'Magic' Carterton machine opens new doors

Renall Doors owner Cameron Shaw says his new $1.5 million joinery machine - unique in the Southern Hemisphere - will catapult his small Carterton firm into the 21st century.

The installation last week of the Weinig Conturex machine gives the Wairarapa joinery company a solid march on competitors.

Mr Shaw came from a concrete pumping business in Wellington and took over Renall Doors in 1992 after the company went into receivership.

In 1998 he took his first gamble on joinery technology when he bought and installed a Unicontrol wood processor also made by Weinig in Germany, which the new "magic" machine supersedes.

Mr Shaw said the manufacturing thresholds of the Conturex "are unheard of", and the company has already taken national and international enquiries after touting the new line of products ahead of release.

The new machine gives Renall Doors the engineering technology and capacity to manufacture exterior wooden products that are supremely detailed, airtight and unique to the market, he said.

"It's a major coup for Wairarapa, and New Zealand, because there is no other manufacturer outside of Europe with this level of technology."

The company will now list windows alongside doors in their manufacturing range, Mr Shaw said, and will offer products to New Zealand architects, homeowners and builders only otherwise available in Europe.

The domestic market will be targeted before product export is considered, he said.

The Conturex came complete with $130,000 worth of specialist computer software, $228,000 worth of tools, and a crew of German specialists to oversee installation.

"What ultimately drove our decision to invest is the fact that exterior aluminum windows in Europe have disappeared. Every window in Europe today has to meet a thermal standard and has to be rated. If it doesn't meet the standard, it has to be replaced.

"There is a possibility that things will change here and standards will be raised and will have to be met - and nobody else in New Zealand has invested this kind of money into the technology to make windows to that standard."

Mr Shaw said Vic Jacobson, who was manager at Renall Doors when Mr Shaw took over, will keep the machine at maximum output.

Mr Jacobson is a builder by trade and had worked as manager until 2002 and was instrumental in the installation and operation of the Unicontrol machine.

He now runs his own building business in Masterton but last year spent several months in Germany, where he mastered the programming and running of the Conturex and completed test runs ahead of its installation down under, he said.

"We had to update from the older machine but both of them are unique in the Southern Hemisphere. There is one in Australia but it's still in the box.

"It's an incredibly complex machine. A single component passing through the Conturex requires 300 lines of code and that really is saying something.

"It can make any combination of 200 variations of doors and is capable of daily producing at least 28 windows - double-hung or sash and weight, and double or triple-glazed.

"There's absolutely nothing it can't do. It is state-of-the-art - there's nothing better."