Around the world in 16 months

Suure-Jaani, a rural region in the heart of Estonia, is home to one of the major European manufacturers of solid wood mouldings. Eesti Höövelliist OÜ, founded in 1993, operates two plants in the region that between them output 2500 km of mouldings per month – 16 months’ production would go once around the globe. About 90 percent of production goes for export, much of it to Scandinavia, but also to Central Europe: Benelux, Germany and Austria. Eesti Höövelliist employs 185 people and generates annual sales of around 25 million euros.

Solid wood and MDF

The moulding experts have a product portfolio that is just as varied as the differences between their export markets. Eesti Höövelliist offers close to 1,000 items with various profiles, dimensions and finishing: baseboards, door trim moldings, round bars, beaded moldings, angle moldings, picture rails, profile moldings and much more besides. The majority are treated or untreated solid wood mouldings: Pine mostly, although other types of wood are used as well. Painted MDF moldings account for around 10 percent of production. 

Eesti Höövelliist manufactures at its main location in Suure-Jaani and a second plant just eight kilometers away. Suure-Jaani has four production lines for solid wood mouldings, while MDF moldings are made at the other plant. “In production we use the latest machine technology from internationally reputed manufacturers such as Weinig, HolzHer, Cefla, Makor and Triab,” explains Höövelliist Managing Director Andrus Rooks. “Fast, smooth production processes and consistent quality are essential for us.”

Fast process times

The same applies to treatment. Ever since 2010 Eesti Höövelliist has trusted in Teknos products – which back in the day were still under the Swedish Wedevåg name. Teknos currently supplies the Estonian moulding specialists with paints both for their solid wood mouldings and MDF products. Both are painted mostly in NCS White S0502-Y. Some orders may also call for special NCS or RAL shades, but classic white makes up the lion’s share.

For solid wood mouldings production in Suure-Jaani, the company uses a Teknos system comprised of TEKNOCOAT PRIMER 1604 and TEKNOLUX AQUA 1728. TEKNOCOAT PRIMER 1604 is solvent-borne, has excellent filling properties and achieves a very even, smooth surface with quick drying times. TEKNOLUX AQUA 1728 is a water-based UV paint: rapid UV drying enables very fast process times and highly resistant surfaces. “Less than two minutes after UV drying, we film package the mouldings on palettes. The time between the UV oven and packaging gets used for final quality control,” explains Andrus Rooks.

“Teknos paint with its good process properties is crucial
to this procedure and to high line speeds.”

 Andrus Rooks,  Managing Director Höövelliist

On its MDF line in the second plant, Eesti Höövelliist uses a water-borne system with TEKNOCOAT AQUAPRIMER 1866 and TEKNOCOAT AQUA 2571. TEKNOCOAT AQUAPRIMER 1866 is a pigmented primer for curtain coating, while TEKNOCOAT AQUA 2571 is a water-borne 1K paint, fast-drying and with excellent blocking properties, available in formulations for both spray and curtain coating. Eesti Höövelliist MDF moldings too are mostly painted in NCS S0502-Y (white).

Spot-on support and quality

“We are very satisfied after having used Teknos paints for around seven years now,” says Andrus Rooks. “They give us reliable production with fast, economic process times and very consistent, good quality.” Teknos technical support, too, gets positively rated by the Managing Director of Eesti Höövelliist. “Teknos provides professional and responsive technical support. The application engineers almost always give us an immediate answer. And when not, they find the right solution within a very short time. It’s exactly the support that we need for our high-volume production.”

Like this, Teknos-painted Eesti Höövelliist mouldings will surely wrap around the globe many more times yet. 

www.hoovelliist.ee
www.teknos.com