March 2005        Volume 11, Number 03

Hardwood Mills Make Gain with INOVEC
INOVEC's New G3 Software Platform Enables Optimized Machine Centers to Communicate

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Installing new equipment in an operational mill must be expeditious in order to minimize disruptions and down time to existing machine centers and manufacturing lines. INOVEC’s staff was cognizant of this and worked diligently to get the new edger optimized and up and running quickly. "They even stayed through the Christmas holiday to get us started up on time," said Ben. Most of the mechanical installation work related to the new TMT edger was performed by C+L Steel in Indianapolis.

Because the INOVEC optimization system could fit into the existing space, it was only a matter of removing the old edger and installing the new one, said Ben. "We used the same infeed decks and everything," he explained. "The only machinery we had to install was the edger and the infeed and outfeed conveyors. It couldn’t have been any simpler."

Hull Forest Products specializes in red oak; about 85% of the incoming logs are red oak and the rest are mixed hardwoods.

Ben Hull of Hull Forest Products; in background is infeed and control station of TMT edger, which is equipped with new INOVEC LineMaster G3 optimization system. Photo by Dollie Harvey.

Ben’s father, William, started Hull Forest Products in Rhode Island in 1965. But the company goes back even further: Ben’s grandfather operated a sawmill in Rhode Island that made oak staves for whiskey barrels.

Hull Forest Products incorporated when it moved to Pomfret Center in northeast Connecticut in 1970. The company also operates a log yard in Russell, Mass.

Ben’s brother, Sam, is one of the owners of New England Timberland Investments (NETI), a large, highly mechanized logging contracting business. Hull Forest Products owns 12,000 acres of timberland and frequently contracts with NETI as well as several other crews for logging services. Hull Forest Products also buys logs that NETI harvests from other lands as well as ‘gate wood’ -- about 30% of its raw material -- from other loggers. In addition to buying standing timber, the company buys logs ranging from 8 feet to 26 feet in length.

The mill has two debarking lines. Small logs go through a Nicholson A1 35-inch debarker and large logs are processed on an HMC rosserhead debarker. All logs also pass through a Rens metal detector.

High grade logs are broken down by a Salem 6-foot bandmill and a Corley 42-inch four knee linear carriage. The head rig for small logs is an HMC circular saw with an HMC AC40 twin-knee carriage.

"Cants go to either a 42-inch Stenner resaw with all PHL PLC controlled run-around or to a Crosby trimmer," explained Ben. "Lumber heads to the edger or directly to a Corley drop saw trimmer." A bridge crane removes lumber from the green chain.

"Our waste systems include a Precision chipper, B+M chip screen and Peerless chip bin," said Ben. Chips are sold to schools and hospitals for wood-fired heating systems. Double-ground mulch is sold to local nurseries and wholesalers. Sawdust is burned to heat the mill and to produce steam for kilns with capacity of 225,000 board feet. Some sawdust is sold to pellet fuel makers. 

Hull Forest Products employs six foresters and belongs to several trade associations, including the Hardwood Manufacturers Association, the National Hardwood Lumberman’s Association and the Society of American Foresters.

The LineMaster G3 was a joint development effort of INOVEC and LMI DynaVision, explained INOVEC president Kerry Wilson. It is designed specifically to fit the limited space available in smaller mills -- in part by allowing an edger to be fed from two sides.

INOVEC had several goals it wanted to achieve in 2004, and it did, explained Kerry. A common solution algorithm for all sawmill equipment was a top priority, he said. "Our goal was to offer one optimization system."

The idea, said Kerry, is to eliminate conflicting optimization solutions from one machine center to the next. If a board has been processed by an optimizing edger, for example, the trimmer optimizer should be able to evaluate the board and reach a solution based on the preceding calculations performed by the edger optimization system.

So far, the INOVEC G3 platform for optimization has been used for edgers and trimmers. It soon will be in use on a head rig, too. Yet, making the INOVEC G3 platform applicable across machines was only one goal. "A second goal was open architecture," said Kerry. That’s important, he explained, so that new sensor technologies can be integrated as they become available.

INOVEC’s third goal in developing the G3 platform was ‘plug and play’ connectivity to the Internet. This enabled the INOVEC G3 architecture to mesh with Web-based technologies, said Kerry, which means it can be accessed remotely via the Internet. A mill manager or executive who is traveling, for example, can link to the system via a laptop computer and Internet connection.

By the end of 2004, more than 125 mills had installed the INOVEC StereoScan 3-D contour scanner. With the G3 optimizing software, mills can add optimization solutions downstream later that will be perfectly compatible because they use the same platform.

the story concludes...

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