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PHASING in TECHNOLOGY Two Southern Mills Go Graderless

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PHASING in TECHNOLOGY Two Southern Mills Go Graderless Millwide INSIDERTHE MAGAZINE FROM USNR | MAY 2009 PHASING IN TECHNOLOGY Two southern mills go graderless BIBLER GOES GREEN Converting to clean, green lumber drying INTRODUCING BIOVISION New product brings vision to the green end Millwide INSIDER MAY 2009 SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel.: 250.833.3028 [email protected] EDITOR Colleen Schonheiter [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Sonia Perrine [email protected] Lean and green. USNR PARTS & SERVICE 7/24 Service: 800.289.8767 These are two of today’s hot ‘buzz’ words. The reality is, if you want Tel.: 360.225.8267 to stay in business in this rapidly changing world, these are two Fax: 360.225.7146 words you’d be wise to keep in mind. In the current context both Mon. - Fri. 5:00 am - 4:30 pm PT words are all about reducing waste, getting more out of available www.usnr.com resources and doing so in ways that are ecologically responsible. NeWNes-MCGEHee PARTS & SERVICE Like you, these words are important to USNR. That is why this issue 7/24 Service: 250.832.8820 is devoted to ways we can help you to be more lean and green. Tel. :250.832.7116 These days, mills need the flexibility to be able to adjust their Fax: 250.833.3032 Mon. - Fri. 5:00 am - 4:30 pm PT products quickly to take advantage of niche markets. Grade www.newnes-mcgehee.com optimization in both the dry and green mills facilitates just this kind of flexibility. It also allows mills to significantly improve their USNR LOCATIONS recovery performance. You’ll read about two mills that made the Woodland, WA Headquarters investment in planer mill optimization early on, and are weathering 360.225.8267 the economic storm positioned for recovery. We also introduce a newly developed product that utilizes a similar concept, allowing Salmon Arm, BC Hot Springs, AR you to edge and trim for grade and value in the sawmill. 250.832.7116 501.262.1010 Lumber drying technology has come a long way. USNR’s Green Plessisville, QC Jacksonville, FL Burner utilizes green sawdust, recently considered waste, as a cost- 819.362.8768 904.354.2301 effective fuel for dry kilns. With its unique afterburner it provides total combustion. It offers the economy of direct-fired dry kilns and the Parksville, BC Eugene, OR 250.954.1566 541.485.7127 clean performance of steam-heated kilns, all in one package. As one recent convert will attest, the cost savings, efficiency and improved lumber quality speak for themselves. And finally, we bring you solutions that will help improve the © 2009, U.S. Natural Resources, Inc. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address efficiency and performance of your existing resources, helping you changes to 558 Robinson Road, Woodland, be more lean and green! WA 98674. Canada Post: Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: USNR c/o Colleen Sincerely, Schonheiter, 3550 - 45th Street Southeast, Colleen Schonheiter Salmon Arm, BC V1E 4N2 Editor In a few short years, automated grading technology has come into the mainstream. Those who invested early on are finding a quick, and significantly profitable upgrade to the latest technology innovations with Jordan Lumber the modular design of the USNR/Newnes-McGehee Phases In Linear High Grader (LHG). Automated Grading Jordan Lumber Company invested in planer mill company’s business philosophy: “Innovative People, Phasing it in optimization early on when the technology was only Customer Driven”. This philosophy has been borne The Jordan team took a phased-in approach to adapt fully developed for geometric optimization. Since out with Jordan’s ongoing investment in high-yield their process and personnel to automated grading. then they have phased in full automated grading into innovations, and its continuous drive to provide top Both mills first installed the base LHG model both their southern pine mills. quality products that fulfill a wide range of consumer (geometric or profile scanning), and adapted their Jordan Lumber was established in 1939 in Mt. applications. The move to grading automation in its processes, trained their personnel and achieved a Gilead, NC, and today remains a family-owned and planer mills was one such innovation that promised quick payback on the investment. Many mills have operated company. In 2004, the company acquired to improve grading efficiency and offered a short- found this phased approach to be an easy way to the former Weyerhaeuser mill at Barnesville, GA. term payback. The Mt. Gilead mill was the first integrate new technology into their processes. While The company also owns two chip mills, Cotton to adapt to the new technology in 2003, with the they are learning to adapt their processes and train Creek Chip Company at Star, NC and Anson Wood Barnesville mill following in 2005. their staff, the machine pays off by extracting the Products at Wadesboro, NC, as well as a secondary According to Robert, the project team followed highest value solution and minimizing the above wood processing operation at Biscoe, NC where a course of thorough analysis of all the available grade that manual grading historically left in packs. they produce finger jointed studs, decking and other technology on the market before deciding to go Recently, the LHG systems at both mills were engineered wood products. with Newnes and the Linear High Grader (LHG). upgraded to bring them to full automated grading Jordan’s company-owned forest land now They were comfortable with the Newnes solution, status with the addition of 4-sided vision. The includes 70,000+ acres. Jordan Lumber takes its in part because of the success of previous capital system at Mt. Gilead incorporated x-ray technology, role as steward of its timberland very seriously, and equipment projects. The mill in NC invested in a which is used in conjunction with vision scanning believes strongly in reforestation as a way to sustain Newnes planer mill system in 1999, and the GA to accurately identify, size and classify knots. X-ray and grow its valuable raw resource. For many years mill has a variety of Newnes equipment including in combination with vision allows the system to Jordan has replanted more trees than it harvests; sawmill trimmer and edger optimizers, McGehee precisely locate the pith down the entire length of more than 1 million trees are planted each year. curve sawing gang system, as well as planer mill the piece. This enables the system to effectively The mills in Mt. Gilead, NC and Barnesville, GA equipment. The Jordan team looked at several other “see inside” each piece where the knots converge. process Southern Yellow Pine for primarily domestic mills operating the LHG technology, and combined This is the only way to be certain that knot faces markets. The mills currently employ over 300 with their prior experience with Newnes equipment, showing visually on both sides of a board, are either people, and produce 250 to 350 mmbf annually. they were convinced the LHG was the best solution a single through knot, or two separate knots that on the market to meet their needs. meet at the pith. The knot displacement in each Improving performance case can vary significantly, and can often mean VP and General Manager Robert Jordan related the the difference between an on-grade or off-grade MAY 2009 | Millwide INSIDER 3 decision. More accurate information enables the The LHG effectively user to control below grade without the lost value “sees inside” the of having above grade in their packs, and to make boards to verify the much more precise and accurate trim and cut-in-two convergence and decisions for increased value. correctly measure The Barnesville LHG system received x-ray the displacement of technology when the system was first installed. That knots. This capability mill produces and markets a percentage of MSR is essential to lumber. When the LHG system is outfitted with x-ray making an accurate in combination with other technologies, it is capable grade determination. of fully integrating MSR evaluation technology within the same scanner frame. This is an optional module that can be added at any time. Better-than-projected return According to Robert, the mills realized 60% of the Mr. Jordan expressed, “I couldn’t be happier packs of finished lumber. Banyon Meredith full potential return with just the first phase (profile with the Newnes team. The start-up crew came has ownership for the electrical and electronic scanning) when they installed the base models. well prepared and worked very well with the mill components of the system. His experience and While it didn’t allow the mills to reduce labor, it did personnel. Start-up was quicker and smoother than troubleshooting skills are invaluable.” significantly improve the consistency of their packs we had estimated, and we achieved performance Devon went on to comment about the grading and the amount of value recovery they achieved. levels faster than expected.” agency representatives that were on site. “SPIB When they upgraded to vision scanning they Key Jordan personnel involved with the projects (Southern Pine Inspection Bureau) representatives were able to reduce their labor, and achieved even were Tom Van Horn (Project Manager) and Parnell were also involved early on in the upgrades, which more uplift in value with higher grades in their Richardson (Quality Control Assistant Manager) really helped expedite the tuning process. Perhaps mix. At production speeds the Mt. Gilead and in NC, and Andy Matthews (Quality Control), the biggest advantage to having them involved Barnesville mills had each employed 5 graders per Stacey Curry (LHG Operator) and Banyon Meredith was that it gave us the opportunity to explain and shift; today they have reduced that to one grader (Electrical Manager) in GA.
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