Colonial Saw Co. has introduced two new vertical panel saws: the Swiss-made Striebig Control and Evolution models. Seen at the big spring Xylexpo wood industry exhibition in Milan, Italy, these two saws are similar in appearance and share a number of automated features, including touch screen color display panel, the ability to upload cutlists, and a laser light cutting guide.

While the Evolution model is a manual traveling vertical panel saw, it includes many automatic features, such as auto-locking of the saw beam and panel support rollers. From the new touch-screen color display panel the operator can pivot, plunge and lock the saw head, and engage the optional adjustable split-blade scoring saw. With an optional EPS.X feature added, the panel also can set the dimension of the programmable stop.

Striebig’s new Control and Evolution saws share features.

A laser guides the setting of horizontal cut positions.

Uploading Cutlists
This same control panel screen will also display faults, and provides trouble-shooting assistance. Digital measuring with fine adjustment in both axes is standard, as is the saw’s auto-shifting, full-wood backing grid, which allows it to support thin materials and small parts during the cutting process. A laser light guide for the horizontal cut line is among new features. The Evolution saw also permits externally set cutlists to be uploaded via a USB port.

The Control model looks very similar to the Evolution, but as Striebig’s top-of-the-line automatic traveling vertical panel saw has many more automated features. Nearly all of these are controlled at the touch screen color display, including multiple horizontal rip cuts, which can be executed with Concept’s optional EPS.Y system.

Control also allows upload of cutlists via USB stick, and among its automatic travel features are automatic saw travel with variable feed rate; panel end sensor for faster cycling; start position memory; and return mode selector switch. A mid-shelf, described as “convenient and sturdy” by Colonial Saw, allows for comfortable working of small parts and material staging on one side of the saw.

The auto-shifting, full wood-backing grid, digital measuring with fine adjustment for both X and Y axes, along with the new laser light to help guide set-up of horizontal cut positions are some of the many standard features offered in the new-styled Control.

So how to tell the two models apart?
“The two models are identical in looks and features, especially in regards to setting up the cut,” explains Dave Bull, Striebig product manager at Colonial Saw. “The real difference is that once the cut is set up, the operator moves the saw manually on the Evolution; on the Control model, the saw moves automatically with variable speed, at the push of a button.” Control’s automatic travel boosts productivity in other ways as well, says Bull.

“The other features that come along with the automatic travel are a panel-end sensor, so that the saw stops at the end of the panel and doesn’t travel all the way to the end of the machine,” he explains. “It also has a start position memory so it comes back to where he started the cycle, again rather than going all the way to the other end of the machine. You also have the choice of whether you want it to return automatically at the end of the cut or wait there until you call it back — to give you time to offload.”

Watch videos of Control in action at http://www.csaw.com/STRIEBIG_New_Styled_Control.wmv.