August 2004        Volume 10, Number 08

RY Timber Adds Optimization at Mills
Company Continues to Improve Stud Mills with INOVEC Optimization Systems

By Diane Calabrese

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The INOVEC StereoScan scanning system uses LMI DynaVision^TM L-4 laser scanners to capture the data required to make a digital picture of the log. As the carriage travels toward the saw, the INOVEC StereoScan 3-D system provides a thorough look at the log. Laser lines projected onto the front and top of the log are viewed from two angles at 60 times per second with CCD cameras. The virtual curtain of laser lines draws across the log and the way they are translated into information can be analogized. Imagine wrapping the log in a thin substance that hardens and can be easily pulled away like a thin cast to reveal every ripple and knob. That is what the digitized picture looks like to the computer software that analyzes it.

The INOVEC YieldMaster head rig and carriage optimizer uses the digital picture and analysis to position the log quickly for maximum recovery. Because the INOVEC StereoScan system works so fast, each sawn face can be scanned and the next position for the log reassessed in real-time without the need to stop the carriage and turn the log in order to decide the next cut.

At the beginning of this year, INOVEC announced that it had installed the 100th StereoScan 3-D Scanning System. The company, which sells its products worldwide, put that system in place at B.Y. Lumber Co. in White Plains, N.Y. INOVEC’s first StereoScan systems were sold in 1999. More than 115 systems are now in place at mills around the world.

Talking with his colleagues at the Townsend Division, Scott said he knows they are seeing improvements in both grade recovery and production speed with the INOVEC system. "It’s increased both," he said. "They’re actually getting a few more logs sawn per minute."

Scott also likes the simplicity of the INOVEC technology. "It’s easy to load," he said. The system runs virtually automatically although the sawyer can override it if he chooses.

Scott said his colleagues at Townsend also have been very pleased with the service provided by INOVEC. "The backup has been good from INOVEC," he said, and INOVEC’s staff has always been readily available to respond to phone calls for assistance.

In fact, INOVEC’s responsiveness and service figured into the decision RY Timber made to stay with INOVEC as it updates the technology at its Livingston division. "They’ve been very helpful," said Scott, describing his interaction with engineers from INOVEC who are visiting the Livingston mill to work on the installation.

As part of the improvements at the Livingston division, a TMT infeed will be added to the existing Schurman cant edger. The edger also will be optimized with the INOVEC CantMaster system.

"Three years ago, we optimized our board edger here with INOVEC-TMT," said Scott. The experience with the TMT optimized board edger at the Townsend mill makes him eager for the TMT optimized infeed to be added to the cant edger at Livingston.

RY Timber’s procurement team buys standing timber and land and contracts with independent loggers for cutting. The company has experienced, professional foresters on its staff who can consult with landowners on forest management decisions, and it has earned a solid reputation for land management and environmental forestry. Depending on the terrain and the landowner, logging methods may involve conventional tractors, skyline equipment or even helicopters. The company also employs a licensed scaler who supervises all log measurements. RY Timber buys ‘gate wood’ from logging contractors, too.

RY Timber obtains logs from a region that includes parts of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. The company prefers logs in 9-foot multiples since they are bucked to 9-foot blocks; it takes logs up to 36 feet long.

Logs are debarked on one of two Cambio debarkers in Townsend and one in Livingston. Then they are bucked on circular cut-off saws with mechanical stops on what is essentially a shop-built chain.

The Livingston division of RY Timber has a Cleaver-Brooks gas-fired kiln with two tracks for kiln-drying lumber in the winter. Lumber normally is air-dried in the warm months.

In addition to its commitment to technology -- like INOVEC -- to improve recovery from wood resources, RY Timber is also committed to its employees. On-going employee training is an important aspect of the company’s operations.

Just as companies like RY Timber have improved their mills in order to recover more usable lumber from the log, INOVEC continues to improve its optimization technology. INOVEC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of InVision Technologies Inc., sees optimization as a tool that is fully realized when it assists an experienced operator of machinery. Depending on the type of optimizing systems installed, INOVEC technology can enable a mill to produce 15%-20% more lumber from the log.

A native of Missoula, Mont., Scott has always enjoyed being close to Yellowstone and having easy access to great places to hunt and fish. He earned a degree in biology at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. During his college years, he began working in sawmills to earn money for school and supplement his football scholarship.

Scott has been with RY Timber since 1996, but he has been working in sawmills since 1971. "I started pulling green chain in Idaho," he said. For his entire career, he has been on the sawmill side of the wood products industry -- he worked a couple of weeks with a logging crew.

"The work was more steady in the mill," said Scott. In Montana and neighboring states, loggers working in the high Rockies are brought to a halt by snow from November until February. Scott decided that mills would provide steadier employment. "It just evolved into a good living," he said.

Joining the wood products industry also gave Scott the opportunity to stay in a region of the nation known for its beautiful landscapes.

Occasionally, Scott gets to make some use of his biology degree at work, identifying species of trees and so on. Being in the wood products industry provides many opportunities to continue learning in new areas, he noted. "Dealing with new technologies," said Scott, is fascinating.

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