Lumber Sorter Points Up Lumber Aufomation Growth

The lumber sorter being built by Moore Dry Kiln Co. of Portland for the Cascade Locks Lumber Co. looks something like a railroad trestle without a railroad. fts existence is additional evidence that automation is coming to the lumber business, and the traditional green chain is on the way out.

George Stress, superintendent of the small mill set in a magnificent spot in the Columbia Gorge, said three men will do the work of 11 when the sorter gets going. That probably will be in April.

The sorter was designed and is being built by Moore Dry Kiln Co. at an anticipated cost of approximately $100, 000.

From the picture it doesn't look any more like an electr,onic sorter than a green chain looks like a chain, but examination reveals that one end is perpendicular to the sa'rv mill. The other end leads to the stacker, up on a hill behind the office.

Demonstrating the sorter's intended function. Stress said the lumber will be conveyed from the sawmill to a steep incline to the top of the sorter. There it starts down inlo a maze of 25 different tracks running horizontally from one end of the sorter to the other.

The choice of tracks is determined by an electronic memory unit. "It's just a little black box," Stress said, "but it cost $12,000." Boards are directed to their proper track by gates, catches, and stops activated by the memory unit.

"It sorts them into sizes by length, width and thickness," Stress said.

At the far end of the 25 tracks. or trays, the lumber goes up another incline and over a ramD into the stacker. Here boards are stacked for the dry kiln, after being spaced by stickers to allow full air circulation.

The stacker, too, will operate electronically, and like many automated machines, it can perform more efficientlv than a human can.

"We'll get a perfectly stickered load -which is impossible by hand-that will eliminate loss in the dry kiln," Stress explained. Kiln loss results from boards that are stickered at uneven intervals.

'fhe sorter and stacker will have a capacity of 140,000 board feet a shift, which is the amount Cascade Locks Lumber is producing now on its single shift.

lev Lumber's Hqrry Whitfemore Mqkes Change of Address

We are advised that Harry Whittemore, who represents Lev Lumber Co. in Southern California, has moved his office to 10509 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood, Calif.

Telephone number remains the same: POplar 2-6340. Horvever. for those calling outside the POplar dialing area, please call 877-3072. (For inforrnation, the '877' exchange is the former TRiangle one; we understand that shortly all Los Angeles name exchanges will be replaced by the threedigit ones; we haven't quite figured out just how the telephone company expects its customers to'remember the new all-digit numbers !)

Nqtionol Recognition

Thomas T. Sneddon. new Executive Vice President of NRLDA, has invited Frode B. Kilstofe, President of Rossman N{ill & Lumber Co., Ltd., Long Beach. to serve on the National Affairs Committee.

Thomas J. Fox, President of Fisher Lumber Co., Santa Monica, has been asked to serve in an advisory capacity on the National's Exposition Committee.