Anthon GmbH, based in Flensburg, is a family-run mechanical engineering company with approximately 160 employees that develops and supplies machines, systems, and complete production lines—including software solutions—for the panel processing industry worldwide.
For our customer Stol-Tap, we are currently implementing a new cutting system for processing coated particleboard. Stol-Tap has been active in the market since 1997 and specializes in the manufacture of components made from wood-based materials for kitchen furniture, upholstered furniture, cabinet furniture, shelving, and other custom-made products. The company operates plants in Rabowice and Szczecinek, which is part of a regional furniture cluster. Its range of services includes, among other things, the cutting of panel materials, edge processing, drilling, dowel processing, milling, and the veneering of wood products. Various materials are processed, including raw particleboard, laminated panels, MDF and HDF panels, OSB, plywood, and fiberboard. Production utilizes both the company’s own raw materials and those provided by the customer, including materials with reduced formaldehyde content. In this modern and highly automated facility, over 200 specialists work on the production of high-quality furniture components.
To expand production capacity, Anthon is supplying a cutting system consisting of two LNB-D / LNB 37.5/21 pressure beam saws. The system is specifically designed for the precise cutting of raw panels into exact dimensions and is used for processing melamine-coated particleboard. Raw panels with a maximum length of 3660 mm and a maximum width of 2100 mm can be processed. The smallest parts that can be produced from these have a minimum length of 258 mm and a minimum width of 60 mm. The saws operate at a working height of approximately 2000 mm.
One of the system’s key components is a vacuum feeding system, which automatically assembles the raw panels into bundles and then feeds them to the two pressure beam saws. One of the saws is positioned behind a turntable, which enables flexible material handling and optimal alignment of the panels during the cutting process. This configuration allows for efficient processing of various cutting formats and supports a continuous material flow within the system.
Two different solutions are used for destacking the cut parts. Larger formats are handled via a fully automatic side-gripper destacking system. This system removes the finished parts directly from the process and automatically stacks them onto pallets. For smaller formats, an air table for manual destacking is additionally integrated. Here, the cut panel stacks are moved via air nozzles that operate with compressed air and generate an air cushion. This allows the stacks to be moved with virtually no resistance, so that the operating personnel can manually destack the parts onto pallets with minimal effort. The pallets are located on a lift table that automatically lowers in stages according to the stack height. The operator simply pushes the finished sheet packages onto the pallet. After each package is placed ( ), the lift table lowers, allowing the next package to be easily slid onto the previously placed package, gradually forming a neat stack. This combination of automatic side-gripper destacking for larger formats and ergonomic manual destacking for smaller parts enables flexible and efficient handling of different format sizes.
Production of the first assemblies for this system began in calendar week 47 of 2025. The system is currently being assembled and prepared in our assembly hall in Flensburg. Before delivery to the customer, the system will undergo a comprehensive Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). During this step, all functions, motion sequences, and performance parameters of the system will be tested under real production conditions.
Delivery of the system is scheduled for calendar week 16 of 2026. Upon successful completion of the FAT, the system will be dismantled, transported to the customer in Poland, and reassembled and integrated into production there. With this system, Stol-Tap gains a high-performance solution for the precise and efficient cutting of sheet materials in furniture production.