The cabinets of the future are here and being manufactured in Brigham City, a little town north of Salt Lake City, Utah. These cabinets not only offer high-tech components in a completely automated system, but a sleek, tapered look as well.

Manufactured by Anvil Motion, the automated cabinet system can simultaneously open cabinets with a simple touch or the wave of a hand. “It’s non-traditional cabinetry,” says Randy Deem, president. “At the touch of a button or the wave of a hand, doors disappear and contents are totally accessible.”

Many kitchen “scenes” can be programmed into a wireless touchscreen pad. For example, a typical scene that Deem describes is “All Open” — every cabinet in the kitchen opens vertically, revealing interiors finished to match the outside. The “Bake Scene” is another programmed setting. Once it is selected on the AMX wireless touchscreen pad, all cabinets that have anything to do with baking automatically open.

The level of technology in an Anvil kitchen is significant. Automation is in every cabinet. The Anvil staff developed this idea over a two-year period by thinking outside of the box, Deem adds. He says his staff continued to work on the idea while manufacturing traditional cabinetry. “We couldn’t stop working. We had to keep making a living doing normal cabinetry in order to fund this.”

The nuts-and-bolts of the internal cabinet components are the servomotors. At the end of each motor is a computer that “talks” with a central processing unit. According to Deem, “It’s real simple to be able to get these cabinet doors to do exactly what he wants to because [the doors are controlled by] a computer [that] counts the revolutions. It talks to the central unit.” Programming for each automated kitchen is custom.
Another key component is a tape switch that is located on the bottom of large cabinet doors. As a door descends, if it hits an object, it will automatically reverse to its docking position.

Source: WoodworkingNetwork.com/RedBook