Millwide Insider 2-2011
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Millwide INSIDERTHE MAGAZINE FROM USNR | ISSUE 2 - 2011 SHIFTING TO OVERDRIVE Murray Timber accelerates its primary line to broaden its market GOING GRADERLESS DOWN UNDER Australia’s WESPINE stakes its reputation on LHG’s vision technology KEEPING UP WITH NEW DEVELOPMENTS A quick update on new products and enhancements at USNR Millwide INSIDER ISSUE 2 - 2011 SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel.: 250.833.3028 [email protected] EDITOR Colleen Schonheiter [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Sonia Perrine [email protected] USNR PARTS & SERVICE 7/24 Service: 800.BUY.USNR Ready to prosper Tel.: 360.225.8267 Fax: 360.225.7146 There are signs we are emerging from the global recession, and the Mon. - Fri. 5:00 am - 5:00 pm PDT industry is eagerly poised for a resurgence in demand. While it may www.usnr.com feel like we have been ‘through the mill’, one thing about surviving tough times is that many successful businesses can actually come USNR LOCATIONS out in a stronger position. While we hunker down into survival mode Woodland, WA we begin to look for innovative ways to make headway, or search Headquarters out niche markets we likely didn’t have time to pursue while we were 360.225.8267 busily filling orders during more prosperous times. In this issue we bring you stories of customers whose foresight and Parksville, BC Eugene, OR 250.954.1566 541.485.7127 smart business practices have positioned them to weather difficult times. Their good decisions made prior to and during the crisis have Plessisville, QC Jacksonville, FL afforded them resilience, and as financial pressures ease they’re ready to 819.362.8768 904.354.2301 take advantage of more affluent markets. They’ve put their faith in USNR to help them succeed, and we’ve been pleased to be a partner they can Salmon Arm, BC Painesville, OH 250.832.7116 440.352.9381 trust in both good times, and bad. USNR has made good use of this time as well, investing in our broad portfolio of products. Our offering features products from well-known brand names like Newnes-McGehee, Coe © 2011, U.S. Natural Resources, Inc. Manufacturing, Perceptron, Forano, Log Boss, HEMCO, Irvington- All rights reserved. Moore, Kockums, Schurman and Lunden; all are part of USNR. With POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 1981 Schurman Way, Woodland, WA 98674. several manufacturing plants in the US and Canada, USNR also Canada Post: Return Undeliverable Canadian maintains sales representation in Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Addresses to: USNR c/o Colleen Schonheiter, Japan and Russia. 3550 - 45th Street Southeast, As a global leader, we’re ready to meet your needs with top quality Salmon Arm, BC V1E 4N2 products backed by a strong, talented, and committed team. We’re here for the long haul, and we hope you’ll consider USNR a partner you can count on all the time. Sincerely, Colleen Schonheiter Editor Murray Timber shifts into overdrive MORE EFFICIENT: PUMPING UP THE VOLUME OF OUTPUT It’s been several years since the USNR primary 1 cm, so the mill can run continuous batches of Four years in operation, this breakdown line was installed at Murray Timber, homogenous material with very short gaps between Ballygar, Ireland. The line was installed and pieces. “We presort our logs by diameter or pattern hybrid primary line still gets full commissioned over the latter part of 2006 and into 15-20 sorts depending on length, which are then early 2007. Though completely satisfied with the batched for production runs up to three hours long. marks for performance. “100% performance of the equipment, John Murray, the In these runs we hold a centerpiece pattern and vary company’s production director, determined the the sideboard products to achieve the best fit per satisfied with both the equipment operation would be more efficient if the line was log,” John Murray explained. sped up. With recent tweaks by USNR the line now and level of support.” runs faster and more efficiently than ever. Hybrid processing blend Working with its customers to develop solutions The USNR primary breakdown line is equipped John Murray, Murray Timber to difficult challenges is a benchmark by which with 3D Smart TriCam scanning and MillExpert USNR measures its success. Case in point is this Integrated Processing Line (IPL) optimizer. USNR’s line at Murray Timber. It has been challenging times first pattern-specific optimizer, the IPL (Integrated in Ireland for the wood processing industry with the Processing Line) allows the mill to combine the global recession and raw material shortages. Murray high throughput of pattern processing with the Timber Group (MTG) realized one way to expand increased recovery of sets optimized for each A profiled cant enters the sawbox. the company’s market was to speed up the primary individual log’s 3D shape. line to achieve the economies of scale necessary to The IPL allows the basic sawing pattern to stay broaden its market reach. With a solid investment the same throughout a batch of logs, maintaining already made in the primary end, the next step was to a consistent center cant, but allowing variations contact USNR to accelerate the line. in the widths and thicknesses of the profiled MTG owns two mills in Ireland, the one in Ballygar sideboards, and also allowing sideboards to be and another in County Carlow. It is a full-service symmetrically sacrificed (first outer pairs, and operation with state-of-the-art sawmills, dry kilns, then if necessary inner pairs) as needed to achieve planing and specialty processing facilities. MTG has acceptable finished material. No edger is required. the capacity to process over 900,000m3 of round John Reed, senior account manager with USNR, logs each year and supplies high quality value-added worked with John Murray and his team on this products to the construction, garden, fencing, and project. Reed explains the concept. “The whole line packaging markets in Ireland, and beyond. is 343’ (110 m) long with just one operator. The logs Murray Timber operates at speeds slower than are turned three times on a straight profiling line, North American mills, but is able to achieve to manipulate the size of the piece. Once you have comparable production. The raw material is achieved a 4-sided cant, there is usually a bit of plantation Sitka spruce. At the Ballygar site the fiber missing from the top side once the final turn is top end log diameters range from 4 to 14 inches, made. When the cant is then sawn horizontally into and are precut in the forest to lengths of 8, 10, 12, boards there is only the one top board that needs to 14 and 16 feet. All logs are pre-sorted to within be trimmed, and no edger is required.” ISSUE 2 - 2011 | Millwide INSIDER 3 Turn, turn, and turn again on the way to the canter infeed. That scanned image the splitting saw module that makes the final cut The log line features three cant turners, three is sent to the cant optimizer computer to develop before boards exit to the mill’s second sorter. profiling modules and four scan zones. The scan data the solution. The two-sided cant is then fed into a Andre LaPierre, a senior PLC programmer at images and resulting optimizer solutions are relayed second chipper with a skewing infeed that creates a USNR, was lead controls programmer when the line from station to station successively down the line, four-sided cant. The four-sided cant is scanned and was initially installed. He commented, “It’s one of enabling just one operator to run the entire line from turned again before proceeding to double profilers. the largest log lines USNR has installed to date and logs to boards. (See diagram above.) The profiled cant makes its way to a guided saw is a hybrid design encompassing both European and Logs are initially scanned by 3D Smart TriCam Quad Arbor Saw Box to produce sideboards. The North American processing concepts.” Andre says, sensors then move through a quad roll log turner profiled sideboards exit to a sideboard dispatch table “A challenge with this project was the extremely where they are automatically rotated for optimum and transfer to one of the mill’s two existing sorters. short log gap; it ranges from 1 meter to 2.1 meters. recovery, and down a single length infeed to a The remaining center cant is turned a third time Not all logs can be fed with 1 meter gap because horizontal chipper, creating a two-sided cant. and flows through another profiler, a versa gang also this hybrid design offers the capability to change The two-sided cant is then scanned and turned with guided saws, and an outfeed module. The center the pattern on a single log basis. The larger gap 90 degrees by a ring turner and lands on a rollcase stack continues on with the option of being split at accommodates the time required to change the position of the cutting tools.” Ring turners are used at various stages in the line to rotate the cants 90 degrees. Shifting gears Andre was subsequently assigned to speed up the line which he accomplished in the course of one week in July 2010. He explains the process. “The first step was to use trends and graphs to verify that all the complex components were in good repair and functioning correctly. The ease of this process highlighted the good maintenance practices at this mill. Next, the scales and limits in the feed drives and main PLC were increased to allow for faster speeds. Lastly, I began the process of incrementally speeding up the machine and verifying that all the components remained functioning correctly.