Engineering Meeting, Portland Oregon

Peter Nachtwey · Oct 8, 2006

I got this in the mail just incase there are other people in the Portland, OR area that are interested. BTW, the images below are from lumber laser scanners. The dimensions are feed into a computer where the optimal way of cutting is computed and then these position are downloaded to the motion controller so the the logs and saws are properly positioned. Much of the time the positions are in the form of a cam table which is followed as the log travels at about 700 fpm.

From: rod nelson [[email protected]] Sent: Sun 2006-10-01 13:49
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Cc:
Subject: Engineering Meeting.
Attachments:
View As Web Page
OK, summer is over and it is time to get back to work. Well it is time to have a meeting to see if we are going back to work.

So you and anyone you know that has anything to do with the Sawmill Industry or Industrial Controls should attend.

In case we have all become too boring, I have invited our Vancouver neighbor, Jim Milner of Milner Air Car http://milneraircar.com/.

The Broadway Grill and Brewery on 17th and NE Broadway is across the street from our apartment. Lets meet there on Tuesday October 17.

Things start around 5pm and are usually over before 9pm.

Rod Nelson (360)951-2737

What we do at NBE for entertainment.

Jeff Nelson caught sleeping on 4" cant.

Jeff Nelson on 4" cant. Closeup.

12" cant section

Do you think we can load and unload a dishwasher? Just because we can doesn't mean we should. There are more practical things to do besides dishwashers. We have trees to cut here.

kamenges · Oct 9, 2006

Originally posted by Peter Nachtwey:

Much of the time the positions are in the form of a cam table which is followed as the log travels at about 700 fpm.

I have never been in a sawmill so this may seem a naive question. The saws in a sawmill actually slice through material at over 11 feet/sec? That would be pretty cool to see! How quickly do they go through blades?

Keith

Thomas Sullens · Oct 9, 2006

I have never been in a sawmill so this may seem a naive question. The saws in a sawmill actually slice through material at over 11 feet/sec? That would be pretty cool to see! How quickly do they go through blades?

This depends alot on who`s filling the saws. In the 70`s we thought 200 pfm was fast! Look`s like they are running logs faster than the edgers ran before. We changed saws at the end of every shift about 8 to 10 hrs.

The dimensions are fed into a computer where the optimal way of cutting is computed and then these position are downloaded to the motion controller so the the logs and saws are properly positioned.

At least one mill here has an edger that can be programmed for size or price. It`s a hardwood mill. This makes a difference because sometime there is a big difference in price per board and it does this at 800 fpm.
Good pictures Peter!

Peter Nachtwey · Oct 9, 2006

That is why I posted the pictures

kamenges said:
I have never been in a sawmill so this may seem a naive question. The saws in a sawmill actually slice through material at over 11 feet/sec? That would be pretty cool to see! How quickly do they go through blades?

Keith

Here is a video so you can see
ftp://ftp.deltacompsys.com/public/movies/JAN-04 VSS_0001.wmv

kamenges · Oct 9, 2006

Holy Cr@p, Batman!! That thing eats some board.

It is pretty cool how the boards of different dimensions come through and the tools adjust per board. One thing I don't quite get is why the heads float up and down during the operation. Are they working on a warped board and taking the warp out or are they cutting to get the portion of the board without defects? Or is there another reason?

Keith

Peter Nachtwey · Oct 9, 2006

The 'floating' up and down is the chipper heads following the curvature of the wood. No one has figured out how to grow the wood straight yet. The wood is later dried out straight. At least that is the goal. If one tries to cut straight boards out of curved wood the recovery is much less. In the saw mill industry this is called shape sawing or curve sawing. It is these curves, splines or cam tables that are download for each board.

So you can see there are scanners that scan the wood. There are optimizers that figure out the best way to position and cut the wood to get the best dollar value out of it. At the end of all of that is the motion controller that postions wood, saws or chipper heads.

kamenges · Oct 10, 2006

Originally posted by Peter Nachtwey:

If one tries to cut straight boards out of curved wood the recovery is much less. In the saw mill industry this is called shape sawing or curve sawing.

I never would have guessed they did that. I just assumed they ate the waste and moved on. That's pretty cool.

Keith

Engineering Meeting, Portland Oregon

Peter Nachtwey

Member

kamenges

Member

Thomas Sullens

Member

Peter Nachtwey

Member

kamenges

Member

Peter Nachtwey

Member

kamenges

Member

Similar Topics