Evolutionon — adaptation and changing over time to survive and grow — is something that many companies use to promote and grow their business.

For Rehau Americas’ Sturgis, Michigan, facility, that is certainly the case. 

The company recently inaugurated a new 110-foot laminating production line, incorporating a process that was previously outsourced to locations elsewhere in the U.S., Canada and, in some cases, overseas. 

The new lamination line brings the pressing step in-house to Sturgis, streamlining production, reducing lead times, and adding opportunities to grow new areas of the business.

Evolving through the years
Change is not new for the company. All the factory’s changes over its life would be hard to enumerate. “We bought the facility in the late 1970s and it was a trailer factory,” said Mark Kraus, Rehau’s director of engineering for Rehau Interior Solutions. We started doing lots of different extrusions for a variety of applications, but pretty quickly it turned into an edgeband manufacturing location for the furniture industry.”

Over the years, the diverse, German-based company’s Sturgis location made tubing and hoses for fountain dispensing machines for the beverage industry. At one point in the late 1990s, after an expansion doubled the size of the building from 40,000 square feet to 82,000 square feet, two distinct product lines were running — edgebanding and custom profiles for the furniture industry. Rehau did its own PVC mixing and made different PVC compounds for various application products.

In 2005, production was transferred out of the Sturgis facility to another Rehau factory outside of Montreal. The Sturgis facility became mainly a warehouse to service the Michigan furniture market. Touring the current factory one can still see remnants of water lines and other production-related items that were left in place for possible future use.

Many employees stayed, switching roles from production to warehouse work and customer service teams. “Some of the people that used to run edgeband lines are now running our lamination line,” said Mark Reverman, warehouse manager of the Sturgis plant.

Over the ensuing years, the company started “doing little things” to increase capabilities at the plant. “We started a tambour door fabrication cell,” said Kraus. “It’s a small operation, but it’s something that we’ve kept going for many, many years. Now that we’re focused on making more furniture components, we make a lot of our samples here.”

Four years ago, the company made a big push into furniture component production for its customers. “We brought in a hot-air edgebander and a panel saw to make components with our laminated boards and edgeband,” said Kraus. 

A major addition
In 2024, a 110-foot-long, highly automated lamination line was installed. The line used to apply the company’s range of Rehau RAUVISIO House laminate surfaces, which are available in gloss to matte, crystal, natural and metal, to MDF or particleboard as the first step in fulfilling cabinet door or board orders. Being able to laminate these boards in-house, reduced lead times from months to days.

Luis Villalon, production engineer for the Sturgis facility, said that the laminating line starts with the infeed of the material. Raw boards, 51 inches by 120 inches, are loaded onto the line by an automatic pick-and-place suction-based system.
Once lifted off a stack of substrates, the board enters a plate turner, i.e. board turner, which is a cylindrical device that securely grasps the board and safely rotates it 180 degrees so laminate can be applied to the second side of the board. “Instead of flipping every board by hand,” Villahon said, “we have this mechanism that ensures the board is not going to be spoiled or damaged in any way while being handled.”

A transporting belt moves boards through the line and also orients the board so that when it gets to the glue application and laminate layout areas, the materials are perfectly aligned. Metal rollers are angled in a specific way to guide the board against a steel edge ensuring perfect alignment. 

For a flaw-free laminate application, one of the main focuses of the line is clean boards. “When we have the laminate being applied to the board, it is important that we have as little contaminated agents [on the board] as possible,” said Villalon.
Boards pass under a brush station where big “agents” are removed followed by a second brush station that continues the cleaning process and also applies a layer of anti-static fluid to reduce or eliminate the buildup of static electricity that could draw those contaminates back onto the board.

The board then flows under a heating lamp to condition the board prior to the glue being applied. The warmed board helps activate the glue when applied. “The glue is applied with silicon rollers, which guarantees a flat surface and even distribution of the glue,” Villahon said. “A black light system allows the operators to see how even the glue has been spread along the board.”

At this point, the system is ready to apply the laminate. The flexible line can actually work in two modes, explained Villalon. “We have the sheet laminate, which is just basically laminate sheets, or you can laminate with a foil.” The foil comes in a roll that rests at the very top of the application station where it is pulled down to the sheet. An operator will later trim excess foil.
After the operator confirms that the board and laminate are aligned, the board is run through silicon and steel rollers. The silicone roller is heated internally to about 135 Celsius (~280 Fahrenheit) and the steel roller gets run at 70 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). Weight and pressure ensure the laminate is applied evenly and will thoroughly adhere to the substrate. 

Before the board is offloaded for shipping, further laminating, or additional processing, it passes an inspection light to help ensure there are no flaws in the laminate. “Especially when we’re running our more delicate material; such as a thin and brilliant material like gloss, we want to be able to see every inch of the board,” said Villalon. “If we see a line, or if we have some contamination going on, you’ll be able to see it with the wall light.” 

A specially designed material handling unit, which Villalon calls a pick-and-drop system, gently lifts the board with a finger-like device that carries the board off the line and onto a finished stack. This ensures that there is no lift of the laminate or any other damage that might occur with a suction-based system.

 Making components
Once laminated, the boards are either sold to the customer as is, or turned into components. Those boards are redirected to a growing component department.

Rehau component sales are expected to be a growing area of the business, said Kraus. “With our laminate line, we can sell fully laminated boards, or we can use them ourselves and make a cabinet door or whatever the customer wants.”

He added that the line has additional capacity to meet increased demand. Plus, he said, the factory is only running one shift. They can always run more hours as the need evolves. ✚

SIDEBAR: Rehau family and community Touring Rehau's Sturgis, Michigan, facility and talking to the workers, one of the themes that shines through is the length of employment, family members that work or previously worked there, workers who have worked there in the past and returned. Sometimes in new jobs. Sometimes returning to previous positions. The sales support staff is a great example of this. Combined, the women have more than 140 years of experience at Rehau. The staff, pictured above, from left to right, are: Kristin Watson, Sales Support: Officially, Watson has worked at Rehau since January 2024, but she worked as a temporary worker for 2 years prior. Additionally, her father is Rob Watson who has worked in the shipping department for several years. Karen Wolf, Sales Support: Employed since October 1981, this being her 44th year with Rehau. JoJo Torrey in the middle, Sales Support: Worked with Rehau for 6 years before moving out of state for 5 years. When she returned to Michigan, she started back with Rehau in July 2021. Kim Hart, Sales Support Supervisor: Employed since December 1980, making this her 45th year with Rehau. Sheila Webb, Sales Support: Employed since August 1983, making this her 42nd year with the company.