March 2004        Volume 10, Number 3

Hankins Lumber Optimizes Grenada Mill
Mississippi sawmill benefits from Inovec YieldMaster StereoScan^TM3-D system at head rig

By Diane Calabrese

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Inovec technician Avery Herrick visited Hankins Lumber to install the equipment and get the system on line. "He stayed with us three or four days," said Jody. "When he left, we knew how to set the equipment and get results."

Inovec YieldMaster StereoScan optimization system utilizes LMI DynaVisionTM L-4 laser scanners to obtain a complete picture of the contours of the log.

Avery is scheduled to return to Hankins Lumber in early March for another visit, just to answer any questions and help in any way he can, said Jody. Knowing that Inovec stands beside its equipment with that kind of service means a lot, he said.

The Grenada mill requires about 70 truckloads of logs daily. "Our timber is supplied through bid sales, negotiated contracts, and 'gate wood' as well," said Jody. Log procurement is under the supervision of vice president Lee Hankins (Al’s brother) and procurement manager Lowell Gibson. Hankins Lumber contracts for harvesting when it buys standing timber.

"We have the most up-to-date equipment on the market," said Jody. Optimizing technology is used to enhance every step in the lumber manufacturing process. Much of the principal mill equipment was installed in 1999 in a major renovation project, including CAE Newnes machinery.

Logs are debarked on two 30-inch Cambio debarkers before they move to the carriage and head rig for primary breakdown. The CAE Newnes equipment includes a double length infeed system with chip heads and twin band breakdown. A McGehee curve gang saw follows, along with a linear optimizer with robo guides board edger. The material is then routed to a Morris Industrial Corp. trimmer equipped with a Softac optimizer. The lumber goes to a Morris sorter and then to an inline USNR automatic stickplacer stacker or an offline Morris stacker. All production is dried in the company’s three high temp kilns with Wellons controls. (Bark is processed by one of two hogs and used along with sawdust as boiler fuel for the company’s kilns.) After the lumber is dry, it is taken to the planer mill.

Log on the carriage in the process of being scanned by lasers.

A new planer mill was constructed in 1997 with CAE Newnes equipment. The process begins with a CAE Newnes continuous tilt hoist and stick reclaim system. Lumber is then processed through an MDI metal detector and a Coastal planer machine. After exiting the planer, the lumber is graded. The company uses a Lucidyne grade mark reader and a Claussen all mark stamper. (The grading agency for Hankins Lumber is the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau.) The lumber is then sent through a CAE Newnes trimmer and 54-bin J-bar sorting system followed by an inline and offline CAE Newnes stacking system. All transfer decks in the planer mill are supplied with variable frequency drives to make transition and lumber flow more consistent throughout the process. The finished lumber is strapped with an AMCA strapping machine and moved to a storage shed where it awaits shipment to customers as far north as Cincinnati.

One-inch lumber goes to the company’s nearby planer mill in Elliott for finishing, precision end trimming, and to be remanufactured into specialty products, such as tongue and groove.

Grenada, headquarters for Hankins Lumber Co., is a town of about 12,500. It is the seat of Grenada County in north-central Mississippi. Conveniently located along Interstate 55, Grenada is 94 miles southeast of Memphis, Tenn. Elliott, the site of the planer mill, is fewer than five miles southeast of Grenada.

Hankins Lumber Co. has its roots in Hankins Lumber Sales, a company that Burton Hankins and his brother, Bewel, formed in 1950 to truck lumber. A few years later, the brothers bought a planer mill in Winona, and in 1957 they built the planer mill at Elliott. By the early 1960s, they had added a sawmill and dry kilns.

Bewel died in 1971, and Burton continued to provide the leadership for the company, which was incorporated in 1972 as Hankins Lumber Co. Inc. It was under Burton’s leadership that the company constructed the new planer mill in 1997 and the major sawmill renovation in 1999.

Head saw removes a face from a pine log at Hankins Lumber mill.

In early 2001, on a return trip from inspecting head rig and sorting equipment in Texas, Burton suffered an untimely death in Glenwood Springs, Ark. His two sons, Al and Lee, are continuing with Burton’s ideas of operating a state-of-the-art sawmill.

In addition to making the recent upgrades to the sawmill, Hankins Lumber has been adding storage space for finished lumber inventory. During the last two years, new storage sheds totaling more than 63,000 square feet have been built. The expansion of covered space gives Hankins Lumber better control over its inventory.

For all the improvements that Hankins Lumber Co. has made in recent years, there will be more to come-- as solid business strategy demands, said Al. "To remain competitive in this industry, we must continue to improve our operation efficiencies as we did with this Inovec system."

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