2018 International Forest Industries IFI Aug Sept 2018 Digital | Page 28

BioVision adds value,
recovery
USNR’s Optimized Edger System achieved a higher-than-expected increase in log to lumber recovery for Tenon, enabling the mill to better rationalize
certain products and improve efficiencies in its secondary processing operation
Tenon improves
recovery and efficiency
with edger scanning
and optimisation
technology
T
he cost of doing business
seems to always be on the
rise, making it incumbent on
successful businesses to mitigate
those increases with measures
that can improve their bottom line.
Often this means implementing
new technology.
This was the reality for Tenon
at Taupo, New Zealand when
they sourced a new edger line
from USNR. Today their need for
improved recovery and throughput
has been more than satisfied with
their technology choice.
The Taupo operation employs
290 people and comprises a
complete sawmill, dry kilns, planer
mill, and secondary processing
plants. The site processes Prune
Butt logs into appearance grade
products including lumber, solid
lineal mouldings and clear pine
boards.
The majority of the output from
the Taupo plant is exported to the
US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
All products produced are FSC-
certified and graded to exacting
standards to ensure high recoveries
and superior appearance.
Darryl Robinson, Sawmill
Operations Manager for Tenon,
explained their situation: “We buy
26 International Forest Industries | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2018
high value prune logs on the open
market, and realized we needed
to extract more value and recovery
out of those logs.”
“We selected USNR because
we believed the BioVision system
could fulfill our requirements. We
have a great maintenance team
here with a lot of knowledge, and
we’ve had experience with the
USNR team from Eugene, Oregon
(formerly Inovec). We knew they
could deliver on what we wanted.”
The supply
The new edger line is fed by a
headrig carriage and horizontal
resaw. Logs are a mix of sizes
ranging in diameter from 35-950
cm. The supply begins with a radius
back unscrambler feeding a turn/
pass station and lug loader that
is monitored from above utilizing
USNR’s MillTrak system for flow
and backlog control.
The boards pass through the
transverse scanner and on to the
Maximizer positioning infeed
table where they are rapidly fed
into the 5-saw edger sawbox. The
edged boards exit the process via
USNR’s Flying-V Tailer, with tailings
separated to a waste belt below.
MillTrak is a vision-based
lumber flow management system
that optimizes the lumber flow
during processing. It is proven
to out-perform photo eyes and
proximity detection systems, as
it effectively smooths the flow,
straightens skewed boards, and
controls backlog. Besides lug
loader backlog, applications
include cant hook deck sequencing,
adaptive hook timing based on
product width and skew, stacker
We selected USNR because we believed the
BioVision system could fulfill our requirements
Darryl Robinson, Tenon