FEATURES

Centralia's ground-breaking ceremony in June of 2005.

USNR optimized transverse edger processes the resawn boards and sideboards into lumber.

USNR full-coverage 3D scanning and optimization system on the dry trimmer.

USNR high-speed planer system.

”USNR has been a great company to work with. I’d work with them again in the future.” - Mark Carter, Chief Operating Officer, Centralia Sawmill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centralia Sawmill; High-Speed Efficiency

The Centralia Sawmill is a new greenfield mill located in the small historic town of Centralia, Washington, about halfway between Seattle and Portland. The high-speed, high-production mill was built to address the abundant supply of mid-size logs in the region. Construction began in June of 2005 and the mill started-up a year later in July of 2006.

Although the mill hasn’t yet hit full production, they are currently processing almost 7,400 blocks in eight hours. That is based on nine foot stud blocks with a nine inch average, which works out to a little over 300,000 feet in an eight hour shift. “We’re shooting for 360,000 feet per shift,” said Mark Carter, Chief Operating Officer at Centralia Sawmill.

The mill has a single primary line feeding two secondary lines, and uses a USNR Vertical Shape Saw (VSS) on one secondary line, and a USNR optimized Edger Maximizer on the other.

The VSS is a relatively new technology designed to transform bucked logs or cants into boards ready for sorting, trimming, and planing all in a single pass. Centralia’s VSS breaks down four and six inch thick center cants.

With the profiling head feature of the VSS, the jacket boards coming out of the VSS are edged and sent directly to the sorting line – not the board edger. This simplifies flow and saves space in Centralia’s mill. Mark said, “We like the machine, it does a good job.”

USNR’s Edger Maximizer system handles the sideboards from the primary line, along with secondary cants and flitches which have been split at the resaw. The Edger optimizer is “working very well” according to Mark. “It was one of those things, we turned it on, kind of tweaked and tuned it for a bit, and it’s been running ever since. The Smart TriCam scanners have been very reliable, and very accurate”.

USNR provides comprehensive product training to help its customers get up to speed on these complex systems. “In my personal background, I come out of some pretty heavily optimized operations, and I think it’s pretty straight forward and actually easy to work with,” said Mark, referring to USNR’s Edger optimizer system. “But Paul Green (USNR Optimization) has made it really easy for us.

Paul conducted a two-day onsite training seminar to help familiarize key personnel with the workings of their specific system. “I had our key planerman, mill foreman, and QC guy in there with him going through the training seminar, which really helped us quite a bit” Mark added. “I’ve been able to get into the optimizer and make changes to our wane allowances, percentages of trim, and dollar tables. It’s very flexible.”

Interestingly enough, the Centralia Sawmill does not run with a trimmer in the sawmill itself. “We trim before we go to the planer” Mark said. “We do all of our rough trim and finish trim before it goes through the planer,” he explained. Centralia’s  trimmer system uses USNR’s full-coverage 3D Smart TriCam scanning and optimization to get the best solution, and “it works very well” according to Mark.

The mill planes its lumber with a USNR planer, including a planer infeed and bridge. The Centralia Sawmill primarily produces green Douglas Fir studs, as well as 2X4's and 2X6's in all lengths of eight, nine and ten feet. The mill also produces some pallet and moulding stock of 1X4 random. They say their product is very uniform due in part to their milling and planning processes.

Mark confirmed, “USNR has been a top notch company for us to deal with. They have stood behind their equipment completely. I’ve dealt with a lot of vendors over my 37 years in the business, and this experience has been very good as far as USNR and their back-up service to us. It’s been stellar.”

Steve Dalby has been representing USNR and its products to the Solid Wood and Engineered Wood industries across Canada for over ten years.

He began his career working with OEMs on fluid power and control systems, and was introduced to this aspect of sawmilling in 1988. Taking a real interest in the industry, Steve has made Wood Products his focus ever since.

Steve graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Systems and Operations Management in 1983. He now lives in the Okanagan in Kelowna, BC.

USNR Pineapple Rolls are are not on the menu in a sushi bar. Instead, they can be found in your planer mill.

Located on the planer infeed table, the spiral design of this high-speed feed roll grabs each board from the infeed chains and pulls it up against the linebar. Boards are then fed down the bridge, into the planer.
Design features: • RW90 chrome provides long-lasting life • Rolls are dynamically balanced and fully machined, not cast		Design options: • Replaceable knurled band • Variable spiral tapers to accommodate specific lumber sizes • Variable knurl sizes to reduce lumber marking and enhance feeding • Fully customizeable; any shaft size, any diameter, any pitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see a video of it operating, click here.

 

NEW PROJECTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

USNR says Thank You to our customers for the new orders. We appreciate your continued loyalty and pledge to continue earning it!