The Advanced Concepts Difference

From it's inception in 1986, Advanced Concepts business philosophy has been simple, 'To utilise the latest technology, offer the most extensive range, and to produce a product with a level of quality that would far exceed that produced by any of our competitors'. With the largest range of choice in laminate color, design, textures and finishes in the South Australian marketplace, Advanced Concepts has sought to make this philosophy a reality for our customers. It is, however, the way we produce our products, and the quality control system (TFCCQS) developed in-house, which distinguishes Advanced Concepts apart from, and above our competitors.

Developed over the last 8 years, the True Form Color Control Quality System (TFCCQS) has allowed Advanced Concepts to realise the full potential of effective quality control management, with investment into new technology supporting this system (including machinery) exceeding half-a-million dollars within the last 3 years, but quite frankly what does this mean for you? Let's take a look at our Fabrication process.

Step 1. Using either a HMR (High Moisture Resistance) or MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) as the base your benchtop, we first cut the length of the board to be around 100mm over then required size before skimming all the sides to ensure a straight true line - edges that have not been skimmed generally contain highs and lows, thus, when profiled will contain ridges on the front edge creating tiny pockets of air under the laminate, making it easier to damage.

Step 2. Once the board has been skimmed, it is then placed into a automated computerised profiling machine. This machine not only ensures that the profiling is accurate, but also consistent in depth and height, thus, ensuring benchtops that need to be joined have the same uniform profile. Although this might sound like common sense, some companies still utilise the hand profiling method.

Step 3. At this point, the materials (wood, laminate) for making the benchtop are checked to ensure no defects. Once this has been checked the benchtop is then placed into a roll out PVA (Poly Vinyl Acetate) applicator. The Advantages of using this machine is that it ensures a uniform coat of PVA is applied. This is extremely important as many manufacturers still hand spray Contact Adhesive onto the board, creating highs and lows and in extreme cases providing no bond between the laminate and wood, creating lifting and pull back problems.

Step 4. Once the board has been coated with PVA glue the laminate is then placed onto the board before the entire package is placed into a heat operated press. Being heat activated, PVA glue provides a super strong bond between board and laminate and once activated won't pull or lift under any circumstances.

Step 5. At this stage the laminate is on the top, but no post forming has occurred. The next step in our TFCCQS is to apply a thin coat a PVA glue to the exposed edge (profiled edge), before placing the benchtop into a Proform TA5, a fully computerised post-forming machine. Here the laminate is heated to the true bending temperature using the latest in heat cell, heat pad and infrared technology. The purpose for utilising these technologies is simple; some companies still use outdated methods for post forming and as such will generally overheat the laminate making it brittle and placing tanning marks onto the laminate.

Step 6. The next step from here is to place the post formed benchtop into a Author 427 CNC Machining Centre, a windows based computer operated system that trims the board down to the required size, places toggles, creates masinmitres, corner cut-offs and arcs to within 0.001mm of the required size.

Step 7. Now that the benchtop is to size, it is then forwarded onto the Cabinet-Maker who places edge strips and corner cut-offs if required, sands and files the bottom of the board, and places all the benchtops in the job in the same layout as detailed from the plan before joining them altogether to ensure a uniform fit and correct size.

Step 8. Once this final phase is completed the job is once again entirely checked to ensure it is free from any defects, not under of oversized and to the exact specifications as indicated by the design plans.

Step 9. The benchtops are now ready for customer collection.