Highland Pine Products Upgrade

Acora Reneco has successfully completed the upgrade of the Highland Pine Products Mill in Oberon. What was considered a near impossible deadline by some observers in Australia and across the Pacific has been accomplished both on time and on budget. The upgrade consisted of three significant areas within the mill;

1. The log breakdown area,
2. An Optimising Trimmer and,
3. A 30 Bin Sorter in the planing mill.

The second two projects were completed together in a specially scheduled two week shutdown in July. The installation of the Quad Band reducer in the Log Breakdown area was completed in a second shut down, four weeks later.

The project was carefully scheduled using Acora Reneco's internally developed project management system. This allowed the company to tightly schedule production, delivery and installation of equipment to fit in with Highland Pine's time constraints. The system alerts management to work overload conflicts and equipment and infrastructure requirements. It also allowed Management to effectively supervise two installations crews on a 24 / 7 calender covering mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic teams of specialists.

The installation of the Quad Band reducer has allowed for significant increases in accuracy of turning and sawing as the log enters the plant on the new Comact infeed system. The circular saws have been replaced with a new 1.8m diameter quad band system which is the genius of Canadian company Comact Inc. Standard deviation sizing has allowed the mill to reduce it's target size and to be able to cut at a much higher feed speed. The size range of logs able to be sawn has increased with the maximum log diameter now 70cm. (Check ?RKT) This was necessary so that the larger diameter logs from the old Boral mill could be processed in tandem with the smaller HPP logs.

Infeed to precision end trimmer

Drymill stacker infeed

The optimising trimmer was one of the first sections to be completed. The entire materials handling of the mill was changed to give the back end surge capacity as well as being able to run at an amazing 120 lugs per minute with a lug fill rate of 98%. The trimmer is able to scan and trim the boards to within a 1% accuracy. Special features within this section are the unique tong dog loader and the paddle fence. The tong loader is manufactured by ARG in Eden under licence from PLC in Canada. The paddle fence is an entirely mechanical system with no hydraulic actuation.

Installation of the planing mill consisted of a new infeed table to the existing Coastal Moulder which has enabled an increase in line speed to 500 metres/minute. The whole outfeed system was also replaced in the grading section and a second tong loader was installed here as well. A precision end trimmer was installed together with a unique "cut in two" device that allows studs to be produced on the run. The machine automatically skips a lug to create a position for the extra board (stud) and continues to even end the boards ready for presentation to the bin sorter. "It is amazing to see a spare lug space just appear, when the system seems to have been running extremely fast up to that point, and the extra board neatly slot in with no effort and continue on. At this point the number of boards has actually doubled so the speed of the drive has to automatically rise and fall", says Roger Timms, Sale Director of Acora Reneco Group. A 30 bin dry mill drag chain sorter and stacker was installed. The stacker also has an automatic lathe inserter which. This stabilises the pack of timber when being stacker. The stacker is able to produce a pack every 2 minutes.

 

Members of the Project team near the Sorter at startup

Stacker lathe placer - note the secondary hoist.

Acora Reneco is extremely proud of the success of this installation and attributes this success to its whole installation team. "Most of the people who worked at Highland Pine have been with us for many years now, this is not their first major project. Their combined experience in all facets of sawmill equipment installation from office administration, production planning, design through to manufacturing and installation runs like a well oiled wheel. We are extremely proud of our whole team and their dedication to their work." "Over the last 10 or so years we have assembled a very professional team of proven sub-contractors and of course our own permanent team of guys. They are passionate about the work, work effectively on tight deadlines and always rise to the challenge of having an installation completed on time" says Tony Esplin, ARG's Manufacturing Director.

For more information call Acora Reneco Group on 03 9699 1008 in Melbourne (Roger Timms) or 02 64 961222 in Eden (Tony Esplin).