The Swedish company Kvarnstrands uses more than 50 machines from the sharpening specialist Vollmer for its services in the maintenance and repair of circular and band saws. This includes several machines from the CHX series for grinding carbide-tipped circular saws, as well as eroding machines for processing tools with PCD (polycrystalline diamond). Additionally, Kvarnstrands trades in circular saw blades from Kanefusa and manufactures high-performance tools that ensure precise wood machining in planers worldwide.
"Wood is the raw material on which the world builds – and this in the truest sense of the word, as wood as a building material is becoming increasingly important compared to steel and concrete," says David Kvarnstrand, managing director of Kvarnstrands Verktyg AB. "Wood is a renewable resource that releases less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The more is made from wood, the more cutting tools are needed – and that is good for us."
In the neighborhood of Michel from Lönneberga
Primarily, Kvarnstrands manufactures, sells, and maintains cutting tools as well as circular and band saws for the wood industry – but is also active in the plastic and aluminum sectors. The company is based in southern Sweden's Småland in Ekenässjön – just a few kilometers from Lönneberga, where Astrid Lindgren's Michel (Emil in Sweden) once carved his wooden figures in the shed. The cutting tools from Kvarnstrands are manufactured for planers that customers use in Europe and even worldwide. With its planer tools, the tool manufacturer will also participate in Ligna 2025 in Hanover, showcasing among other things two newly developed tools that have recently been patented. "Currently, we are producing perhaps the largest planer knife heads ever manufactured in Europe," says David Kvarnstrand.
"The weight of a planer knife head is almost 300 kilograms, and they will run in a large planer that processes construction timber at speeds of up to 1200 meters per minute."
This year, the company celebrates its 80th anniversary
In trade, Kvarnstrands sells high-quality knives and circular saws from the Japanese tool manufacturer Kanefusa. Its services related to the maintenance and repair of cutting tools are offered exclusively in Sweden and Norway – for this, the company has locations in Nybro and Älvsbyn as well as in Stange, Norway. With its 110 employees, the tool manufacturer generates around 19 million euros annually, roughly equally divided among the three business areas of production, trade, and services. "This year we are celebrating our 80th anniversary. In 1945, my great-grandfather bought the company, which at that time produced drilling tools," says David Kvarnstrand. "My father took over the company in the late 1970s, and the transition to the current generation took place in 2002 – today my sisters Linda and Frida and I run the company together."
For services, the company has relied on Vollmer for decades
Worldwide, Kvarnstrands serves more than 1000 customers – including sawmills, planing mills, wood panel manufacturers, as well as furniture and window manufacturers. In the service area for circular and band saws, the Swedes rely on the sharpening expertise of the Swabian machine manufacturer Vollmer. Since the 1980s, Kvarnstrands has invested in Vollmer machines and is convinced of both the technology and support from Vollmer – now more than 50 Vollmer machines are in the production halls of Kvarnstrands. "In earlier years, we often received a crate of beer from Vollmer packed in the machines from Germany," recalls David Kvarnstrand with a wink. "Even though we miss those times, it is clear to us that we will continue to rely on Vollmer in the future. The machines are reliable and of high quality, and over the past four decades, we have not found anything better or more efficient on the market."
Sharpening hundreds of circular saws automatically around the clock
Even today, many Vollmer machines from the early days are still in operation daily – including grinding machines for circular and band saws, straightening centers for band saws, and also stellitizing machines. Due to the increased use of carbide-tipped circular saws in the wood industry, Kvarnstrands has recently invested primarily in grinding machines such as the CHC 840, CHX 840, or CHD 270. The CHC 840 sharpens circular saws with diameters of up to 840 millimeters and can also process planer segments thanks to a cross-mounted feed cam with pneumatic release. The Vollmer operating concept with a multifunction handwheel simplifies the work for the Kvarnstrands team, as the selection and movement of the axes are only done through one module, thus avoiding possible operator errors. Through the handling system ND 340 with four loading carts, Kvarnstrands can equip two grinding machines with up to 350 circular saw blades. The circular saws are fed to the grinding machine via a fully automatic measurement and scanning system, allowing maintenance and repair around the clock in 24/7 shifts.
Processing diamond tools with Vollmer eroding technology
Kvarnstrands can automatically equip two grinding machines with up to 350 circular saw blades. Image: Vollmer
"For the maintenance and repair of PCD-tipped tools, we use the Vollmer eroding machines QXD 250 and QM eco select," says David Kvarnstrand. "In the area of diamond tools, our customers come not only from the wood industry but increasingly also from the plastic and aluminum industries." The QXD 250 and QM eco select are both disc eroding machines used to sharpen cutting tools with PCD (polycrystalline diamond).
With the QXD 250, PKD tools can be processed in a single setup, from measurement to erosion, grinding, and polishing. Extended travel paths and swivel ranges for tool diameters enable Kvarnstrands to service tools with diameters of up to 320 millimeters and tool lengths of up to 250 millimeters. Thanks to a tool storage system, automated processing is also possible with the QXD 250, operating unmanned and around the clock. "Sweden is two-thirds forest, which is roughly three times the area of Austria, so many of our customers come from the wood industry," says Daniel Vacha, Managing Director of Vollmer Scandinavia in Växjö. "However, we are feeling how the boundaries between the wood, plastic, and metal industries are increasingly blurring, and we at Vollmer often design individual sharpening solutions for our customers that consist of different technologies such as grinding, erosion, and also laser processing."
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