Custom Millwork, Inc. has served professional contractors in the greater metropolitan Minneapolis and St. Paul area since 1976 with pre-finished mouldings, stair parts and doors.   Their success depends upon their customer’s total satisfaction.

To satisfy their customers, Custom Millwork, Inc. maintains a wide range of pre-finished moulding profiles available for immediate shipping.   Moulding species include oak, maple, cherry, pine, poplar and also primed product.   Consistent quality, product availability, and the breadth of their product line have made Custom Millwork a one-stop source for quality millwork.

As their business grew, Custom Millwork sought an automated finishing line to keep up with their growing demand.    Custom Millwork’s General Manager, Mark Enright, and their Plant Manager, Mark Peterson, began to research equipment suppliers and coating systems.  

Their investigations lead them to visit Deimco Finishing Equipment in the fall of 2004.       
As initial layouts were discussed, both shared their system objectives. First, it was imperative to incorporate lean manufacturing and single piece flow techniques.   Next, the system had to be flexible and able to run the wide range of profiles with little or no set-up time.   Finally, the system needed to quickly switch from stained products to primed products. 

It became apparent that Custom Millwork needed the ability to immediately stack, wrap, and ship product as it came off the line.   They needed to be able to fill rush custom orders quickly and they wanted to eliminate redundant handling of the products.   To gain these features, Mark Enright and Mark Peterson had been investigating a switch from their water reducible seal and top coats to “UV” coatings.  Many of the “UV” coatings were unappealing for various reasons including cost, odor, and appearance.

Deimco questioned why they were switching coating systems if they were happy with their existing products.   Mark Enright replied that the coating manufacturers all said it was impossible to stack water reducible top coats off the line.

Undaunted, Deimco felt that their combination IR and convection ovens would permit Custom Millwork to stack, wrap, and ship finished product directly off the line.  Deimco’s combination ovens offer exceptional process control.  The combination oven expels water from the substrate coating without overheating the substrate itself or prematurely curing the surface.   The same oven technology has been used by Deimco to reduce “mill-treat” cure cycles from days to minutes at a prominent window manufacturer.  Prior to finalizing the system design, Deimco conducted successful curing trials using Custom Millwork’s incumbent water reducible seal coat and top coat.  

After Deimco’s combination oven technology was proven, Deimco developed initial process layouts.    Mark Enright wanted to make sure that the system could be expanded in the future.  Mark Peterson supplied critical building information which Deimco incorporated into their designs.

Custom Millwork decided to execute the project in two distinct phases.   In phase I, the layout provided for:

 Pre-sand
 Dedicated Stain Finishing Machine
 Dedicated Primer Finishing Machine
 Stain Wiper
 Stain Flash Tunnel
 Seal Coat/Top Coat Wide Canopy Finishing Machine (also UV compatible)
 18 Foot Side Transfer System
 Combination IR/Convection Curing Oven
 Pack-off

Deimco fully assembled and operated the system in their facility, prior to shipping.   Mark Peterson and his lead operators inspected the equipment and received introductory training.   Deimco sent a small crew to mechanically install the equipment in Custom Millwork’s facility. 

Mark Enright commented, “We started this system up on a Thursday afternoon.   Within a few hours, we had the oven dialed in and were able to wrap finished products right off the line.  The total time in our oven is only 4 minutes.”

During operation of the phase I layout, lineal stock is pre-sanded in the 4-head sander.   The mouldings are then primed or stained.   The stained parts are wiped and pass through a heated forced air flash tunnel.   The stained lineal pieces are then seal-coated.  Both the primed and seal-coated parts are cross-transferred and cured.    Seal-coated parts are re-introduced to the line.   The pre-sander is used to sand the seal-coated mouldings.   These parts are then top-coated, cross-transferred, and cured, sharing the same equipment that was used to apply and cure the seal coat.  Most importantly, products are able to be stacked, wrapped, inventoried or shipped directly off the line.

Custom Millwork plans to execute phase II of the project later this year.   In phase II, seal-coated parts will be automatically transferred off the oven conveyor to another in-line sander.   The lineal stock will be top-coated in a dedicated top coat UV compatible finish machine then cross-transferred and cured in a second Deimco combination oven.  

Mark Peterson sums his experience, “I’ve never been happier with any equipment that we’ve purchased.”