Here, the table stays fixed, while the bridge moves over its surface. A .Moving Gantry. CNC router, when made correctly, is particularly well suited for panel processing applications. This design saves valuable floor space, keeps the price down, allows for useful options (such as tool changers and multi-spindle drilling heads) and offers incredible throughput and productivity. This design is not normally as well suited to heavy, solid wood cutting because tubular steel frames, on any CNC router design, have a difficult time absorbing many of the additional cutting vibrations created by the heavier applications. However, if it is built and designed correctly, like our Panel Pro series, it can easily break down full sheets of 1-1/2" thick plywood, laminates, or veneers at super fast feed rates, under continuous duty conditions and handle solid wood applications on a limited basis. Check out the 20" x 100" bed mills used in the aircraft industry and you'll find the same Hardened and Ground Precision Helical Rack, Dual-Drive system used exclusively on the Panel Pro moving gantry router. Dual-Drive costs us more, but it won't twist under a load the way a single center-mounted ballscrew or cantilevered design does.

Panel processors and cabinetmakers love the flexibility and production capabilities that the Panel Pro design offers. Sign makers and plastics fabricators typically like moving gantry machines because of the lower initial purchase price, while solid surface fabricators like the large table-size-to-cost ratio.