Now in its seventh year, Dust Safety Week’s landing page is the year-round hub for forest products manufacturers – pellet plants, sawmills and pulp and paper operations – to learn best practices and find the latest information to keep their operations and operators safe.

Follow along all week as we will highlight feature stories, columns and research reports both from our archives as well as brand-new stories from contributors across Canada.

Find the landing page here, and stay tuned to our websites and social media (#DustSafetyWeek) for more information as we approach Dust Safety Week 2023!

Thank you to our generous sponsors for making Dust Safety Week possible: Biomass Engineering & Equipment, Fagus GreCon, Rembe, Fike and Nilfisk.

Here’s a snapshot of our takeaways from the featured articles, videos and columns.

1) Past, present and future: Our main coverage this week was from the BC Saw Filers Association annual convention that took place in Kamloops on the weekend. From the sector’s rich history, to current issues afflicting the trade and recruiting future sawfilers, a lot to was covered at the two-day event.

2) Products and technologies: We shared advancements from the convention and trade show, and we are working on videos to showcase in the coming days – hence keep an eye on our landing page here for these video spotlights!

3) Increasing sawmill circular blade life: William Shaffer highlights the benefits of edge prep geometry when applied to the cutting edges of the teeth of wood-cutting circular sawblades. He also introduces us to the edge prep process Engineered Micro-Geometry.

4) Don’t expect, inspect!: This is a phrase that every sawfiler would find useful. Dave Purinton writes about maintaining good control of the variables one can control to help prevent even a few unscheduled saw changes.

5) Saw Filing 101: CFI saw filing columnist Paul Smith writes about one of the biggest breakthroughs in our time for sawmill and lumber production and manufacturing: knives and their applications for chipping. As a bonus, Paul writes a second column where he discusses a world of chaos involving supply chain and other disruptions and advises mills to better have plenty of supplies on-hand and on-order.

CFI’s File Week landing page is a year-round hub for both sawfilers and other stakeholders to learn best practices and find the latest information on advancements in saw filing technology. Find the landing page here, or anytime on our website’s MENU tab, under Explore.

See you next year for File Week 2024!

Thanks again to our generous sponsors: BID Group and Petro-Canada Lubricants.

]]> https://www.woodbusiness.ca/optisaw-2023-cutting-edge-of-saw-milling-tech-and-processes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=optisaw-2023-cutting-edge-of-saw-milling-tech-and-processes Fri, 17 Mar 2023 21:17:33 +0000 https://www.woodbusiness.ca/?p=98758 …]]> The global pandemic, economic crunch, and  inflation have forever altered the already transitioning forest industy. In this ever-changing environment and the pressure to do more with less, what’s a sawmiller to do?

Researchers and innovative manufacturers offered valuable insight into the cutting edge of sawmilling technologies and processes, and shared strategies to optimize production and boost mill’s profits at OptiSaw – the sawmilling optimization and automation forum – in Quebec City on March 17. 

Sawmill of the future

The BID Group opened the event with a peek into the sawmill of the future powered by a combination of cutting-edge technologies and an inspired workforce. The company is leading the way in several areas related to Industry 4.0: IIoT, augmented reality, robotics, artificial intelligence, and designing the next generation of sawmills. 

BID’s Diego Braido dos Santos, David Dubé, and Sylvain Dionne showed the crowd of 50 delegates and exhibitors some of BID’s innovative technologies, including AI and robotics and their individual impact on operations such as monitoring and optimizing process flow in sawmills and planer mills.

Smart eyes: reinforcing scanners with AI

The next presenter, Finnos Oy’s Jyri Smagin walked the audience through the sawmill’s different scanners at various locations, showing how the latest technology enables the scanners to connect with each other via fingerprint technology. Smagin demonstrated how applying AI optimization to the whole raw material flow linked by fingerprint can detect defects, and increase fibre recovery and yield significantly.

Energy transition

Experts agree, the energy transition in the industrial sector must be achieved by 2050. Incentives are available to initiate the transition, offered by energy suppliers or governments, but where can one start a project? Martin Tremblay of IDÉA Contrôle, an internationally recognized energy management equipment manufacturer, shared their efficient and effective tools to simplify the energy transition, which can reduce sawmill emissions and costs.

Jedi, Big Data and IoT

The next speaker, Tim Melburn of Arrow Speed Controls, a self-described Jedi-level asset performance engineer, helped attendees visualize the invisible by showing how to increase productivity with cutting-edge technologies.

Optimizing machine productivity and maintaining a competitive edge can become increasingly difficult in a global economy, but Big Data and IoT technologies offer a wide variety of potential improvements from production efficiency to predicting machine failures to managing employees. 

“Have you ever wondered how to get the most out of your equipment while ensuring they run at optimal performance? Having the right KPIs and a solid preventative maintenance plan will provide incredible cost savings,” Melburn said.

Cutting downtime in halF

The first of two case studies presented at OptiSaw was a planer safety pilot project, given by UBSafe’s Ian Rood. 

UBSafe performed a functional safety system upgrade to a Stetson Ross planer at Conifex Fort St. James in B.C. To utilize the safeguarding system for minor servicing tasks, such as clearing jams, the WorkSafeBC approval process under regulation 10.10 for control system isolation device (CSID) use as an alternative control measure to lockout was triggered. Rood detailed the results of the project – a safe, compliant, efficient system that was measured to reduce jam clearing-related downtime by 50 per cent.

Sawmill simulation

FPInnovations’ Mohammed  Khachan provided an overview of the new software platform OptiTek, including drying and planing simulation, profit evaluation and flow analysis. Khachan said the platform allows stakeholders in the sawmill ecosystem to validate, analyze, and measure the impact on key performance indicators of new technologies and processes. His two-part presentation included an introduction of AI into the simulation process and its interest in estimating the value of stems supply from the forest to the mill.

Optimizing value chain

Maximizing a mill’s efficiency with unique CT technology and the power of prediction and optimization were the focus of the next speaker, Microtec’s Patrick Freeman, who went into thorough detail to describe the Microtec AI platform. Utilizing these tools, along with the innovative SMART Link solution, companies are able to streamline and optimize each stage of your value chain to drive maximum value, said the CTO, who described himself as the ‘chief nerd’ in a room full of nerds. 

Case study on drying

Secovac founder Pierre Gilbert was the final speaker,  and presented the second case study and “the most important presentation of the day,” he joked. Gilbert shared results of the installation of the EchoStop system, Secovac’s latest technological breakthrough in the field of  drying control, at Clermond Hamel’s sawmill in Quebec.

EchoStop was designed to measure wood moisture without contact for continuous kilns. It has optimized the sawmill’s operations, eliminated the down grade caused by overdrying, increased production and reduced the energy required.

USNR looks forward to a long-term relationship with DrekiTek Software Solutions Ltd as it continues the development and support of the DynaStar system. DynaStar customers will continue to receive the excellent support they expect along with ongoing development of the product. Existing software support agreement customers will continue to receive product support through the DrekiTek organization.

Jeffrey Taavettilan-Davis, CEO and founder of DrekiTek Software Solutions Ltd said: “Our team is looking forward to further enhancing the existing software’s functionality and transitioning the DynaStar Software into a fully web-based product. We plan to take this premier software package, now our flagship software product, to new levels while retaining its robust features, functionality, and easy-to-use interface. We will be honouring all existing software support agreements and existing sales contracts with clients, many of which are already excited about the takeover and looking forward to a new and modernized DynaStar.”

USNR is now a referrer of the DynaStar Software Package.

Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 664, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and Woodworking Facilities, restricts the pressure for localized compressed air usage to 30psi and this is only after the surfaces are cleaned as much as practical with vacuum and brushes with minimum dust suspension. However in real life cleanup procedures, mill plant compressed air exceeding 100psi is more likely used. As NFPA is the fire code of Canada, violations to the fire code can cause serious injury and in some cases criminal prosecution.

The main concerns on high pressure blow down for cleanup include:

1. The high-pressure compressed air breaks down the dust particles into smaller particles creating a higher risk of explosion and increased levels of respirable suspended particulates.
2. Dormant dust is not explosive until it has been disturbed, i.e. by the compressed air. The easiest way to create a dust explosion is to use compressed air to suspend combustible dust into a flame/spark. This is exactly what is happening every time compressed air is used to suspend and distribute the fine dust.
3. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) is recognized by the Canadian fire code and limits the accumulation of combustible dust on flat surfaces to 1/8”. This is recognized as the minimum dust depth required for the suspended dust to create a flash fire/explosion. So consider every time someone using compressed air for cleanup, it only takes a spark to create the sequence of events that can led to a catastrophic explosion.

For explosion risk, inspectors reference primary and secondary explosions. For wood shops and wood processing facilities, dormant dust is not a risk until disturbed and suspended. Once a pocket of dust becomes suspended (this could be as small as a handful of dust), The expanding fireball gains enough energy during expansion to dislodge larger quantities of dust, in some cases catastrophic. This is called the secondary explosion and can and has been deadly in wood processing facilities. The question is why would someone knowingly use compressed air to start the sequence of a catastrophic and deadly dust explosion.

The answer is human nature takes the easiest route. When using compressed air, the combustible dust appears to be cleaned as it “disappears.” This could not be future from the truth. All the compressed air has done is relocate dangerous combustible dust to another area. The combustible dust did not leave the building.

Perhaps education on the science of dust explosions would help. The math is easy, if the suspended dust reaches a concentration of 40 grams/cubic metre, it has reached what is called the minimum explosion concentration (MEC). As it is difficult for the lay-person to identify the air-borne concentration, safety professionals and NFPA have determined that 1/8” of dust depth when suspended can reach the MEC. In reality, the 1/8th inch MEC suspended dust concentration is thick enough that you could not see a 25w bulb six feet away or you could not see beams and columns on the opposite side of the facility. All are good examples, however, when doing cleanup activities and to error on the side of safety, it should be considered that any suspended dust cloud can be explosive and certainly exceeds OSHA’s STEL or TWA for respirable suspended particulate.

How do we solve this problem?

The best way to solve this problem is to install a dust extraction hood at every location where combustible dust is liberated under normal operating conditions. This is also a requirement of NFPA. For this solution, dust is captured at the source and does not leak and deposit to unsafe levels. A properly designed and installed dust extraction system can provide dust capture at the source where no dust levels exceed 1/8” between cleanup. It is expected that some dust will leak into the plant air space even with a properly designed and operating system as the complexity of some capture areas, such as a CNC machine, cause multidirectional dust patterns with sometimes complex moving hoods. It should also be noted that some hoods, for example at head pully of a conveyor, capture nearly 100 per cent of the dust.

In the absence of a properly working dust extraction system, manual cleanup will be required. The best method is by vacuum. The vacuumed dust is captured in an explosion protected enclosure and is physically removed the plant, which 100 per cent lowers the MEC and explosion risk. The main issue with vacuums is the accessibility and cost of larger vacuum trucks. Although perfect for the job, the cost can be prohibitive.

The second best manual solution is to install a vacuum system just for combustible dust. For this system, the vacuum receiver is located outside due to explosion risks and metal piping is distributed throughout the building with connections to which vacuum hoses can be attached. These systems can also be cost prohibitive.

The third solution for manual cleanup is the use of explosion proof portable vacuums, which are less costly than vacuum systems, however, they are heavy and difficult to move around the plant.

The most cost-effective temporary manual cleanup system is the use of portable vacuums (shop vacs). The use of portable vacuums can be safe, providing acceptable operating conditions for the hazardous area classification exist. Hazardous area classification follow three main guidelines.

• Zone 20 would be an enclosure where a combustible dust concentration is normal. For example, inside a dust collector. A shop vac could not be used inside these type of enclosures.
• Zone 21 is where combustible dust layers are above 1/8” and can be easily suspended, shop vacs could not be used.
• Zone 22 is where dust layers are normal under 1/8” and no suspension would result in an explosive suspended mixture.

Shop vacs cannot be used in zone 20 or 21. Shop vacs could be used to vacuum zone 22 areas providing the shop vac motor is in an unclassified area and only the hose is brought into the zone 22 area. In the case where a portable shop vac is the chosen solution it is important to recognize that over 50 per cent of ignition sources in wood manufacturing occur from a hot bearing. If the bearings are covered with dust, this is a perfect condition for a flash fire which can be the catalyst for a catastrophic secondary explosion. So if a shop vac vacuum program results in no dust is on the bearings, the risk of a primary/secondary explosion is significantly reduced.

How do we change human nature?

Once an operator has used compressed air for cleanup, it is unlikely they would be amicable to reverting to a push broom and shovel, even when they have been educated that the air hose is a major hazard. Imagine if a cleanup crew did not have any experience or even knew that an air hose was available for cleanup and they were trained to only use brushes, brooms and shovels, the cleanup would be done many times safer than blowdown.

This exact scenario is unfolding in western Canada, where facilities are successfully eliminating, due to the high risk, compressed air blowdowns and replacing it with manual cleanup with vacuums, brooms and shovels. The new hires have never seen blowdown and hence are quite happy doing the cleanup as trained without compressed air. The problem continues to be the false convenience of operator blowdown versus the harder, more effective manual cleanup, hence the new hires and new methodologies. In some cases, manual cleanup programs have been modified where manual cleanup is faster than blowdown. Considering that high-pressure blowdown does nothing to reduce the potential dust concentrations in the plant, we should consider that the new manual cleanup programs are significantly safer and many times more effective removing the dust from the building versus blowdown.

The methodology and examples described in this article are for illustration purposes only. As with any modified safety program, it is advisable to seek the experience of combustible dust specialists to assist and advise what works best for your facility.

John E. Bachynski, P.Eng, is the president of EPM Consulting Ltd.

“The biggest thing is that some of the repairs and projects cannot be done while we are in operation. So now that it is complete, we fire up on May 2. We started turning on equipment last week and running different pieces, and doing test runs, but the plan is to be back on our normal production routine by May 4,” said Reekie.

Despite the shutdown, all workers were on-hand and there were no layoffs. From those taking apart pieces, to welding, to assisting with fire watch and providing expert advice, everyone came together to make this a successful shutdown.

“By being conscientious the rest of the year and watching out for how much we spend for hours and all that, it has allowed us to keep everyone on during this time. Financially, it’s a challenge because we don’t make any lumber through the shutdown, so everything is at a 100 per cent cost, but the maintenance work is absolutely worth it,” emphasized Reekie.

Reekie noted that not only did they take on larger projects that required disassembly, replacing parts, cleanup, putting in new parts and the final assembly, but they also refreshed the mill with a fresh coat of paint.

“We could paint while we are running but guaranteed someone’s going to get their handprint on some railing. So, we take this opportunity to just get everything freshened up, make it look nice, cheerful. It is just a better atmosphere to work in,” Reekie added.

Dan Macmaster, fibre manager at Vaagen Fibre Canada, expressed his enthusiasm at the work undertaken during the shutdown.

“Our workers have done a fantastic job on making sure that every piece of equipment and machinery is in top shape and running smoothly. Not just that, they have even given a face-lift to the mill through a nice paint job,” said Macmaster. “These shutdowns are always such a great way to reboot the mill operations, and I am so proud of the team we have here at the Midway mill.”

Reekie, who has been with the mill for six years, said that while a major reason for the shutdown was maintenance, it also gave the employees a chance to undertake individual projects to improve efficiency.

“We have started following the Lean management style and we have some employees who wanted to do their own projects to make their work centres better, whether it be for improving quality or for better efficiency. We strive to help make our employees’ work lives better,” said Reekie. “We call them experiments. In an experiment, you try something, if it doesn’t work, it wasn’t a failure, but you learned something new and so you try something else.”

During this year’s shutdown, the mill had numerous employees working on their work centres, trying to make improvements.

“There are things they believe they can do to make their work more efficient for them and their coworkers. Taking this opportunity is worth it,” noted Reekie. “The shutdown helps us increase our overall efficiency, and the quality of the way the equipment runs with less wear and tear. This time we’ve spent, will also improve the quality for the workers, because the job will get a little bit easier for them with smoother-running machinery.”

When a sawmill, like those operated by EACOM, is looking to perform maintenance on its planers, conveyors, stackers, log lines, and other equipment, worker safety must be protected by individually isolating all energy sources through the lockout/tagout process. The de facto standard for sawmills has been to individually lock-out and test all energy sources for each process, which can collectively take upwards of several hours. In addition to the lost productivity associated with this time-consuming process, there is also a risk of making mistakes, with a single missed disconnect leaving the possibility of a catastrophic accident.

A new technology class called control system isolation devices (CSIDs) is now disrupting the status quo.

With CSIDs, non-electrical technicians can quickly and safely lock-out entire circuits from a central master unit, with continuous validation of energy isolation from self-monitoring “smart” disconnects.

This technology offers to enhance the safety of maintenance technicians, while also giving hundreds of productive hours that are currently being lost to administering lockout/tagout back to an operation.

CSIDs differ from stop-button, selector switches, or PLCs with control circuits in that they are not intended to merely stop energy, but rather disconnect the main power of equipment or processes with safety-rated electromechanical devices. They are composed of a central lockout device and energy isolating devices for electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic circuits located throughout a plant, allowing for simultaneous isolation and monitoring of an entire system of equipment.

Many Canadian regulators have already given the nod to these technologies, and, in the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is exploring this practice with an open call for feedback from operators and product manufacturers. However, regulations for what constitutes an effective CSID are strict. In WorkSafeBC’s 2019 report “Controlling Hazardous Energy: De-Energization and Lockout,” it is mandated for systems to comply with performance levels for safety as described in ISO 13849-1: Safety-related parts of control systems, and CSA Z460-13: Control of Hazardous Energy. Other bodies also require adherence to standards such as IEC 62061 and 60204 regarding safety of machinery for electronics and design of electrical equipment, amongst other locally relevant standards.

To meet these standards, systems must have components that are control-reliable and safety-rated, utilize hardware rated for millions of cycles without failure, and they must fail-safe in the event of a fault.

Daryl Dominique, CMSE (certified machinery safety expert) and product manager at SafeBox Systems, a vendor of CSIDs, says, “Over the past decade, functional safety standards, regulations, and technology have advanced to the point that CSIDs are now a viable option to improve lockout/tagout. However, while they are a fit for many plants, not all facilities are candidates, and there are many factors that should be considered before taking the plunge.”

Some terms you may come across as you investigate this technology include:

PLe: From ISO 13849-1. Robust safety measures are required for hazards that have severe consequences, occur frequently, and have a high probability of injury should protocols not be followed. For engineered solutions, PLe dictates the highest level of a safety system.

CAT IV Safety: Also from ISO 13849-1, CAT IV system architecture is required for PLe applications. Meeting this level requires continued performance of the safety function in the presence of a fault, detection of faults in time to prevent the loss of the safety function, and that potential accumulation of undetected faults is considered. A system must have independent, self-monitoring safety outputs that operate independently should one fail to avoid any unsafe state. In the event of any discrepancy, the unit will not be able to re-energize before the fault is corrected.

SIL3: IEC 61508’s Safety Integrity Level 3 or SIL3 standard is defined as “freedom from unacceptable risk of harm.” It encompasses the engineered system, in addition to each individual component to validate that a system does not fail to a dangerous state. For a CSID implementation, a SIL3 rating is a necessary condition.

For plants looking to implement and benefit from this technology, there are often pre-start health reviews, internal policies and procedures, employee training changes to be considered, and regulatory approval requirements. As such, it is recommended that a qualified professional be consulted before designing and implementing a system.

Thanks to advances in energy isolation standards and the emergence of CSIDs, plant owners can now enhance the safety of their maintenance teams while reducing downtime of their critical assets.

Marcus Thomson is a business development manager at SafeBox Systems. Reach him at Marcus.Thomson@safeboxsystems.com.

Paul Smith

The most common issue on either side of the argument centres around the sawfilers or other personnel. While a sawmill needs to staff a filing room with full-time, experienced sawfilers, the offsite repair centre can be operated with personnel trained in and responsible for one specific area or job. The majority of sawmills expect full-time circular sawfilers who can and will do everything to a circular saw, from cleaning to placing the ready-to-run saw in the saw box. This includes inspection, replacing tips, levelling/tensioning, proper grinding and, of course, upkeep on filing room equipment. In contrast, offsite repair facilities have departments manned with personnel trained to only perfect one of these jobs at a time, allowing saws to move through the different departments much like an assembly line. The offsite shop may only require one trained filer who can oversee skill-specific employees in each department to make sure the finished saw is within specs and ready to run when received by the mill. 

Some sawmills and repair centres today are equipped with CNC machine centres. This technology can help personnel do their job accurately while meeting the volume of repair needed to maintain the sawmill. However, these machines still need experienced sawfilers to make sure they are maintained and checked for accuracy. Just as spell-check may allow a word to be correctly spelled, but incorrectly used for a sentence, a CNC machine may grind a saw as programmed, but still not be the correct specifications if the wrong program is chosen or the specifications need tweaking. A machine will also not indicate when it is out of tolerance because of mechanics or other programming issues. In my opinion, the saws that meet the requirements of most sawmills today are not attainable without an experienced sawfiler’s attention. 

Deciding what would work best for your mill will take careful planning and important decision making. My thoughts: if you have the personnel to run an in-house filing room – people dedicated to maintaining the tools needed, including new machinery, technology and support for your filing room – then, of course, you should have your own filing room. If it seems almost impossible to keep experienced personnel and you are hesitant to invest in upgrading your filing room, then there is a good chance you need to consider sending your saws out for repair. 

It is becoming increasingly common to see new high-tech mills leave the circular saw filing to professional sawshops. These mills are concentrated on producing lumber without the expense and headache of having an in-house filing room. An efficient, cost-effective, state-of-the-art filing room will need to be utilized whether it is at your location or offsite. Even with saws being repaired offsite, the mill will need experienced personnel for saw changing, guides and knowledge of alignment and machine operations. Great communication is needed between the mill and the offsite filing room, just as with an in-house filing room. Teamwork is essential for success in either situation. 

We have encouraged some of the larger producers with sawmills within driving distance to have a centralized saw shop that takes care of multiple mills. On paper, the set-up is remarkably efficient, leading to significant cost savings. Utilizing one filing room for three or more mills helps with labour cost since one experienced filer can run the centralized shop rather staffing one head filer for each mill. We do have a couple of large companies that have done this for the last few years and they seem to be pleased with the outcome. 

[Editor’s note: Read our profile on Western Forest Products’ centralized filing room in Ladysmith, B.C., that serves six sawmills and a reman centre.]

Whether it’s an in-house filing room, a shared filing room between multiple mills, or an offsite repair shop, we encourage all mills to be as efficient as possible without hurting saw quality. 

Paul Smith is the owner and CEO of Smith Sawmill Service LLC with locations in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Reach him at paul@smithsawmillservice.com.

All week long, we will be sharing cutting-edge content from our archives as well as brand new stories and product news. Our annual File Week landing page is a valuable resource for sawfilers and sawmillers to learn best practices and find the latest information on advancements in saw filing technology.

Keep an eye out for our new saw filing content coming next week, and follow along with us on social media with the hashtag #FileWeek!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CanadianForestIndustries
Twitter: twitter.com/CFIMag

Special thanks to our sponsor, SiCam Systems, for making this week possible.

1. Improving productivity and efficiency: With the annual BC Saw Filers Association convention being cancelled this year due to COVID-19, we decided to host two webinars this week focused on improving productivity and efficiency. The first webinar focused on the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things in the filing room, while the second webinar highlighted how reducing pitch accumulation can improve mill productivity and thereby reduce profit loss associated with the problem.

2. New products: Although the convention didn’t take place, we still rounded up the newest saw filing solutions. Automation and real-time data are common themes: SiCam’s new SawTrack System provides real-time predictive intelligence to sawfilers and quality control personne, while Williams & White’s Hammerhead 3000 Band Saw Auto-bench automatically levels and tension band saws, and three new packages for BGR Saws’ LK-Pro automatic circular tip brazing machine. Several other companies have also updated their technology.

3. Training for sawfilers by sawfilers: CFI columnist and Canfor sawfiler Josh Penner shares his tips and tricks for training new filers, while Simonds International gives some insights into their new training facility and curriculum. Former sawfiler Jaqualynn Gray also emphasizes how training can help create inclusive and gender diverse filing rooms.

4. Machinery deep dives: Vito Vallese, with Promac Group, gives readers an in-depth look at the development and benefits of arbor splines, as well as some advice to help filers avoid confusion when ordering splines. Meanwhile, Supersaul Chemmex shares five things to consider when it comes to saw and guide lubrication: user friendliness, environmental impact, performance increases, cost and convenience.

5. Great expectations: Paul Smith, president of Smith Sawmill Service LLC, discusses a new filing challenge: today’s circular saw expectations are high. In this Saw Filing 101 column, he shares how his company has dealt with the issues of teeth coming out and shoulders breaking.

CFI’s File Week landing page is a hub where sawfilers and other stakeholders can find best practices and the latest information on new saw filing technology all year long. Find it in the MENU tab, under Explore.

Find the landing page here, and see you next year for File Week 2021!

• User friendliness
• Environmental impact
• Performance increases
• Cost
• Convenience

Below are some thoughts on saw guide lubrication. The following opinions are based on our extensive research and development, manufacturing and practical application of saw guide lube over the last 30 years.

With saw and guide lube there always seems to be two popular discussions:

1. The use of tackifiers
2. Water soluble versus water insoluble lubrication

Part 1

Tackifiers have many applications in our world from adhesives for tape to adhering ingredients together during the manufacturing of tires or adhering lubricant to itself to prevent misting in the air during industrial processes. Tackifiers are designed to prevent the flow of liquids.

Lubricant tackifier history

Increasing lubricant viscosity is a way of preventing two surfaces under increased load from touching.

Before the 1920s, base oils of various kinds (mineral, plant and animal oils) were sufficient to lubricate machinery. Tackifiers got their start in lubricants somewhere in the late 1920s or early 1930s as a grease additive to hold lube in place. At the time, it was a breakthrough and a solution. In applications that do not require quick heat transfer, tackifiers are a great addition.

Lubricant tackifiers are very long chain polymers that are soluble in oil. Tackifiers were introduced as a way to increase viscosity under load (cohesion) as well as keep the lubricant attached to the wear surfaces (adhesion). A tackifier helps keep the grease in place and prevents it from running out. But when tackifiers are exposed to high shear environments, they break down.

Lubricant tackifiers still see use in the modern age in greases, open chain, open gear and bar oils. But how are they used in saw and guide applications?

Tackifiers in saw and guide applications

Tackifiers’ adhesion and cohesion characteristics keep oil where you want it, which can be beneficial in the right applications. A tackifier’s cohesion properties prevents lubricant from flowing quickly and under high-speed, tight tolerance situations – such as in modern saw guide clearances – this can also create friction, which creates heat.

Tackifiers’ natural tendency to keep an oil in place also results in a thicker oil film. There is a flip side to this, though. A thicker oil film creates slower heat transfer. In a saw guide application, a thick oil film acts as an insulator. Saw filers know all too well that saws require quick heat transfer and do not tolerate much heat buildup. Quality lubrication does not require high volumes when the right lubricant is selected. The right lubricant will lower friction with a minimal oil layer.

Considerations for selecting lubricant

Some mills use the same lubricant for chain oil as they do for the saw

box. Tackifiers’ adhesion and cohesion attributes in practical use allow contaminates to attract and not be released from the lubricating oil. This can promote extra wear by holding contaminants in the lubrication area, which is ideal in applications that are lubricated from the inside towards the outside. For example, greasing a bushing.

In applications that are lubricated from the outside in, tackifiers can help draw more contaminates inside.

An example of this is lubricating a roller chain

Another thing to keep in mind is that the addition of tackifiers in a lubricant usually results in poorer cold weather flowability. Tackifiers are designed to prevent flow.

Ultimately, tackifiers have their place in the lubrication industry. However, in high speed/ sliding, close tolerance and or highly-contaminated areas such as saw guides, there are other options available to consider for improving your performance.

Part 2: Water soluble lubrication

Having a low shear strength and molecular thick film at the precise point of contact between two surfaces can reduce friction.

Unlike tackifiers used in saw and guide applications, which are simple polymers repeated many times (100,000 – 200,000 chain links long), water soluble lubrication has very complex chemistry. It requires forcing liquids that do not naturally want to mix to mix (immiscible liquids). This solution is known as an emulsion.

Water soluble lubrication is common in the metal-working industry and has been discussed as a potential way of lubricating saws and guides for decades. Fun fact: this chemistry is not just popular in metal-working lubrication, but various cosmetics and moisturizing creams also use it.

In the forest industry you may already be familiar with various emulsions in your workplace, from your mill’s machine shop to press release lubricants in panel plants, as well as wax coatings applied to LVL and on the ends of high-spec lumber products.

With water soluble lubricants, there are two basic routes.

Oil in water and water in oil.

• Oil in water works by encapsulating tiny droplets of oil in a surfactant that then float suspended within water.
• Water in oil works by encapsulating water, which is held in suspension in oil or solvent. (This is intentional water in oil – not to be confused with water contamination of conventional oil.)

Oil in water can be broken down into three more generalized variations:

Emulsions (soluble oils) – These are cloudy in appearance, as suspended droplets are big enough to refract light. These are unstable mixtures that can easily separate.

Micro-emulsions (semi-synthetics) – These are clear in appearance and are very stable mixtures that contain less oil than emulsions.

Micelles (synthetics) – These don’t use oil and instead use surfactants as the lubricant.

Important considerations for your saws and guides:

Water soluble lubrication is characterized by high cooling, low lubrication. This type of lubrication utilizes boundary lubrication principles. Water does the cooling and the oil (or surfactant) in suspension does the lubrication.

Boundary lubrication requires the surfaces to touch and then reduces the friction and wear at point of contact. This does not prevent wear. In fact, conventional boundary lubrication school of thought fully expects there will be surface-to-surface wear. Most components for boundary lubrication are designed to function in extreme pressures and or slow-moving environments.

Wear happens when deviations in the surfaces hit each other. When this happens, pieces can break off or adhere to the other wear surface.

In lubricating oil chemistry, boundary lubrication is your last defense before complete contact between surfaces. In water soluble lubrication, boundary lubrication is generally your main defense against wear.

Boundary lubrication additives work by interacting with the metal surfaces. Most of these components have been developed with ferrous metal in mind, like steel and cast iron. When it comes to saws and guides, you have a ferrous metal and non-ferrous metal interacting (such as a steel saw plate and babbitt guide).

In industry, due to the nature of the additives in water soluble lubrication, they are generally used in closed lubrication systems. In a once-through system, like saws and guides, every litre of water needs this lubricant mixed in the water, whether it contacts wear surfaces or not.

From a disposal point of view these types of lubricants pose extra challenges, which can be especially difficult with micro-emulsions because they are very stable. If released into the environment, the emulsion can be carried into any place that water can travel or absorb into. This includes all the additives in the lubricant, such as rust inhibitors, biocides and lubrication additives.

Conclusion

Water soluble lubrication and the use of tackifiers have their merits and uses in industry. However, for saw and guide applications are they really the right choice? It is okay to question old ideas on lubrication when the demands placed on your saws are ever progressing. The above conclusions are a result of our extensive research, development, manufacturing and practical application of saw guide lubricant over the last 30 years.

The article is part of our 2020 #FileWeek coverage. Read more here.

In 2016, approximately one third of the workers in manufacturing in the U.S. were reported as female. With this many women in the manufacturing industry as a whole, the absence of females in maintenance and precision-oriented positions, such as saw filing, is astounding. If we, in the lumber industry, focus on being inclusive, have set training programs, and become more transparent about what the job entails, we can change this. Actively recruiting female employees to the sawfiler and maintenance shops will open doors that, perhaps, they haven’t thought about before. Small changes made by companies and mills now can lead to a big change in the tide of young workers of all genders.

A simple change that should happen, and can happen quickly, is making saw filing more inclusive of women. In my case, being a female sawfiler was a bit of a novelty, and I found the mill was lacking the basic need of a female bathroom. Designating bathrooms for each gender and ensuring they are all kept clean is a small and cost-effective change that can be made quickly and easily. This ensures your employees feel cared for and shows women that they have a place in the industry.

Designated breakrooms for filers that are separate from their workspace is another way to make sure that your people, both old and new, feel respected. Putting effort into a clean, well-kept, and thought-out break area will attract and keep employees. Employees feel more valued when the areas they need for basic daily personal tasks are provided.

Structured training programs that begin from Day 1 on the job can help set firm expectations and show new employees their paths for promotion. Building a program that encourages new skills and is a constant evolution of previous skills can make a world of difference for the young employees.

Cross training within the mill can also be a benefit by allowing employees, who may not have considered other career paths, to see if another job there better suits them. This can also allow supervisors to give new and young employees a chance to explore different trades within the mill and give them goals to work towards.

Industry gatherings, such as trade shows and mill tours, are also an invaluable tool for sharing knowledge. These types of get-togethers also create a sense of community that promotes loyalty and encourages problem solving as a team.

An additional way to create interest and recruit young employees of all genders is to create exposure and transparency with the job. Many young people do not know what saw filing is or what the job entails. Partnering with local trade schools for internships can expand the field of higher qualified applicants. Bringing sawfiling trade schools back and bringing technology into our shops will spark excitement.

Filing rooms often find a product or equipment they prefer and never evolve past it. But setting that habit aside and embracing new technology can make all the difference. Not only will using current technology ensure females feel confident they can do the task, but it will also reduce injuries for all workers by reducing back and strain injuries. New technology in the file rooms will promote productivity and unique skill sets for the next generation.

In conclusion, creating inclusive workspaces, building solid training programs, and creating transparency in the job will bring in the newer generation of saw filers. Embracing the changes of today’s world and building new resources for our workforce will benefit filers, young and old. Providing education, expounding on skills, and building a solid foundation for a long career are key elements to welcoming in a new age.

The article is part of our 2020 #FileWeek coverage. Read more here.

Jaqualynn Gray is an EHS supervisor at West Fraser’s lumber mill in Augusta, Ga. Previously, she was a sawfiler and relief operator in the sawmill.

Frost-notches have been used to keep winter saws from snaking in the cut for as long as mills have been trying to make saws work in cold weather. Strangely enough, the core problem with cutting frozen wood is the build-up of heat. Typically, a sawyer will slow down the feed on a frozen log to keep from stalling the rig. In doing so, the saw takes a much smaller tooth bite, which creates a flour-like dust instead of the usual granular chips. The fine dust does not carry heat away from the saw-tip in the way that larger chips do. It also tends to spill out the sides of the gullets and freeze back onto the log, creating friction and degrading saw performance.

To combat this, filers discovered a long time ago that if you gouged a groove in your grinding wheel, the saws would perform better. Since then, there have been minor improvements and modifications, but effectively nothing much has changed.

A frost-notch functions by changing the flow of sawdust through the gullet of the tooth. It reverses the direction of the sawdust as it hits the notch, causing the gullet to fill and empty in a different way. You can see this in action for yourself if you watch a headsaw as a log is cut. A summer saw will typically eject the sawdust from the bottom of the cut at an angle while a notched saw will tend to shoot it straight down.

Left to right, grinding wheel and cutting disc glued together; notch cut between wheels; finished frost-notch.

The original method of scratching out a groove with a nail is still used and you will find many who swear by it. Since a slot cut this way can be sloppy, some filers use a cutting disc by itself to individually shape the point in the gullet. Far more common is the practice of taking a grinding wheel and putting it together with a cutting disc, usually with a paper blotter in between to create the space that, in turn, creates the notch. Special large blotters are available specifically for this purpose.

This works very well, but there are problems you might encounter such as the cutting wheel breaking when it is bent the wrong way by the wheel dresser. The other common problem is that, because there is some flexibility between the two wheels, the front notch can become long and skinny, which then gets in the way of the swage-die, causing an inconsistent tooth size.

In my opinion, a better way of running a two-wheel system is to remove the blotter entirely and glue the wheels together and cut between them with a lathe-chisel. The advantage to this is a well-defined frost-notch and wheels that will not break apart easily. To glue the wheels together, run a small track of clear silicone in a spiral from the centre hole to the outside edge, spacing each bead about every 1/2 inch. Use a press made from ready-rod and a couple of steel plates to apply pressure while they dry. Be sure to check that the edges are lined up and that the centre hole does not overlap anywhere – this is very important. No matter which way you put the wheels together, make sure the overall width matches the summer wheel as closely as possible to preserve your tooth profile.

Another common problem with sawing logs in the winter is sawdust freezing to the sides of the boards. This happens more often with whitewood species and will cause deviation. An effective solution is to “chisel” the saw gullets. The filer will take a sturdy metal chisel and place it right at the bottom of the frost-notch where it meets the throat of the tooth. The idea is to strike hard enough to cause a flair that is smaller than the saw kerf, but large enough to scrape the frozen sawdust from the boards. This is not a fun job and is best suited for apprentices as a character building exercise.

Love them or hate them, you are probably going to be notching your saws for the rest of your career – you might as well try a few things and pick a method that works for you.

Trevor Shpeley is a former executive of the BC Saw Filers Association and works as a filer at Kalesnikoff Lumber in British Columbia.

Send us your proposal to present at OptiSaw 2020.

OptiSaw is a one-day education forum focused on the future of sawmilling. Speakers share the latest on cutting-edge technology advancements, and outline challenges and opportunities to help mills save money now.

Taking place in two locations in 2020 – Quebec City on April 22 and Kelowna, B.C., on June 4 – OptiSaw is a time-effective and affordable learning and networking opportunity for those driving the future of sawmilling operations. Registration is strictly limited to sawmill management and owners, process engineers, continual improvement managers, optimization staff, researchers and design consultants.

Presentations will be accepted in the following categories:

• Artificial intelligence advancements
• Robotic systems
• Mass timber technology
• Kiln drying
• Big data and IoT
• Modular technology
• Safety sensors
• Continuous improvement for existing equipment

Presentations that offer an in-depth case study with participation from the sawmill staff involved will be well received.

Note: Only presentations that have educational value for the audience will be considered. This is not a sales pitch.

Send your brief presentation proposal to Canadian Forest Industries editor Maria Church (mchurch@annexbusinessmedia.com) by December 15.

Proposals should be 100-200 words and include all of the following:

• An explanation of the presentation topic
• How the topic will educate and be of value to OptiSaw’s audience
• Who will be presenting
• Whether the presentation will be (ideally) 30 or 45 minutes
• A suggested presentation title

For more information on the events, including location details and a first ever facility tour, visit www.optisaw.com.

But, what if we were to introduce you to cutting-edge technologies that can help sawmills significantly reduce their maintenance costs when they are operational and thereby cushion the effects of downtime?

One of those technologies is predictive maintenance (PdM). PdM is a technique that allows equipment users to monitor the in-service condition of an asset with a view to predicting any future machine failure before it happens. This is a proactive strategy that prompts maintenance intervention beforehand rather than the more traditional systems of time-based or calendar-based routine preventive maintenance.

Here’s a brief look at the fundamental elements that make up a PdM setup:

1) Condition-based monitoring: Critical assets are identified and fitted with sensors that gather data about the running condition of each equipment. The sensors monitor parameters like vibration, temperature, noise, pressure, electrical current, oil/wear particles, and more. Further analysis of the data generated allows real-time evaluation of the asset’s efficiency and wear.

Note that it is unnecessary to include all machines in PdM. Instead, the focus is on assets that:

• are critical to the production process
• will cause downtime if they reach failure
• are very expensive to repair or replace

The most common types of equipment that are placed on condition-monitoring include rotating equipment, heat generating machines, gearboxes, and electrical components.

2) The Internet of Things (IoT): As the sensors on each equipment gather data, IoT technology allows these assets to exchange information with other connected assets and present the information in a manner that designated technicians can understand.

This information exchange is a major factor that sets predictive maintenance apart from other maintenance strategies.

3) Predictive formulas: Sensor data is collected and compared with pre-established rules about ideal machine behaviour to identify any deviations in the machine’s operation. Predictive algorithms can then estimate when failure will likely occur.

4) CMMS integration: While using predictive maintenance will boost an organization’s maintenance drive, combining it with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) delivers a more powerful and centralized system for overall maintenance management.

Among other things, a CMMS will help automate key activities like:

• generating PdM alerts, notifications, and work orders;
• generating records and reports;
• staff training for faster implementation of PdM practices;
• resource monitoring and allocation;
• safety audits and monitoring; and
• planning and scheduling predictive maintenance work.

Sawmill benefits

PdM deployment cuts across almost every industry these days. For sawmills specifically, owners face unique challenges that vary from issues like managing expensive and complex equipment to ensuring operators’ safety. With this in mind, sawmill owners can expect to gain the following benefits from adopting predictive maintenance:

1) Reduce downtime: Predictive maintenance technology protects against unexpected and costly machine breakdown by design, rather than by chance. It’s a simple and straightforward process and, for better illustration, let’s look at an example of how we can monitor wood processing vehicles.

A typical sawmill has loaders, shredders, and material handlers in its fleet and each of these vehicles is assigned to a particular operational site with set deliverables. As expected, if any of these assets breaks down, it could delay production.

But, by installing sensors to monitor heat, noise, vibration, etc., in the transmission, hydraulic pumps, engine, turbo chargers, and rotating parts, operators can receive information about any component that is exceeding its defined threshold. Technicians can then be alerted to perform the required maintenance.

2) Reduce maintenance costs: Back in the ’40s, a British scientist noticed an anomaly: machines that were working perfectly would begin to breakdown more often after routine inspection and servicing. His findings showed that opening up equipment or “interfering” with it for routine servicing increased the chances of a malfunction.

Added to the cost of these service-related breakdowns is the unnecessary waste of replaced spare parts, time, and other associated resources. This has been an on-going problem, but predictive maintenance is changing that narrative.

Instead of tinkering with otherwise functional equipment, sawmills can proactively set up a PdM system and reduce the need for human intervention in the first place. Another long-term benefit is that timely repairs eventually increase the service life of parts through a notable reduction in frequency of repairs and severity of machine damage. It also prevents the multiplication of defects and improves machinery condition overall.

A well planned and executed predictive maintenance project should improve a sawmill’s bottom line by reducing long-term maintenance costs and avoiding costly unplanned maintenance. The benefits are more obvious where the assets in question have to be shut down for significant periods of time before repairs can happen.

3) Better maintenance planning: For busy sawmill maintenance managers, what could be better than systematically taking the guesswork out of planning and scheduling work activities for technicians? With PdM, managers simply assign work well ahead of potential problems based on the information generated from asset condition data.

Predictive maintenance, ideally combined with CMMS, will improve maintenance planning in the following ways:

• Efficient workforce management: PdM helps address the problem of lost work time and underutilized staff. Especially for large sawmills operating in different locations, automating workflow and assigning staff based on required repairs rather than excessive repairs or emergencies will free them to focus on other essential projects.
• Better inventory management: The ability to pre-determine defective parts needed long before a machine fails leads to better inventory management and a significant reduction in required spare parts stock levels.
• Manage repair time: Because predictive maintenance makes it easier to narrow down when a failure could occur, it can reduce the actual time needed for repairs or servicing. Repairs can also be scheduled to a more convenient or cost-effective period.

4) Increased plant safety: There are several safety concerns for sawmills, but two in particular are critical: fire hazards and machine operator safety.

Due to the nature of their operations, sawmills are vulnerable to fire outbreaks. Wood dust and chippings are present while heated machines and engines are working at full speed. Several incidents in Canadian sawmills over the years show that this is a considerable risk.

Monitoring and maintaining fire safety equipment manually can hide unseen loopholes, especially with sites spanning across multiple locations. Fortunately, there are specific PdM sensors designed for fire prevention. These include flame detectors, fire and smoke sensors, and even cloud-based fire detection systems that are remotely monitored. These devices can be installed to monitor areas of the sawmill that are most prone to fire.

It may not yet be possible to completely eliminate human error, fatigue, carelessness, and other factors that cause accidents, but advance warnings of machine and system failures help reduce the risk of machine malfunctions and, by implication, the frequency of personal injury or fatality. In Europe, more insurance companies are now better inclined to support plants that have a condition-based PdM program to mitigate fire losses.

Downtime is now an unpleasant reality for Canadian sawmills. Condition-based predictive maintenance helps to offset the inevitable losses for every time a sawmill is down. From all indications, this is an effective approach for maintenance management in this industry.

Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS, www.limblecmms.com. Limble is a modern, easy to use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.

Cheap systems using outdated chain-in-a-box conveyors often end up becoming production bottlenecks because they can’t handle the capacity, break down or otherwise need unplanned maintenance.

Systems that handle woody biomass deserve more attention. Woody material is harsh on conveyor systems. Understanding how it affects conveyors and which conveyors design optimally handle it will go a long way to ensure your operation succeeds.

Challenge 1: acid corrosion
Wood naturally contains several acids, the largest volumes of which are formic and acetic acids. Once released from the wood, the acids react with the metal to form rust. Acetic acid is especially aggressive and can cause corrosion at only 0.5ppm in the air.

Acid will corrode metal wherever it comes in contact with: the top and side panels, the paddles (if metal) and the chain. Of these components, the chain is most vulnerable and the attack is somewhat invisible. Acids attack the chain pins and bushing, reducing their diameter until they fail under load. Interestingly, the pins end up being the fail point of most chains that handle woody material, even though the chain side bars are technically the weakest point.

Wood’s corrosiveness varies widely due to conditions and the nature of the wood. Species of wood differ in acidity. Some woods, like fir, tend to be only slightly acidic. Others like oak and Western Red Cedar, have low pH levels, typically between three and four. Soil conditions in individual geographic locals affect pH, too. How and whether wood has been treated also affect acidity.

Challenge 2: moisture
Moisture is the No. 1 enemy of conveyors. External sources of moisture such as rain and humidity attack conveyors from the outside while internal sources from the wood attack from the inside.

Different woods have varying levels of moisture. Green wood has a higher moisture content than dried wood. Wood that has been soaked in rain or barged down river will also have a higher moisture content. This moisture, like acid, will corrode the chain’s pins and bushings. As rust forms in these components, it further erodes them as an abrasive, compounding the damage.

The higher the ambient temperature, the higher the rate of corrosion as more energy is available to speed the reaction. Hot wood like fresh pellets is therefore especially corrosive. Conveyors made of mild steel will not last long handling hot, woody material.

Solution: big pins, move chains
To address corrosion, especially in high-volume applications, you’ll want to look for chains with oversized pins. Chains with pins like these aren’t common, so you will have to order from the conveyor’s manufacturer. But they will last longer than standard chains, making them worth the cost.

Also – perhaps more importantly – look for conveyors with chains than run outside the material path. Traditional drag conveyors run their chains along the bottom panel and through the material. This is problematic for a number of reasons, the least of which is it exposes the chain on all sides to the corrosive effects of acid and moisture.

Solution: conveyor finish
In dealing with corrosion, you should also consider the conveyor’s finish. While painted steel is the cheapest solution, it’s also the least effective at protecting the conveyor. The bond strength of paint is approximately 600 psi, so it will chip and peel fairly easily. Paint inside the conveyor will not last long.

Powder coat is a better finishing option. It costs more than paint, but its bond strength is higher, and it will more evenly coat the conveyor surface, providing better protection. Galvanized steel is an even better choice. The zinc layer will chemically protect the steel underneath from rusting, even if the coating is scratched. It is also far stronger than powder coat; its bond strength is about 3,600 psi. Galvanized finishes will not deteriorate from weather (lightning strikes and catastrophes excluded), and they’re less reactive than paint. For applications where the wood has been exposed to sea salt, galvanized finishes become necessary. Salt acts as a catalyst in the reaction between water, air and steel, speeding corrosion.

For high-temperature applications, such as handling fresh wood pellets, stainless steel becomes the only economic choice. You are essentially throwing out your money if you purchase a mild steel conveyor for such applications.

Challenge and solution 3: friction and wear
Woody biomass not only damages conveyors with acids and moisture but also with abrasion. This one isn’t hard to figure out: woody material isn’t soft. It scratches. It packs together and wedges.

To deal with abrasion, again look for a solution where the chains don’t run through the material. Also, opt for a twin-chain conveyor instead of a single-chain solution. In a single-chain conveyor, the material will pack either on the left or right chain flight as it enters the conveyor. As it does this, it will tweak the chain, damaging it and reducing overall operational efficiency. With a twin-chain conveyor, this can’t occur; the paddles are held on either side so they cannot twist and the chains run in troughs that don’t allow them much movement (if the conveyor is so designed).

As for the wear on the bottom panels, you can opt for abrasion-resistant steel plating to increase the life of the panels. More importantly, look for conveyors with paddles and chains that don’t drag along the bottom panels. (The drag in your drag conveyor shouldn’t refer to internal components.) More so than wood abrasion, chains and paddles that run along the conveyor floor will quickly wear through the panels. Not only is this wear a problem, but when the chains and paddles drag along internal steel surfaces, the resulting friction also decreases the conveyor’s efficiency. This means you will spend more money powering the conveyor to overcome its internal friction rather than moving material.

Twin-chain conveyors are best able to get the paddles and chains off the bottom panels. Chains can be placed in their own paths, and the panels they hold can be designed with tolerances that don’t allow the chains to scrape the panels. Getting the chains out of the path of the material also lessens the volume of material that will come between the rollers and the sprockets. If foreign material interferes in the engagement of the chains and the sprockets, the roller can be damaged.

I recently had a conversation with an engineer whose client had to replace the bottom panels in their conveyors every six months. This client was using a traditional drag conveyor with the chain and paddles running along the floor. The result was a system with a high operating expense. But this does not have to be you. A well-designed conveyor will help ensure you do not face the headaches that come with a poorly implemented and low-quality conveyor system. Better systems will cost more up front, but they will save you money down the road.

Joel E. Dulin is the digital marketing manager for Biomass Engineering & Equipment, www.biomassengineeringequipment.com.

That being said, just because something has been done a certain way for 50 years doesn’t mean it’s been done the best way. The field of saw filing is still wide open for experimentation and improvement. Nothing is sacrosanct. So here are a few tips that are slightly off the beaten track and may work for you.

Use an extra short-bite die to bring up a tooth on un-swaged steel. The extra short-bite will pull from higher in the throat of the tooth and will forge it wider than the standard short-bite. You need to use caution so that you don’t pull too much and cause the steel to crumble, but in my experience that upper limit is a lot higher than you might expect. Using the XSB will usually allow you to get a couple of good runs out of a fresh tooth before it needs to be re-swaged with a regular short-bite to give it it’s proper shape.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different sized dies than are normally considered proper. We use No. 5 swages on saws that would normally call for a No. 4. Likewise, we use a No. 6 where theory says we should use a No. 5. If you go down this rabbit hole, be aware that you may need to adjust your throat depth when you run a frost notch and that pulling too hard can bend your teeth over. Once you figure it out, you will make beautiful full-bodied teeth of a type that are hard to achieve with a standard setup.

When you have a hard back, the normal (and probably best) way to deal with it is by flipping the saw over on the grinder and running it around under light pressure until the hardness is gone. This is time proven and it works, but is it overkill? Try taking off the hardened edge on the bench by using an angle grinder with a sanding disc. You can brace your hand in the gap between the anvil and the stretcher rolls while the saw is running and get a surprisingly even grind that takes a lot less time and manpower than flipping the saw on the grinder.

Do you have an IMW guide cutter that uses the inserted cutter in a large steel flywheel? Consider adding a second cutter 180 degrees to the first by milling out a new receiver slot. Set the first cutter to cut 0.005 larger than you want the final size to be. Then set the second cutter to the proper size. Make sure the second cutter is inboard of the first cutter. The first cutter will hog out the bulk of the babbit while the second will leave you with a very smooth surface and stay sharper longer.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to roll out a bump that runs directly below the gullets? The stretcher rolls that have built in dishing rolls have a tough time with that area due to the bottom wheel extending out towards the ends of the teeth causing them to bend. A great way to deal with that problem is to build yourself a moveable dishing-block that utilises the track that your saw-gate travels back and forth in. The one I made uses a bandsaw guide block cut to half-length. On the top surface that the saw contacts, the corners are slightly rounded off. Underneath, you need to drill and tap for six bolts. One on the centerline, one inch from each end with bolt heads that just fit in the slot for the saw-gate, and one smaller bolt in each corner to act as legs that the unit will slide on. Adjust the height for 1/4 inch or so above the stretcher wheels and you are set to just slide it in and out of place whenever you need to roll in tight to the edge of the saw (or any other place if your stretcher rolls don’t include a dishing wheel). Contact me at the Saw Filers Discussion group on Facebook if you would like pictures.

Use shims underneath your guide pads to re-use lightly damaged pads so that you are not spending all your time pouring new ones. Cut yourself a bunch of different thicknesses from plastic shim-stock and use a punch to take out the holes for the screws and water jets. Make sure you don’t put in so many spacers that you lose your pocket, or worse, run the cutter into the guide screws.

I can think of dozens of tips and tricks we weren’t taught in school and every other filer could probably come up with dozens more. The trade of saw filing evolves in dribs and drabs, not mighty leaps, so do your part and try something crazy!

FULL DISCLAIMER: Some of these I found myself, most I shamelessly stole from other people; thanks folks for your unknowing participation in this column.

Trevor Shpeley is a former executive of the BC Saw Filers Association and works as a filer at Kalesnikoff Lumber in British Columbia.

Crowell recently provided the keynote address at MainTrain 2018, the annual PEMAC national conference. The theme of the conference, held September 24 -27 in Ottawa, was Connect, Learn and Contribute. Crowell’s presentation, “Accelerating Management Talent in Partnership with PEMAC,” acknowledged program provider NLC as part of J.D. Irving’s excellent experience with the MMP program.

“In 2013, we knew we had to change how we do things. Ten people from the division enrolled in module one of the PEMAC MMP program through Northern Lakes College,” says Crowell. Five years later, 90 employees, including employees from HR and operations, have participated in 337 modules, which was a $300,000 investment by the company involving 23,000 hours of classroom and self-study.

“This has really engaged our employees and we have 22 who are now MMP-certified,” Crowell says.

He says that J.D. Irving places a higher value on training and development programs that provide professional certification, such as MMP through NLC. He notes the owners of the company say that the $300,000 has had a great return on investment, reflected in the long-term performance trends driven by maintenance activity.

While participation in the program isn’t mandatory for employees in maintenance or asset management at Irving Forest Services, “by day three or four, new employees know what MMP is and what PEMAC is about,” says Crowell.

By the time an employee is a maintenance superintendent at the company, they are normally working on the final module required to obtain MMP certification. Newly employed graduates with engineering degrees are also encouraged to participate in some of the modules of the MMP program.

Crowell, who completed his MMP program at NLC and is a member of the board of directors at PEMAC, credits module three of the program, “Human Resource Management for the Maintenance Manager,” with a change in practice he has adopted. He now includes representatives from the HR department when talking with his employees about training and preparing for growth and future roles at Irving Forest Services, and it is now routine for the HR module to be completed by supervisors at the organization.

NLC offers the NLC LIVE Online option, which allows companies not located in Alberta to participate via virtual participation. The three-hour time difference between New Brunswick and Alberta was bridged by scheduling NLC’s classes earlier in the afternoon, allowing a start time of 6:30 p.m. AST for those participating at Irving.

Crowell credits the MMP program (and PEMAC’s corresponding Asset Management Program) with allowing Irving Forest Services to achieve standardization and consistency, because employees who participate in the MMP program and move up within the organization share the same mindset or strategy around maintenance and asset management.

“We can transfer people between divisions easily,” he says. “The other benefit is that we are speaking the same language.” Crowell indicates safety performance at Irving Forest Services has also increased, which he partly attributes to the emphasis placed on safety in the MMP program.

“We are seeing the benefits. Our employees are more engaged and motivated. They understand the roles they occupy,” Crowell says.

Rachel Ouellette is the communications officer, external relations for Northern Lakes College.

First you have to determine the proper settings for your machine. All welders are different so there is no universal setting, but take some scrap saw steel and practice until the burn sounds like frying bacon and it penetrates all the way through without making holes. If your weld looks like a cow patty and there are little balls of molten metal bouncing around, stop and turn on the gas. When everything looks good, write those settings down.

Now it’s time to weld and once again, you have some choices to make. Some people like to start on the inboard end of the crack and work their way out. Often a piece of steel is placed on the outside of the saw and the weld is started on the resulting tab to give a nice smooth transition. For myself, I start at the outside edge of the crack and hesitate just a bit to be sure the edge of my weld is full and even with the edge of the saw before working my way in to the end of the crack. None of these methods are wrong, just go with what feels comfortable.

Most filing rooms have welding clamps that hold the saw securely and in some cases provide a heated surface. A piece of copper or brass with a slot machined out to a depth of .030 is placed directly under the weld and everything is secured to prevent the saw from flexing and becoming misaligned. This method works very well and most filers use it. I prefer to do their welding on the bench. I place the brass heat-sink under the crack directly on top of the bench anvil. I have welded more saws than I care to admit and feel comfortable doing it that way. Your mileage may vary.

When you lay down your bead, be sure the tip of the welding wire is feeding directly into the crack. Do not weave the wire back and forth; it will lead to inconsistent penetration. Keep the nozzle about 3/8 of an inch from the weld, straight up and down and tilted slightly back from the direction of travel. When you are done, pick up your torch, which is already running with a neutral flame, and control the cooling of the weld. Cover it with a welding blanket or an old glove to help slow the process. You will know if you let it get cold too fast by the loud “ping” you hear as the saw cracks alongside your pretty new weld.

Do not move the saw at this point and when your weld is comfortable to touch with bare skin, anneal it by evenly heating the bead and its immediate area to approximately 700 degrees. This is best accomplished with the use of a heat crayon but once you are used to what the proper shade of blue looks like you can “chase the ghost” by watching for a shadow that will follow the torch around as you play the flame over the steel. Cover the weld again and wait for it to cool.

Dressing the weld requires subtlety. You want the saw to be as close to its original dimensions as possible. Grind too much and you might as well throw the saw away. I like to use a traditional grinding disc to bring the weld down close to the surrounding steel and finish it off with a sanding disc. When the top is done, go to the inside and do the bottom. Check to make sure you have good penetration; if you don’t, you will have to start over or weld it again from the inside. Both procedures are last resorts. It’s best to make sure you have your machine settings and welding speed perfected first.

When the weld is dressed to your liking, anneal it one more time. Not everybody does this extra step and some will argue against it but it works for me and I stand by it. You will find that once you have your own procedure nailed down you will become as much a slave to each step of your method as I am to mine. Good luck and remember, the goal is to never use the welder but just in case, you better practice with it until you can.

Trevor Shpeley is a former executive of the BC Saw Filers Association and works as a filer at Kalesnikoff Lumber in British Columbia.

Alan Robbins is an account representative at USNR, which pioneered the installation of the first North American continuous counter-flow dry kiln system in 2005; Ken McClure is sales manager at Wellons Canada, which has been in the kiln business in Canada for 40 years and supplied the first CDK in Canada in 2013; and Ingo Wallocha is managing director at Valutec Wood Dryers Inc. which has been working with unidirectional (also referred to as progressive) continuous kiln systems in Europe for the last 40 years — it entered the Canadian market about a year-and-a-half ago.

Distinctions
CFI’s discussion with these suppliers revealed the benefits of continuous kilns include:

• Significant increase in production compared to a batch kiln of equal capacity,
• lower energy consumption per board foot dried,
• tighter moisture distribution i.e. lower standard deviation,
• potentially ending up with a higher-grade product,
• having that product go through the planer more easily with increased uptime (since the lumber lays flatter),
• and production flexibility.

North American counter-flow continuous kilns do not have doors and water vapour exits at either end. The European-style unidirectional continuous kilns, which are described further below have doors and vents — the vapor exits through the vents just as in a typical batch kiln, where water vapour extracted from the lumber during the drying process exits the kiln through a venting system on the roof of the kiln.

The continuous counter-flow kiln’s difference really is the mixing of green and dry lumber during the process. Green lumber enters the kiln on the same side dry lumber exits. That is why it is called a counter flow kiln and why it cannot have doors.

“Counter-flow continuous kilns are taking advantage of green lumber to moisturize dry lumber and in effect, condition it. Conditioning it evens out the differences of the final moisture content. In other words, it gives them a better standard deviation,” Wallocha explains. “However, this is nothing that can’t be done in a properly designed batch kiln. It’s just that the industry in Canada and in the United States unfortunately is so driven by capacity that many sawmills don’t have time to recondition the lumber in a batch kiln because they want to have the lumber out of the kiln as fast as possible.”

Wallocha says Valutec’s European unidirectional concept combines the flexibility and versatility of batch kilns with the advantages of continuous kilns and has been applied in cold European and Russian climates with about 2,500 continuous kilns sold to date. The kiln will be zoned into various independently controlled drying zones over its length. He described it as a series of batch kilns attached to each other rather than one long continuous kiln.

“The continuous system makes production planning easier because you know that every X hours you have Y amount of lumber coming out of the kiln, ready to go to the planer mill,” Wallocha says. “And that’s why the big mills all want to run continuous kilns for their bulk products and batch kilns for their special products, different lengths and dimensions.”

Wood species for continuous kilns
The Canadian market dries mostly spruce, pine and fir (SPF), but Robbins says all of the sawmills using the continuous approach in the U.S. are drying southern pine.

“We know kilns that are doing timbers, 4x4s, 5/4 decking, 4/4 boards and poles, so it really works on every product,” says Robbins who estimates there are currently about 100 counter-flow systems installed across North America, with 36 of them being either sold or installed by USNR.

Robbins says hardwood isn’t the best continuous kiln option. “Technically it would work, but it would be such a long kiln I believe that it wouldn’t be beneficial,” he says.

Geography no issue
The original North American counter-flow continuous kiln was designed in the southeastern U.S., which has a much milder climate than Canada. But that doesn’t mean a counter-flow kiln can’t run successfully up north.

“There was concern about the use of CDKs in Canada because of winter conditions since a CDK doesn’t have doors on the end,” McClure says.

Wellons Canada has supplied eight CDK projects in Canada and included scope for a CDK system suitable for Canadian winters such as extraction fans on the ends of the energy recovery sections of the CDK to exhaust water vapour as opposed to letting it condense on the slab at the end of the kiln and inevitably freeze. Wellons also heats the slab at the face of the kiln and along the rails.

A recent CDK project for Wellons was at EACOM Timber Corporation’s sawmill operation in Timmins, Ont. Read about that project in the January/February issue or online at www.woodbusiness.ca/mills

Higher production rates
The drying times in a counter-flow kiln are typically longer than in a batch kiln and the drying times in a unidirectional dry kiln are about the same as in a batch kiln, “but since you’re utilizing kilns more efficiently and building larger kilns, the capacity will be higher,” Wallocha says.

“In a traditional kiln, high temp drying is about 20–24 hours. In a continuous kiln the timeframe is close to 36–40 hours,” Robbins says. “I’m talking about dimension lumber, anywhere from 2x4s to 2x12s and the lengths don’t really matter whether it’s 8, 16, 20 or 24. They take somewhere from 36–40 hours in that continuous kiln.”

Robbins says the length of a counter-flow kiln does not extend its drying time; it’s always the same. He says by converting a batch kiln to a counter-flow kiln, and using the same heat source, one could produce 50 per cent more lumber annually.

“If you’re using it 365 days a year in the sawmill, you can use it 98 per cent versus batch kilns which you can only use about 80 per cent because of loading, unloading and other things which are not as efficient as in a continuous kiln,” Wallocha adds.

More uniform
Possibly the biggest potential gain with both continuous kiln systems is in quality and uniformity. That is especially the case when comparing continuous counter-flow kilns with batch kilns not using full conditioning cycles. This step is built into the very nature of continuous counter-flow kilns.

“You just don’t have as much over-dried and under-dried lumber [in a CDK],” Robbins says. “Moisture gradient is tighter; the standard deviation is better. In a batch kiln, most standard deviations are between three and four. Most mills can do better than four, but you have a hard time getting under three consistently.”

“In a continuous kiln we’ve lowered that down to between two and three. Most people are approaching two on their continuous kiln if they do a good job, pay attention and really work at it, they can get it down closer to two,” Robbins says. “I’ve heard some talk about lower than that.”

Cost-savings
There are opportunities for cost savings as well through reduced energy consumption.

“It’s easier on your heat source,” Robbins says. “It’s kind of an even process where you’re loading and unloading from both ends all the time, not just hurry up and wait that batch systems have.”

He adds that cost-savings would then also come from not overworking equipment from running it hard for a period of time and then leaving it idle until the next batch of lumber enters the kiln. The counter-flow process evens out the heat demand from any source.

Part of that energy savings comes from the North American counter-flow approach — it was developed with a counter-flow design whereby green lumber entering is pre-heated by dried lumber exiting. In a parallel or unidirectional system, the lumber is all going in the same direction. However, given that the latter system includes doors at both ends and heat recovery systems on the vents, there is debate over which system actually provides the best energy savings.

Applications
When it comes to incorporating continuous kilns into existing operations, mills have several options, including new or retrofit. Some sawmillers opt to combine their existing batch systems with a new continuous kiln, or alternatively convert their existing batch system to a counter-flow kiln instead of buying a new one.

“The retrofit option only exists for the counter-flow kilns so far since our system is just not made for retrofitting old kilns,” Wallocha explains.

He for one likes to see a mix of continuous kilns and batch kilns.

“For a mill nowadays, I also would suggest not to have only one huge continuous kiln, but a big continuous kiln and a couple of smaller batch kilns. When you’re looking at one continuous kiln capacity-wise, you’re looking at capacities up to 140mbft, and that you can only achieve with multiple batch kilns,” Wallocha says.

In the end, there’s lots of potential for sawmillers to investigate.

The sawmill operation, Harrop-Procter Forest Products, is a subsidiary of the co-op that provides value-added strategies to expand local employment that is so important to the Harrop-Procter community of 600 residents. Each year about 10,000 cubic metres of logs (2,800,000 board feet) are harvested from the 11,300 hectare community forest (28,000 acres) utilizing carefully planned strategies to minimize disturbance to the land and to assure the forest remains fully functional as a watershed. As a measure of sustainability, this strategy would be equal to one small tree harvested per year per acre on average. About one quarter of those logs are milled and processed into a broad variety of wood products including both rough sawn and smooth surfaced lumber, trim, fencing, deck boards, timbers for timber framers, siding, flooring, and paneling. The remaining balance of the logs are sold to other area sawmills.

Because community forests and similar entities are managed with a broad range of social, environmental, and economic goals in mind, it is a testimony to both the co-op and the mill’s management that while the sawmill and the edger were purchased with a grant from the Columbia Basin Trust, about $300,000 in other debt has been paid, making the mill debt-free today. Public, private, family, tribal, for profit, non-profit, and others responsibly managing a forest would do well to visit Harrop-Procter and watch the sawmill, a model of compact efficiency, at work. The mill is set up to allow for economy of motion and production so there is a lot going on in a small space.

Primary log breakdown begins as logs are delivered to a Wood-Mizer LT70 sawmill. Milling takes place all day, every workday, as logs become lumber, timbers, or cants. Coming off the sawmill, rough cut lumber is stacked according to size or routed to a Wood-Mizer EG200 twin-blade board edger for further breakdown. Fibre destined for secondary processing is kiln dried using a Wood-Mizer KD250 dehumidification kiln then processed using a variety of woodworking tools located alongside the cutting operation. Blades are kept in top condition through the use of a completely outfitted sharpening centre featuring a Wood-Mizer BMS500 industrial blade sharpener.

While economically viable, the real importance of the sawmill to the people of Harrop-Procter comes from the mill’s ability to achieve non-economic goals. A full scale clear-cut harvest considered by the province would have concentrated effects on the community’s watersheds into a small timeframe with significant and lasting negative consequences. The in-house sawmill allows the co-op to plan harvests based on solid ecological principles which reduces the effects to the watershed over time in order to maintain water quality and sustainability. This model still allows the watershed to be utilized to create local jobs that would not exist without the mill in place. The proposed full-scale clear-cut harvest would have involved outside harvesting contractors and jobs would have been produced in mills outside of the community.
“We mill about 2,500 cubic meters (1,059,400 board feet) a year and the total direct jobs resulting from this are about seven to eight full-time equivalent, which is about 3.3 jobs per 1,000 cubic metres (42,300 board feet),” mill manager Rami Rothkop says. “The industry average in B.C. is about .7 of a job per 1,000 cubic meters, one of the lowest averages in the world from a province that has some of the best quality softwood globally.”

The mill’s sawyer and technical manager David Strom says that Harrop-Procter Forest Products employs five people full time, a half-time forester, a 1/5 time office manager and a 1/5 time bookkeeper.

“In the summer we usually hire a few students as well and we hire local loggers and road builders for another two full-time equivalents,” Strom says.

In addition to the positive community impact on employment, Strom points out, “We also budget for about $10,000 in lumber donations for community projects such as a public fishing wharf, a bike park, and community gardens.”

According to Rothkop and Strom, other benefits include diverting their timber resources from the waste stream as the mill creates high-end products from some wood a traditional milling operation would consider undesirable or may underutilize. Milling and selling wood locally rather than shipping logs out and then back as finished product also dramatically reduces the carbon footprint of lumber manufactured and used. In addition, Wood-Mizer’s thin kerf blade technology provides for an increase in the amount of lumber recovered from logs.

In the 35-plus years since Wood-Mizer first created a viable marketplace for thin-kerf sawmills, the U.S. Forest Service and other research has proven the thin-kerf approach to be one of the world’s major contributors to reduced carbon footprints for construction. Harrop-Procter is demonstrating that environmental, social, and economic benefits to a community can be accomplished through the operation of a sawmill.

It is important to remember that not everything is to be level or square. Some parts are toed in or out, some rolls are canted forward or back but these exceptions are well known and mostly hold true from machine to machine.

The tools needed for a proper alignment can be costly or very cheap. The expensive tools give you the capability for improved accuracy, but you can absolutely do a very good alignment with a minimum investment in equipment. The most common methods of alignment used in mills today are the “wire method”, lasers and optical jig-transits.

The wire method involves stretching a length of piano wire from one end of the machine to the other, parallel to the wood flow, typically right down the centre of the profile, spline or sharp chain. The wire is made as tight as possible to minimize the possibility of movement. Other lines are strung at 90 degrees to the first wire where needed. This technique is tried and true. The downside is that the act of measuring against the wire sometimes changes the measurement and when 0.002 of an inch is a large number, it doesn’t take much of a push to get that much of an error.

Laser alignments are another popular method. A laser is directed through the machine and through mirrors and prisms to achieve the desired angles. Then a detector is used to measure the relationship between the equipment and the beam of light. Lasers are very accurate and many swear by them.

The other procedure gaining strength in recent years is to use an optical jig-transit, a device originally used for the very precise alignments required in the aerospace industry. The advantage of optical alignment is extreme accuracy. It allows you to take very precise measurements of every component in your line horizontally as well as vertically and it works over long distances. Difficult to measure objects such as the angle of spike rolls are easily determined and you can quickly check a press roll through its entire arc of travel. The disadvantages? It’s a pricey piece of gear and somewhat delicate. It requires a practiced skill level to setup and a non-running mill due to vibration interference. Is it worth the money given that? For me the answer is yes, but then, I don’t write the cheques.

Unfortunately for the sawmill industry, alignments have dropped out of favour somewhat. Everybody knows they are a good idea and yet they don’t get done nearly as often as they should. In some mills “rarely” is optimistic. There are many reasons for that. One is inter-trade rivalry in which one group claims mechanical control over a piece of equipment and won’t let the sawfilers “on their turf” to do the job. Another problem is that some management does not fully understand the importance of a properly aligned machine and work on the principle of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The bottom line is, make everything straight and you will make better lumber and spend less time fixing broken equipment.

Trevor Shpeley is on the executive of the BC Sawfilers Association and works as a filer at Kalesnikoff Lumber in British Columbia.

The wood pellets that the plant produces service the residential heating market in northern Alberta as well as the oil and gas sector. The split is about fifty-fifty between pellets heating homes in the area and heading to oil patch for use as an absorbent.

The wood products company, owned by C&C Resources Inc., has an annual pellet production of 15,000 tonnes – which is relatively small, but there’s room for growth.

“There’s going to be more demand for pellets,” says Mark Stevens, general manager for Foothills Forest Products. “Presently our pellet operations is quite small, but it is not designed to take all of the residuals from the mill.”

Some of the residuals from the sawmill and planer mill are also sent to a Volcano boiler that provides heat for the sawmill’s two shifts and for the dry kiln.

The sawmill produces 110 million fbm of dimensional lumber annually, ranging in size from six-foot-long to 16-foot-long 2x3s to 2x10s. The boards are predominantly made from lodgepole pine, but the mill also processes spruce and balsam in its operations.

The majority of the final products are typical construction grades with some J-grades.

Altogether, Foothills Forest Products employs about 120 people.

Minimal moisture
One advantage of using strictly planer mill shavings to produce pellets is that the production process does not require a drying system, which cuts down on costs.

“With the shavings coming from the planer they’re close enough to being dry that the pelletizing process leaves a moisture content of less than seven per cent,” explains Stevens. “We measure the moisture every morning and we don’t bag them unless we’re on target with our moisture.”

The shavings are collected from the planer mill and blown into a dry silo then are sent to a hammermill to be processed before being fed into one of the mill’s two pelletizers. The pellets then travel along a conveyor that is split into two paths. One path sends the wood pellets to a silo for bulk storage and another that sends the pellets over to the bag line where the pellets are bagged and sealed.

Caribou sensitivity
One challenge the company’s sawmill is experiencing is finding the 440,000 cubic metres of fibre it requires to operate. This challenge is largely due to the Government of Alberta’s Caribou Range Plans, which is a very sensitive issue in the area.

Stevens says the provincial government does have an appreciation for the economic impact of the mill for the local population.

“We are working together with the Alberta government to build a solution that satisfies both the needs of the caribou while ensuring a stable future for Foothills, one of Grande Cache’s largest and most stable employers,” he says.  

Most of the sawmill’s fibre comes from three local logging contractors: McNeil Construction, Triple G Construction and proprietor Marc Daigle.

“We appreciate our logging contractors,” Stevens says. “We’re not in a market where there’s a lot of interchange of work from one mill to another, so we’re all in this together. Our contractors have done a great job, particularly this summer and fall when wet weather caused difficulty for the log haul. They worked day and night, everyday of the week to keep the log deliveries coming to the mill.”

Co-firing opportunities
Although the market for wood pellets for the oil and gas sector has been on a decline due to lower oil prices, the potential use of wood pellets in another part of the province’s energy portfolio has pellet producers in the province excited about the possibility of a new major domestic market.

There have been talks about the possibility of using biomass, including wood pellets, for co-firing in coal plants to help the province reach its future emissions targets without stranding expensive infrastructure assets.

One challenge for Foothills Forest Products when it comes to co-firing is its remote location. The sawmill and pellet plant is nestled in the Alberta Foothills, about a two-hour drive north of Jasper and a four-and-a-half hour drive west of Edmonton.

“Distance is a challenge for us since we’re far from the major urban centres,” Stevens says. “Co-firing opportunities are not as close as would be ideal, but we will fall within the fibre basket for some new or converted facilities and see a demand for our biomass.”

By finding a productive use for its planer mill shavings through the generation of pellets, Foothills Forest Products is positioning itself well for a potential biomass boom related to co-firing while keeping its operations diverse.

Planer optimization
One of the most recent upgrades done to the planer mill was the installation of a VAB linear grade optimizer in the fall of 2013, along with upgrades to some of the lumber handling equipment.

“The VAB certainly improved our ability to capture value from each board,” says Stevens. “It was a good step forward.”

With the optimizer’s ability to identify geometric and visual defects, the upgrade allows the mill to more accurately and effectively grade boards, producing a more consistent product for its customers. “It’s all about value recovery and getting more value out of every log,” Stevens says. “It’s not just about faster and bigger.”

The project was managed by Wolftek Industries out of Prince George, B.C.

Sawmill improvements
Wolftek was also involved as the lead contractor in a sawmill modernization project in 2014 that saw the installation of two Linden log ladders and two Nicholson debarkers as part of a new log infeed system for the mill.  

Another long-term investment is presently underway with the installation of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) by Del-Tech Manufacturing out of Prince George, B.C.

“We can’t stand still,” says Stevens. “While the ESP is necessitated to meet changing provincial emission standards, it is just one other example of our owners’ commitment to the future of this mill.”  

Another recent project has seen the re-establishment of rail service to the mill. “We are now delivering our products throughout the U.S. and also through the port of Vancouver to customers in China.”

 With this continual investment, combined with its focus on safety, the environment and product quality, the future looks bright for Foothills Forest Products.

“Our community has gone through some difficult times with the ups and downs of other industries, but at least our mill has provided steady employment, even weathering the recession without downtime”, says Stevens. “Thanks to the good work of our employees and staff, we have a stable base to operate from and look forward to future challenges.”

Wood is a hygroscopic material, which means it has a natural affinity for water and will constantly undergo changes in the amount of moisture present; in other words it’s moisture content (MC). In lumber drying we like to differentiate between the two forms in which water can exist in wood. Free water is the liquid water present within the void spaces in wood, is relatively easy to remove and has little impact on the size and shape of a piece of wood. Bound water is the water that is trapped within the cell walls and when removed results in a compaction of the molecular structure causing the wood to shrink.

Early in the drying process, we are removing mostly free water and there is very little shrinkage. Toward the end of the drying process (below 30 per cent moisture content), we are removing mostly bound water and it is at this stage that shrinkage occurs.

The reasons wood warps
Reason 1: Warp results when one face or edge of a board shrinks more than an opposing face or edge. The board above has cupped because the upper face has shrunk more than the lower face. In this case, the differential in shrinkage is the result of differences in the grain pattern on the upper versus lower surfaces. The majority of warp occurring during drying is the result of differential shrinkage but there are many reasons why differential shrinkage occurs.

Normal shrinkage of wood:
The table to the right shows the difference between radial and tangential shrinkage for normal wood fibre in a variety of species. It shows that for all species there is roughly twice as much shrinkage in the tangential direction as there is in the radial direction. This explains the cupping in the first photo as this board has more tangential grain on the top face and more radial grain on the lower face. There is very little shrinkage in the longitudinal direction in normal wood. An eight-foot board will shrink only about 1/10th of an inch when dried to one per cent

Abnormal shrinkage of wood:
Cupping is only one form of warp. Crook, twist, and bow can develop as a result of differences in shrinkage along the length of the board. Since normal wood fibre shrinks very little along the length it is usually the presence of some abnormal wood fibre that explains the development of these warp types. This includes compression wood, large knots, juvenile wood, pith, and severe slope of grain.

In the case of compression wood, shrinkage in the longitudinal direction can be up to 10 times what it is in normal wood. Therefore, an eight-foot board with compression wood along one edge can now be expected to shrink 1/10th of an inch on the edge with normal wood fibre and as much as one inch along the edge with compression wood. In this case, the differential shrinkage between the two edges will result in a severe crook. Differential longitudinal shrinkage is the cause of crook, twist, and bow. For softwood dimension lumber it is these three forms of warp that are the most common cause for downgrading a board after drying.

Reason 2: The second general category of warp causes is process-related variables. This includes all of the following:

• Piling
• Handling
• Storage (green and dry yards)
• Kiln loading practices
• Kiln operating practices

Wood is a plastic material, which means that it can be bent if a load is placed on an unsupported point. Therefore, measures to produce good quality piles and maintaining them in that condition from the sawmill to the planer mill will pay off in less “introduced warp” developing.

We can take advantage of this plastic nature of wood to minimize warp that would result from the inherent characteristics of wood as described under Reason 1 above. Holding a board flat, with weight from upper rows or added to the top of the pile, will minimize or eliminate warp that would otherwise develop due to differential shrinkage.

Over-drying of wood results in more shrinkage and therefore more warp. A study conducted many years ago at Forintek (FPInnovations) showed roughly double the amount of losses from warp in SPF lumber at around 10-12 per cent MC versus wood at 17-19 per cent. Measures to reduce over-drying and/or improve final MC variability will therefore help reduce losses from warp.

Specific measures for reducing warp
Although we will always experience some losses from warp, the above sections point out that there are things that can be done to minimize the financial impact. The following is a list of specific actions that can be taken in various areas to reduce downgrade due to warp. If you are trying to reduce your warp losses a review of this list to identify weak areas in your operation may be helpful.

Piling

1. Good vertical alignment of stickers.
2. Proper placement and alignment of bunks in storage areas and when loading the kiln.
3. Good solid base for loads both in storage areas and in the kiln.
4. Good size control at sawmill to avoid thick and thin boards.
5. Good housekeeping on sticker inventory to eliminate broken stickers.
6. Minimum of three stickers per eight-foot package (or equivalent on longer lengths) for two-inch dimension lumber.
7. Use more stickers for warp-prone material (higher incidence of compression. wood), higher-valued products (less tolerance to warp), and thinner stock.

Handling

1. Care in moving packages between operations within the mill.
2. Maintaining a smooth driving surface in the yard.
3. Consider implementing plastic strapping to maintain integrity of packages.

Kiln operation

1. Implement tools and/or procedures to more accurately shut down the kiln at the most appropriate final MC.
2. Implement pre-sorting measures (species, MC, weight, etc.) to produce kiln loads with more uniform drying characteristics.
3. Improve the uniformity of drying conditions (airflow, temperature, humidity) to help achieve a more uniform final MC.
4. Reduce over-drying of upper rows by using good baffles.
5. Apply weight to top of kiln loads to provide extra restraint for material in the upper portion of the load.
6. Avoid using aggressive drying schedules, especially those having high final dry-bulb temperatures combined with low equilibrium moisture content (EMC) conditions.

There are also things that can happen before and after drying that have an impact on warp. It is possible that curve sawing and growth stresses, present in the log, can result in boards that have some warp before we start drying. The good news here is that much of that can be recovered through the measures listed above.

Some further warp can result after drying. This is usually the result of exposure to low relative humidity conditions. In the case of dimension lumber dried to 15 to 19 per cent there is still potential for it to dry, shrink, and possibly warp if shipped to geographic regions with very low relative humidity conditions or stored in heated warehouse or retail outlets. The only solution in these cases is to either minimize exposure time at the low RH conditions or consider drying the material to a lower final MC.

Following proper drying practices in a kiln will always produce better results that uncontrolled drying.

Peter Garrahan is a wood drying consultant living in the Ottawa area and can be reached at peter@garrahan.ca or via the website www.garrahan.ca

So why do we do it at all? Well, put simply, if you have worn-out wheels then no amount of fancy benching or tricks with tension are going to keep you from fighting cracks and radically un-level saws until you bring them back into good condition. For most wheels this means grinding once or twice a year depending on the workload of the bandmill.

The first step is to measure the wheels and find out where you are starting from. The traditional method is to use a cloth tape long enough to go all the way around the wheel. You start on an edge and carefully note the measurement on the tape and then do the same for the other edge and the location of the crown. I would call the first mark “0”, the others would be plus or minus whatever they were. Next use a straight edge with a light behind it to determine if there are any hollows.

Another method is to use a Pi tape. This measures the diameter of the wheel rather than the circumference and is far more precise. When you consider that the average crown is roughly the thickness of a piece of paper, you can see the advantage to exact measuring tools. Remember that the Pi tape measures diameter so you have to divide by two to find the size of the crown. To do the actual wheel grind, most filers use a Barnhart wheel grinder which allows you to make perfectly angled grinds in controlled amounts until the wheel reaches the desired shape. The Barnhart’s barrel is squared up to the saw with the help of magnetically mounted dial indicators until the grinder tracks a perfect 90 degrees to the direction of wheel travel and on an angle that results in the desired crown.

The “crown” of the wheel is the apex of the two angles leading to the front and rear edges of the saw. The amount of desirable crown is the subject of much controversy and runs from “no crown at all” to about .012 maximum. You also want the front edge of the wheel to be about .003 larger than the rear edge to make the saw track naturally forward.

When you are ready to go, run the grinding head back and forth starting at the rear until you are grinding evenly all the way from the back to almost the front edge. (You will find a sharp drop at the front that is best left until you grind back the other way.) Then you change the angle of the Barnhart barrel and grind back towards the centre. When the edge is completely clean and the sparking is stopping at your desired crown location, stop and measure the wheel. Never stop and reverse the grinding head right at the edge and don’t try to make a crown just by stopping the grind where you want the crown to be. Both of these practices almost guarantee a hollow in the face of your wheel. Always allow the grinding head to keep moving until the sparking has ceased before heading back the other way.

If everything is how you want it, then congratulations! You’re done. If not, reassess and keep going until everything is perfect. My old head filer used to say to us whenever we would try to get away with a less than precise job, “Good for you, you now have a shiny, worn-out wheel. Start over.”

Wheel grinding isn’t easy; it takes skill and practice to do right. That is perhaps why many head filers choose to use a professional wheel-grinding service. No muss, no fuss and as long as you are clear about your expectations. If, however, you want to have total control over how your saws run and wish your filers to be as well rounded as possible, there is a lot to be said for doing the job yourself. Either way, as long as you get it done regularly, your saws will thank you.

Trevor Shpeley is the head filer for Tolko’s Kelowna division and is currently the financial secretary for the BC Saw Filers Association.

Laying the blame on someone else is human nature. Since the problem is wrecking saws, the logical first step is to look to the filers for answers. Now I’m the first guy to admit that saw filers have a reputation for being a little prickly when it comes to being criticized. We work very hard within precise parameters to make our saws as perfect as they can be and having somebody say they aren’t working properly is like having your child berated by a stranger. That’s why it’s important for non-filers to remember that saws have no moving parts.

The statement “saws have no moving parts” seems a bit too obvious to actually be meaningful dialogue on a complicated concept but in fact, it says something important. It says, “If the saws are running well when they go on, they will continue to run well until acted upon by an outside force or they get dull.” It is impossible to bench a saw in such a way that it will run great for two hours and then suddenly fail of it’s own volition. Something had to change, either the saw got dull early (that’s possible) or the wood wasn’t delivered through the saw correctly due to a machine or operator issue. If you take that simple statement as fact, then you have narrowed down your troubleshooting dramatically.

There are two things you have to remember about saw filers.  

No. 1: We are creatures of habit, we do the same things in the same order looking for the same result, every single time. Occasionally we will try an experiment, which may or may not work but we abandon such endeavours at the first sign of failure. We would never purposely cause extensive downtime and cost to try and make an improvement.

No. 2: Saw filers are basically lazy. The better our saws run, the less work we have to do. We work extra hard to make sure the saws will work for the full run so we don’t have to go for early changes or worse, to clear a wreck.

That isn’t to say that it is never the saw filers fault. For example, it is possible that the saw wasn’t as sharp as it should have been. Saw fitters are professionals and take pride in their saws being sharp as razors but sometimes an undiagnosed problem with the sharpening machine or an inattentive eye allows saws onto the floor duller than they should be. When there is a problem in the mill, this is one of the first things a head filer will check. If there is an issue, it will be found immediately under closer scrutiny.

The point I’m trying to make here is not that saw filers are perfect, or that they do it right every time. We aren’t and we don’t. What I am trying to say is that when things are going well and then suddenly go south, it isn’t because the benchman suddenly started benching differently after 25 years of predictable work. Finger pointing is a waste of time and a failure to funnel energies into fixing the actual problem. It is also a source of workplace disharmony, often resulting in rifts between departments that are difficult to heal.

If the saws run great at the beginning of the shift and then fail before the end of their scheduled run then by all means look for the problem but do it from the first wreck, not the tenth. Look to your filers as a wealth of information as to how the saw centres work as a balanced whole because chances are, they have seen this problem before. Remember, saw filers are very protective with their saws, if there is a problem in the mill they watch very carefully and may have theories you haven’t thought of. But don’t just blame the filers and hope that the problem goes away, nothing positive can come from that approach. We are here to work with you, not against you, and remember: “saws have no moving parts.”

Trevor Shpeley is the head filer for Tolko’s Kelowna division and is currently the financial secretary for the BC Saw Filers Association.

When planning out a proactive maintenance schedule, routine and extended maintenance should be included.

“Routine being your basic day-to-day maintenance on the machine, like lubrication,” Stewart explains. “Other things we look for in routine maintenance are general wear items, or consumables on the machines, which include evaluation of the condition of the knife tips and knife arms.”

A proactive maintenance schedule can be broken down into several categories:

Safety first
Stewart says the first thing to consider before any maintenance is performed is ensuring the environment is safe to work in.

“As far as debarker maintenance goes, the first thing to consider is safety,” he says. “Because these machines have a lot of heavy parts – moving parts – complete de-energization of the machine is always first and foremost. Safety is our No. 1 priority when we’re performing inspections and maintenance.”

Lubrication
Adhering to the lubrication schedule suggested by the equipment manufacturer is vital for keeping debarkers running.

“Proper lubrication required for your feedworks and your ring components is important,” Stewart says. “When lubricating the machine it’s important to inspect all of your lubrication lines and any fittings that may have come loose; and that all of your feed gears and lubrication points on your machines are getting proper lubrication.

“We have lubrication charts in our manuals that break down when components need to be lubricated and how much lubrication is needed per day on the machine. Referring to your operations manual for those specifications is key.”

Another area to remember to check during routine maintenance is to inspect your lube pumps, and making sure all of your components that run your lubrication system are working well.

Visual checks
Looking at the knife arms and knife tips to see what condition they’re in should be part of a millwright’s proactive routine maintenance tasks.

“You should be following your maintenance manuals looking at what condition or time interval they need to be changed,” Stewart says. “For instance, knife tips and knife arms require a once-per-shift visual check every eight hours. When you look at our knife tips, and where they’re attached, they should be checked every eight hours and torqued to the specs in the machine manual. Knife arms should be checked every 40 hours of operation.”

The main component of the machines, the debarker ring, should have a complete visual check every 40 hours of operation. Another thing maintenance staff should be looking for while doing visual inspections is bearing wear.

“It’s very crucial to how these machines operate since they are running on big bearings,” Stewart says. “Your feedworks, drive gears, belts – anything that is part of your feed drive system – all should be checked on a regular basis.”

Listen
Stewart also recommends that millwrights and other maintenance staff listen to the debarkers during operation.

“When the guys are looking at the machines they’re shut down, but prior to getting in you should be listening to your machine to know what it should sound like,” he says. “Listen for vibrations, and other noises that aren’t usually there.”

Uniformity
A uniform tool circle is also very important for keeping debarkers running smoothly.

“A uniform tool circle puts equal pressure on all the knife arms that are on the debarking ring,” Stewart explains. “If your tool circle is out, you’ve basically got one arm putting more pressure on the log, doing more of the work, so you want to keep a good uniform circle at the specification that is in the maintenance manual. This differs according to the size of the machine.”

As the machine gets bigger, the tool circle will increase in size.

“For instance, a 22-inch machine will have a uniform tool circle of about three inches,” Stewart says.

Feed system
The condition of the feedrolls and inserts is another important aspect to monitor.

 “What we call your inserts or spikes, that hold the log in position, should have a minimum height of 0.38 of an inch,” Stewart says. “If they’re getting worn down, we’re looking at getting those changed out right away.”

Nicholson recommends different roll configurations or inserts for machines, depending on the wood being processed.

“Feed gears, or main drive gears, should be looked at daily and maintained every 40 hours,” Stewart adds. “We check the backlash on the gears to make sure it’s not excessive and that the gears are rotating smoothly. You’re also looking for any anomalies or any wear patterns due to lack of lubrication or improper installation after repairs are done.”

Long-term maintenance
When it comes to long-term maintenance, this should include full servicing of the machines.

”It’s highly recommended that a company have a Nicholson service tech come in and do a field service inspection at least twice a year,” Stewart says. “They’ll go over the full machine from front to back and do an inspection on everything.”

Clean air
Because a lot of debarkers run on air, making sure a good supply of clean, dry air is coming into the machine is vital.

“Inspection of air cylinders, air bags that operate the knife arms and other components is very important for how well this machine will run,” Stewart says.

Hydraulics
Some of the newer machines installed in Canada have hydraulic feedroll control, which means different maintenance requirements.

Routine inspections should include checking hydraulic valving, ensuring the proper hydraulic oil is in the system, and making sure all of the hydraulic components are running in their best condition.

Keep it clean
Build-up of debris is another thing to be looking for during routine maintenance.

“Make sure the bark cleaner is always in good condition,” Stewart says. “Evacuate the bark as it builds up around the ring. As far as cleaning goes in Canada, especially in B.C., dust is a really big issue. That’s part of keeping your machine clean as a maintenance guy.”

Last but not least, Stewart stresses the importance of using replacement parts that are supplied by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

So why is levelling so hard to learn? Let’s go back to the basic mechanics of the task. You take a piece of steel that you have ground perfectly straight on a specialized grinder and you place it on the saw between yourself and a light. Bumps will show up as a black spot along the bottom of your straightedge, so will tension. In fact, tension can look exactly like a bump. If the tension is too heavy or unevenly distributed, the saw will want to cup or bow making levelling the saw almost impossible.

 To complicate matters, a saw has two faces and bumps will appear on both. The saw filer will use levers and other homemade devices to push a dent out from the bottom of the saw or they will climb down into “the pit” to level the inside of a saw directly. The round saw filer will just flip the saw from side to side until everything is smooth. It would be nice if you could just flatten all the bumps you could find in one area and then go on to the next but when that is attempted you will bow or dish the saw by over-levelling. The trick is to hit the worst bumps all around the saw and keep going over and over until the saw is flat.

If you fail to get the saw perfectly level before performing the rest of the benching procedure, you will never get the saws to run right. A small bump can hold up the tension so that it looks like you need to add more. After you do that and put the saw in the run, typically the bump will “pop” and suddenly your saw will be all over the place due to the massive amount of tension you put in when you thought there wasn’t enough. It is also common to put bumps into the underside of the saw by hitting them too hard while trying to remove the ones on your side. A trained hand and a delicate touch is required to level a saw without creating new problems.

The most common levelling method is to use a hammer to pound out the bumps. Hammers come in different weights and styles of head shape for different sizes of saws and types of defects. The levelling is done on a soft anvil so that the squishing of the saw between the anvil and the hammer is minimized in order to avoid adding more tension to the saw during the levelling process. Hammers work well and a skilled saw filer can do wonders with a good one but many benchmen eventually graduate to doing most of their band saw levelling with stretcher rolls.

Rolls have the advantage over hammers in that you can do a lot of heavy levelling without adding any tension or causing any bumps on the reverse side of the saw. It is also much easier to remove twist and ridges with the use of rolls and you don’t get that “peened” look you get from heavy hammer work. There are still areas where hammers are definitely the best tool for the job but most band saw levelling can be done more effectively with the use of rolls. In round saws, rolls are the best for removing ridges or fixing a dished saw but hammers still play a very large part in the circular world.

Several manufacturers now produce very fine auto-levelling machines. Some are more complicated than others but most have one thing in common: they do the job of levelling a saw very well – these are not your grandfather’s auto-levellers! The newer generation machines do the job with no drama and minimal tinkering between saws. Choosing which leveller to buy can be tricky as they have different scanners and methods for removing defects and the price can vary widely. But if you do your homework, you can be sure of getting a decent tool that can take the grunt-work out of levelling saws.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what you use to level your saws as long as they are level.  No matter how good you are at every other aspect of the job, if you can’t get your saws perfectly flat then you are just spinning your wheels. When you get it right though, everything else gets a whole lot easier!

Trevor Shpeley is the head filer for Tolko’s Kelowna division and is currently the financial secretary for the BC Saw Filers Association.