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February 2007 - The Logging and Sawmilling Journal

SAWMILLING

STUD START-UP

It may not be the most opportune time to be starting up a new sawmill, but Centralia Sawmill is ramping up a new $42 million state-of-the art stud mill, confident it is sufficiently cost effective to withstand the current bumps in the lumber market.

By Jeff Mullins

In an industry that has been hit recently by shutdowns rather than start-ups, Centralia Sawmill Company’s (CSC) new high speed stud mill in southwestern Washington State stands out. While other companies are cutting production due to depressed lumber prices, CSC is ramping up production of its new state-of-the-art optimized high speed stud mill.

At the hub of this new venture is Philip Tedder, CSC’s founder and CEO, a tenured agro-economic forestry professor and forestry consultant, who—along with his son, Wes Tedder—developed supply and demand computer projection models for the forestry industry.

The Comact 72-inch twin band produces a centre cant and, if applicable, sideboards for Centralia’s resaw system.

In addition to projecting the supply of fibre in various regions and the demand for various lumber sizes, their forecasts even included projections of dimensional lumber prices. These predictive calculations became the basis for publications sold to medium to large companies as a tool for planning production and capital changes in their operations. In related efforts, clients hired them to do “capacity studies” to determine where a new mill, or lines, should be constructed.

When their findings strongly indicated a new mill near Centralia, Washington, would work well—and their client declined to act upon the recommendation—they decided to take the bull by the horns and build a mill themselves. CSC now has a brand new sawmill, ramping up to full production projected to be 180 million board feet.

Although the consultants knew there would be an abundance of smaller Douglas fir trees in an area that also lacked production capacity, there were still major hurdles to overcome in building the mill. The challenges included securing a mill site, designing the mill, organizing a company from scratch and, not least of all, raising capital. But they were committed to the project and pressed on.

With an undergraduate degree in business and forest management behind him, Wes returned to Oregon State University and completed an MBA while his father worked on a business plan. Although it’s a story in its own right, suffice it to say that by May 2005, Centralia Sawmill Company was established with 35 investors/owners and the $42 million (US) needed for construction, and start-up had been secured based on a solid business plan.

Pederson Management of Kelowna, BC, a company with experience in developing greenfield mills, was hired as a general contractor to design and construct a mill to process logs averaging 9.5 inches in diameter to produce 2x4 and 2x6 studs in high value eight-, nine and 10-foot lengths. CSC’s developing management team worked together with Pederson to ensure the equipment mix synchronized speed and function to accomplish the desired tasks. Careful attention was given to eliminating any possible bottlenecks in production flow.

A lugged conveyor forwards and flips boards for a Finscan colour optimized grade scanner and application of a grade stamp by a TimberStar grade stamper.

The Port of Centralia, eager to develop its Industrial Centre, expedited permitting processes, provided an access road and a rail spur along with water and sewer service to CSC when they purchased a 41-acre site as the first tenant. The city of Centralia assisted, bringing power to the site. The new company has been able to select its 70 employees from more than 500 job applicants in the economically depressed area.

Ground was broken for the new sawmill in June 2005 and by the summer of 2006 start-up operations were well underway. CSC’s ramped up production schedule has been consistently exceeded, and production rates this past fall were the equivalent of 125 million board feet a year, or about 70 per cent capacity. Wes Tedder, who is now CSC’s business manager, anticipates full production will be attained by the second quarter of 2007.

Douglas fir logs on trucks originating primarily from private and industrial sources—usually within a 25-mile radius of the mill—are unloaded, scaled, sorted and decked at CSC’s yard. Cat 966s or 988s move stems in the log yard and feed the mill. Although the mill was designed to handle four-inch to 22-inch logs, the preferred diameter is seven inches to 12 inches, a size range that garners the greatest productivity from the mill. Large or undersized logs are set aside and sold to other mills.

A Comact log wave feeder directs logs to a high speed Brunette (formerly known as Valone Kone Brunette) Kodiak 622 debarker where a six-foot Comact underarm radial cutoff saw is available to remove any undesirable butt swells or sweeps. CSC’s Comact lineal positioning twin bucking line merchandizes logs according to the highest value length prescription derived by the MPM Engineering lineal scanner. Either side of the twin merchandizer can feed the mill in excess of 60 per cent capacity if one bank of saws goes down for maintenance.

Centralia’s management team worked closely with consultant Pederson Management to ensure the equipment mix synchronized speed and function. Careful attention was given to eliminating any possible bottlenecks in production flow.

Merchandized logs in eight- to 10-foot lengths, plus trim, are segregated on to twin wave feeder conveyors allowing alternate feeding of large and small blocks into the sawmill to maximize production. A second MPM scanner develops the optimized board solutions for each piece.

The Comact optimized lineal infeed and log turner with MPM controls rotates logs and then positions them horizontally as they enter the Comact canter for side profiling before passing them through the Comact Cetec 72-inch twin band for production of a centre cant and, if
applicable, sideboards destined for the mill’s re-saw system. Center cants speed to the USNR vertical shape saw (VSS), with MPM scanning and controls, where profiling chipping heads prepare them for final processing in the 12-bladed VSS. Curvature of the block is taken into account during the optimization process to garner the highest lumber yields.

“The smallest logs shoot through the mill at up to 550 lineal feet per minute, but larger ones move slower yet have greater yields,” Wes explains. “By staggering the larger and smaller logs, we get the greatest productivity from our equipment.”

Sideboards are routed to a horizontal Comact 72-inch single band saw with a go-around re-saw system utilizing an optimized USNR lineal edger. After edging, boards join the outfeed from the VSS and accumulate on a deep pile conveyor before descrambling and proceeding to the Comact 30-bin auto sorter.

Full bins are lowered and transferred by conveyor to a Gillingham-Best variable pan geometry stacker where they are assembled into units. One of two Taylor T300 forklifts stack units in the yard or directly feed the planer line if it is processing the same width boards as the sawmill is producing at the time.

On the planer line, a Comact conveyor transports units to the tilt hoist, deep pile conveyor and then a descrambler. A lug conveyor separates individual boards for the USNR scanner controlling paddle pushers and two Comact trimmers that sequentially trim for nominal and precision lengths.

About 70 per cent of Centralia’s finished product is shipped by rail, with the balance going out on trucks, to as many as 75 different customers.

Exiting trimmers, a speedup table sends individual boards to the four-sided USNR planer for finishing and stain treatment, and then to the slowdown table. A lugged conveyor forwards and flips boards for a Finscan colour optimized grade scanner and application of a grade stamp by a TimberStar grade stamper.

Boards are automatically segregated by grade and length into one of 25 bins by the Comact auto sorter. Full bins of finished lumber are conveyed to a Comact stacker and secured by a Samuel bander before being moved to the yard for transport to one of CSC’s many markets.

About 70 per cent of CSC’s finished product is shipped via rail and the balance goes out on trucks to as many as 75 different customers.

Edgings and end trimmings from the mill’s various processes are collected and transported by either belt or vibrating conveyors to the Acrowood slant disc chipper protected with an infeed metal detector. The chipper’s discharge, along with chips and sawdust from other mill functions, are conveyed to an Acrowood shaker screen where they are separated.

Oversize fragments are recycled to the hog and screenings are sent to appropriate bins for loading on to trucks. Bark is processed into beauty bark by a dedicated Brunette Grizzly Mill hog and stored in a bin for shipment.

Planer shavings are collected separately and transferred to the sawdust bin by a closed blower-vacuum system. CSC’s “no waste” design, along with increases in the price of chips and sawdust during ramp up, is helping offset the presently depressed dimensional lumber market.

CSC is averaging two 40 hour per week shifts with 10 operator positions, five in the sawmill and five in the planer mill.

“As a new mill and company, things have gone extremely well,” says Wes Tedder. “Although there are a few little things that we might have done differently in hindsight, we are happy with our location, the mill layout and equipment choices.”

He adds that there are still a number of major aspects of CSC’s operation scheduled for completion in the coming year. Plans include hard surfacing the log and lumber yards, installing a paper wrapping machine as well as a shavingsfired boiler and kilns capable of drying 75 to 100 per cent of the mill’s annual output.

This page last modified on Saturday, July 21, 2007