Katyusha
Furniture Technologies
Inspiring furniture finishing
Katyusha is a giant industrial group which manufactures furniture: originally a Soviet combine, today it is one of Russia’s leading furniture companies.
That is an extremely narrow definition, because in reality the Dmi furniture factory (the brand under which it is known to the public) is much more. Not just “Design Mobili per Interni” (Interior Furniture Design), but a true integrated system, from the log to the finished furniture, via production of chipboard panels (Russia’s biggest producer) with resins synthesised in the nearby structure. Not far away is the department where decorative paper is printed, the line for impregnation, lamination and preliminary machining. It’s a world amongst the Bryansk Oblast region forests, four hundred kilometres from Moscow. On the other side of the town is the furniture factory and headquarters, built in 2003 over a period of 18 months. The industrial group consists of 20 companies, with more than 2,700 employees and a foreign turnover of € 45 million (outside CIS), although this was 100 before the recent rouble “crisis”.
Every day at Katyusha around 1,500 pieces of furniture in 4,500 boxes are produced, because it is a “flat pack” system. 18,000 square metres of warehouse, hundreds of trucks to be loaded and departing for the more than 400 points of sale throughout Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok.
It’s a constantly evolving giant: in recent years, it launched its kitchen production department, a new 7,000 square metre factory. This was followed by the launch of the new factory where panel production was moved to and which doubled its volumes: 250 thousand cubic metres per year.
“We decided to work with Italian designers and we immediately saw the results: families come to our stores and really like what they find.” - Sergey Avdeev, General Manager of Katyusha
Forty “collections”, thousands of different items of furniture. Two product levels: DMI VERDE or “green” (double and single bedrooms, living rooms, entrance halls) and DMI ORANGE, the younger, more colourful variety.
“We decided to work with Italian designers and we immediately saw the results: families come to our stores and really like what they find”, says Sergey Avdeev, the enthusiastic general manager of Katiusha.
“Collections where the elegance of wood is combined with the eight colours that we very carefully selected. Impressive and inspiring. We are very pleased with this project”.
The designers aren’t the only Italian feature: in the many departments of this huge factory there are dozens of SCM machines: from the "gabbiani" panel sizing machines to the "stefani" edgebanding machines, from the "morbidelli" machining and drilling centres to the "mahros" automation systems right up to the Superfici painting range.
We started working with SCM in 2007 with the order of our first "stefani" fully automatic edgebanding line. We took another leap forward in terms of quality in 2013 when we purchased the Superfici line and, four years later, the "morbidelli" drilling centre joined our production, it too greatly appreciated (at that time it was known as the "powerflex"). And that's not all. In the last twelve months, Katyusha has purchased another SCM gem for edgebanding, especially well-suited to softforming, the "stefani one", as well as another "stefani xd" edgebanding machine with Fastback panel return system and new "morbidelli" machining and drilling centres.
MODERN, ELEGANT J-SHAPE PROFILES
SCM started with a very clear request from the customer: have the chance to work with a single panel edgebanding machine, both straight, with various kinds of thickness, and shaped, with 45 degree softforming machining and special J-Shape and U-Shape profiles. Furthermore, the customer needed to regularly and rapidly change the kind of glue for both processes while always keeping accuracy and quality levels high. Indeed, the company used both white and neutral polyurethane glue according to the different furniture elements to be produced, in this case, mostly kitchens.
The result was intense, productive team work between SCM and Katyusha to create a "turnkey" edgebanding machine with unique performance with the aid of SCM's experts. A real "wildcard" for the Russian company, thanks to the quantity and quality of the operator units that were added in, all of them separate from one another, to raise performance levels and production flexibility to maximum heights.
One special scoring unit stands out from the rest, with electronic regulator that allows for a change from a straight panel to one that is shaped without having to remove the protective film on the panel and, therefore, without any risk of lifting it up.
Another advantage is set-up speed between the different kinds of machining, thanks to the electronic axes positioned on the upper boards to reposition the working line.
FINISHING QUALITY
Colour is a central theme for Dmi, dealt with using a Superfici coating line: a double brushing machine, blowers and anti-static devices for perfect workpiece cleaning; an “F1” roller spreader; a “Selecure” UV drier, the “Bravorobot” 5-axis spraying robot, a vertical oven with four ventilation stages.
A highly flexible, high productivity line, designed to be able to handle any coating requirements, using water-borne or polyurethane coatings, or direct polish.
“The finish is one of the values that the consumer perceives first. It’s what immediately tells him if the piece of furniture is what he was looking for”, adds Avdeev. “We really focus on customer satisfaction, on supplying not just furniture, but a lifestyle, an atmosphere, for a better and more comfortable home. More than 60 per cent of our customers become regular customers... that’s a great result, it shows that we’re on the right track”.
By Luca Rossetti - Xylon
Katyusha Dyatkovo (Russia)
Industrial group producing furniture in an entirely integrated process from the logs to the store
www.dyaktovo.ru
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