August 2003 Volume 9, Number 8
August 2003 Volume 9, Number 8
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Kendrick Forest Products is located in Edgewood, a town in northeast Iowa some 45 miles west of Dubuque, which is near the juncture of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. The company employs about 50 people, which includes loggers and truck drivers.
The Kendrick logging divisions has three Timberjack feller-bunchers: a model 460, a model 240, and a model 360. Logs are hauled to the mill with three Freightliner trucks.
We feel we can serve our customers’ select timber needs better by doing some of the logging ourselves,” said Rhonda. Kendrick owns nearly 1,000 acres of timber land and also buys standing timber within 100 miles of the sawmill. The company also buys about half its logs from independent contractors.
Kendrick Forest Products modernized its mill last fall with the installation of the McDonough slant carriage and bandmill with Inovec StereoScan optimization. This spring it added the TMT edger system with Inovec WaneMaster optimization.
Logs are sorted by species, quality and length when they arrive at the yard. When they are ready to be processed, bark is removed by a Morbark 640 rosser-head debarking machine. The debarker is a 1999 machine that the company purchased in used condition. The Morbark 640 has the standard drive, 100 hp on the cutter head and 50 hp on the hydraulic power pack. However, Kendrick modified the cutter head from the usual spiral tooth design to a rounder, less aggressive, carbide tooth style. “We feel there is less fiber loss now,” said Kevin, “but the debarking performance is just as fast.”
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| Logs pass under Inovec StereoScan bar as they move to the McDonough E series linear positioning tong dog carriage. |
We have found Morbark to be good to deal with, and any parts we need are delivered in a timely fashion,” he added.
A conveyor system carries the debarked logs to the primary breakdown area. The head rig consists of a McDonough 7-foot slant bandmill with a McDonough E series linear positioning tong dog carriage. The bandmill and carriage, which are on a 17-degree slant, replaced a circular head saw and carriage.
The
McDonough bandmill, with 7-foot diameter cast iron wheels, features
air strain and has a belt table take-away conveyor in its throat. It
runs 0.124-inch kerf blades.
The McDonough carriage is a three-knee, 42-inch opening with features such as Brownsville turners, UHMW cant kickers, automatic lubrication system, long-wear polymer flat wheels, and a 100 hp AC vector drive. Dual cables pull the carriage along the track, and an air tensioning system takes up any slack. McDonough also supplied a new track and rail and sawyer’s cab.
Scanning and optimization at the head rig is accomplished by the Inovec StereoScan 3-D scanner with Dynavision L-4 laser-camera heads and the Inovec YieldMaster™ optimization and control system. The Inovec YieldMaster controls the breakdown of each log. As the carriage travels toward the bandmill, the front and top of the log is scanned by a series of laser lines. The laser-camera heads scan the log 60 times per second in order to produce a high density digital profile of the log. The control system then positions the log on the carriage for the best opening face and to saw the most valuable boards and cants. The process is monitored by the sawyer, who looks for grade and timber grain plus defects that could affect lumber recovery.
| the new systems "were installed off-line, so there was little disruption to daily mill operations" |
The squared cants are conveyed to another bandmill, a McDonough 6-foot air strain linebar resaw that saws the cants into boards. The bandmill has a setting linebar with linear positioners.
The boards are transferred to the TMT edger, which is optimized with Inovec scanning, using LMI DynaVision M-6 laser scan heads, and the Inovec WaneMaster control system. The optimized edger produces the highest value board sizes from each flitch, minimizing waste and maximizing profits.
The Inovec WaneMaster control system has a ‘strip save’ feature that allows the mill to make an edging solution for two boards even though the TMT edger has only two saws. It also has a ‘grade override’ feature that allows the operator to override and set the edge wane and grade width parameters. The WaneMaster also has the new VisualPoint™ PLC controls, based on Allen Bradley ControlLogix and RSView programs, to provide comprehensive diagnostics and user-friendly touch-screen graphics.
Kendrick was very satisfied with the installation and performance of the new machinery and Inovec optimization systems. The head rig and Inovec StereoScan and the edger and Inovec WaneMaster were installed off-line, so there was little disruption to daily mill operations. “The mill only lost three days of production during the changeover, and that was due to making the new electrical connections,” said Kevin. (The mill’s electrical work is performed by a contractor, he noted.)
| "There were no [startup] issues to deal with, so we shut down the old line the very next day." |
The company kept the old circle saw head rig running while the new equipment and control systems were installed. “The first day we ran the new head rig-carriage with the Inovec StereoScan system, we also ran the circle saw line, just in case,” said Kevin. “There were no issues to deal with, so we shut down the old line the very next day.”
An Inovec technician was on site, and the installation of the new scanners was trouble-free, Kevin reported.
The TMT edger is a top arbor, two-saw machine with a 4-inch by 36-inch inside opening. “The Kendrick machine is unusual in that the saws are collar mounted directly on to the motor shaft,” explained TMT chief engineer Wayne Guernsey. “Each saw is driven by a 100 hp motor that sets with the saw, using a linear positioner, and is moving on ball bushing roundways. This makes for a very smooth and accurate action.”
The edger is fed by a TMT infeed table. Boards are loaded onto the center feed chain using ‘fetchers’ that pull the board over against cushioning arms at high speed, using linear positioners. Final board positioning on the center chain is controlled by the Inovec scanner and WaneMaster optimization software.
the story continues...
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