CASE STUDY
F
rom the handcrafted table where you enjoy a family celebration,
to the wall frames that help build a house that becomes a home,
the natural charm and practicality of timber is all around us. But like so
many things, while we enjoy the beauty of the finished product, the
process of how it was made is unlikely to have crossed your mind.
AKD Softwoods is a 100% Australian owned and operated integrated
forestry and timber processing company. Founded in Colac, Victoria in
1955, the company operates across Australia and has grown to include
six sawmills processing more than 1,000,000m3 of saw log per annum,
over 9000 hectares of Radiata Pine plantations, three preservation
businesses, a softwood chip export operation and multiple log export
locations.
AKD has two plants in the Colac area – a large diameter log line
located 5kms east of Colac at Irrewarra which currently processes
250,000m3 per annum and a small diameter log line in Colac that
cuts approximately 450,000m3 per year which was the focus of the
upgrade project.
With over 350 employees in Colac alone, AKD is one of the largest
employers in the region and plays an active part in supporting
community activities and its employees are a vital part of its past and
future success.
To compete with large domestic and international companies, in 2015
AKD identified an opportunity to upgrade its 25-year-old existing saw
line and make additional facility upgrades to support an increase in
production at the Colac plant.
The installation of a state-of-the-art saw line at its Colac processing
facility was a vital reinvestment so AKD could create a more successful
business moving forward, which in turn preserves jobs in regional
Australia.
The AKD plant in Colac requires a high level of technology and safety
being top priority. The plant processes logs onto an optimisation
conveyer, where the technology builds a 3D model of the log before
rotating it to the best orientation and presenting it to the quad
band mill. This is the primary cut and can produce as many as eight
sideboards now having the ability to reciprocate and pass the log
through the saws twice. The remaining part of the log (the cant) is
then flipped 90 degrees and passed through the secondary part of the
saw line to be cut into rough sawn board products. These boards are
graded, sorted and then kiln dried before the final stage where they
are moulded, planed, resorted and wrapped for final sale.
AKD’s Colac plants have a long and successful history of utilising the
NHP and Rockwell Automation portfolio of products and as they are
highly suited to the process control and safety requirements of the
environment, it made sense to utilise these products in the project
which covered both the primary and secondary cutting machines.
The Allen-Bradley® Guardmaster® 442G Multifunctional Access Box
(MAB) was specified and utilised to provide a unique combination
of guard locking and access control. As an integrated safeguarding
solution, they were ideal for the saw mill environment with a higher
holding force and a means for exiting the safeguarded area in an
emergency. With a choice of operator controls and other flexible
options, they are highly configurable to suit the plant applications.
AKD also required a safety solution to sit on top of EtherNet, drives and
MAB gate interlocks to provide very quick diagnostics when there are
issues, which ultimately leads to greater plant uptime.
The plant is controlled centrally via Rockwell Automations FactoryTalk®
View SE. The program controls and monitors the equipment whilst
also providing advanced diagnostics displayed as contextualised
information on customised dashboards.
Choosing a partner that could ensure a high level of support
throughout the entire process was an important component of AKD’s
selection process.
“Providing proactive support during the project was a natural extension
of our long-standing relationship with AKD, from frequent plant visits
to product selection and drive configuration, our priority was to be
there whenever they needed us,” said NHP’s Automation – Business
Development, Hugh Trewhella.
The upgrade has enabled AKD to increase product throughput while
lifting recovery at the same time. The existing saw line was fixed at
37 metres per minute while the new line is variable and can reach
speed up to 160 metres per minute, putting AKD at the forefront of
speed and recovery in its industry. The advanced saw line recovery has
increased from 54% at best to more than 60%, placing AKD in a world
class competitive position.
“AKD is a very forward-thinking company and has a strong emphasis
around technology and the project has given us the ability to retain our
reputation as a market leader,” Mr. Wicks continued.
Mr Wicks also commented, “with continued development with our
residue and sorting line, we will have the capacity to cut over one million
cubic metres annually.”
Following the successful upgrade, AKD plans to make NHP and
Rockwell Automation technology standard across its wider group
of plants and following recent acquisitions also intends to roll the
technology out to those plants in the coming years.
At NHP, we are proud to partner with another local Australian
company servicing the local and international market creating a
pathway to an innovative and sustainable future.
“I believe they are number one. They offer a very good support base and
they’re world leaders in the software development for their controllers,” said
Brady Wicks, AKD’s Group Electrical Manager.
During the project, NHP and Rockwell Automation supported
AKD with the new drive installation and configuration of special
applications for the cutting machines which have drives up to 600kW
installed.
To meet the project requirements of variable speed throughput and
delivery of the necessary safety levels, Allen-Bradley® PowerFlex®
755 AC Drives were selected. These drives provide ease of use,
application flexibility, and high performance, as well as multiple
control, embedded safety and hardware options. The integrated safety
functions also provide advanced safety on an EtherNet/IP network,
which was essential for AKD.
This installation allows AKD to bring the quad bandsaw and gangsaw
to a standstill in approximately 40 seconds rather than previously
waiting 15 minutes for the heavy flywheels to stop, enabling the saw
doctors quick access to perform their job safely and efficiently.
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