Striebig saws prove popular at top London art colleges

Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design has ordered a Striebig Evolution in advance of its forthcoming move to a landmark building at the heart of the capital's multi-million-pound King's Cross redevelopment scheme. Pete Smithson, one of the college's technical coordinators, said: "The Evolution vertical panel saw will replace a conventional table saw. As well as taking up far less room than a table saw in our new workshop, it will allow us to handle much larger panels. After seeing a Striebig in a drama school's workshop and visiting trade shows, it was clear that their panel saws are the best on the market and ideal for our needs." The Evolution 4216 bought by the college has a cutting range of 3300 x 2160mm and a maximum depth of cut of 80mm. It is one of nine models in the Evolution range, the most efficient and advanced manual panel saw available. It features as standard Striebig's user-friendly "touch and saw" operating system. This delivers easy and convenient machine control through a touch screen panel that operates all of the machine's functions. Other standard features include a digital measuring system, accurate to 0.1 mm, and an adjustable precision display that can be set to an accuracy of 1.0, 0.5 or 0.1 mm, according to the thickness of the panels being sized. It will be supplied with an optional scoring saw for the smooth cutting of laminate panels. Chelsea College of Art and Design has benefitted from greater accuracy and reduced panel manhandling since a Striebig Compact entry-level machine, featuring a digital measuring system, replaced a table saw in 2005. Resource Manager Steve Meadows said: "We set up a new wood workshop here six years ago after four colleges merged into one, and because of the increase in the volume of board cutting needed we decided to replace our table saw. One of our technicians saw a Striebig working at a B&Q store and suggested it would be perfect for us, so after checking out the manufacturer and supplier we made the decision to buy." Technicians at both colleges, which are part of the University of the Arts London, use saws exclusively in their woodworking workshops to size panels for students. At Chelsea, the Compact sizes wood-based panels plus the occasional laminate and acrylic sheet, ranging in thickness from 3mm up to 25mm thick MDF panels. The materials are used by students in their work; which can range from sculptures and installations of all kinds to picture frames and display plinths needed for exhibitions. Steve Meadows said: "Because it's so easy to load a panel onto the Striebig it has cut out all the backbreaking work of manhandling a heavy panel onto the table saw's bed. It also delivers the kind of sustained accuracy when cutting repeat pieces you just can't get on a table saw. "Once it has been set up it makes fast work of making multiple cuts, like the request we had from a student for 1,000 2 inch thick strips. I reckon that on average it takes a third of the time to size a panel compared with using the former table saw." The college's Striebig 4164 is the smallest model in the nine-strong entry level series with a cutting range of 3100 x 1644mm (10 ft x 5 ft) and a maximum depth of cut of 60mm.

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