine on the advice of many of our customers who’ve had Holz-Her machines for years and I can say it’s exceeded all our high expectations. What I really get excited about is innovation and with the Holz-Her Lumina, I’ve found it,” he says.

For more information please visit www.nover.com.au