Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

Visit LSJ’s website at www.forestnet.com!

December/January 2015

Canada’s newest sawmill: Sinclar’s rebuilt Lakeland operation T-Mar industries’ new Log Champ 550 grapple yarder

Going fourrolling with Waratah’s new head Sennebogen 830 material handlers: the right tool for the job

With this issue…

The Edge!

FEATURES On the Cover:

December/January 2015 Volume 45 • No. 8

Equipment manufacturer T-Mar Industries is addressing the increasing volumes of second-growth timber on steep slopes in B.C. with its new Log Champ 550 grapple yarder. The first Log Champ 550 is being used by new owners Southview Forest Services Ltd. on Redonda Island, on B.C.’s lower coast, yarding second-growth fir.

(Cover photo and story photos courtesy of T-Mar Industries)

Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton Tech Update Editor Tony Kryzanowski

Publisher Rob Stanhope E-mail: stanhope@forestnet.com Phone: (604) 990-9970 Fax: (604) 990-9971

4 Spotlight: The forest

Sales Associates James Booth (604) 990-9970 E-mail: jbooth@forestnet.com Perry Rosehill (604) 613-3001 E-mail: rosehill@forestnet.com

industry worker gap—and becoming ‘cool’

The forest industry can no longer assume the huge workforces it has been used to in the past are still going to be there when it needs them. It now needs to capture the hearts and minds of its future workforce—in short, it needs to be considered a ‘cool’ and lucrative career choice.

Circulation Manager Maureen Cole (905) 201-0853 Fax: (905) 294-8645 E-mail: mcole@idirect.com Design & Art Production Manager Sheila Ringdahl E-mail: artwork@forestnet.com Office Manager Betty Rosales E-mail: brosales@forestnet.com

12 Safety champion

Don Banasky, president of the Truck Loggers Association and vice-president of operations at fast-growing Tamihi Logging, is a champion of safety in B.C.’s coastal forest industry.

Office PO Box 86670, 211 East 1st Street North Vancouver, BC V7L 4L2 Phone: (604) 990-9970 Fax: (604) 990-9971 Website: www.forestnet.com Subscriptions: Canada $58 a year; two years $70; three years, $85. Group accounts, six or more subscriptions, $25 per subscription per year. Outside Canada, $95 per year.

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Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064045 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to CIRCULATION DEPT. PO Box 86670 Stn Main North Vancouver BC V7L 4L2 e-mail: mcole@idirect.com

battle—and the war

Saskatchewan’s L & M Wood Products is winning the employee training battle, with a program that was actually designed for training people on the manufacturing line in World War II.

26 True multi-purpose

POSTMASTER: Send US address changes to LSJ Publishing Group, PO Box 610, Edmonds, WA 98020-0610 Published December/January 2015 Printed in Canada on 20% recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal is a member/associate member of the following industry organizations:

18 Winning the sawmill

head

B.C.’s Tolko Industries has been trying out the GP grapple processor head, produced by Pierce Pacific, and after six months the multi-purpose GP head has been able to prove its stuff successfully in two different types of trials in the B.C. Interior.

31

Canada’s newest sawmill revs up

Lakeland Mills’ newly completed sawmill in Prince George, B.C., is like no other sawmill built before it in terms of production, employing the very latest technology to attain the maximum recovery and value from its available wood fibre—but with a very strong focus on safety.

55 The Edge

Included in The Edge, Canada’s leading publication on research in the forest industry, are stories from the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions and FPInnovations.

60 New grapple yarder for

British Columbia loggers

Working with its industry-leading design expertise—and with an industry heritage reaching back decades—T-Mar Industries recently introduced the Log Champ 550, its new steep slope grapple yarder designed to take on the increasing volumes of second-growth timber in B.C.

64

Going four-wheeling with Waratah’s new head

Waratah’s new 622C 4x4 multi-tree processing head with four roller drive is getting solid praise from the folks at McNeil and Sons Logging in the B.C. Interior, where it makes for a solid harvesting combo with a John Deere 2154D carrier.

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar.........................................................................................................8 Suppliernewsline..........................................................................................74 Classifieds / Employment Opportunities.......................................................80 Ad Index ......................................................................................................81 Subscriptions................................................................................................81 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

3

spotlight

Canada’s forest industry worker gap— and becoming ‘cool’

The forest industry can no longer assume the huge workforces it has been used to in the past are still going to be there when it needs them. It now needs to capture the hearts and minds of its future workforce—in short, it needs to be considered a ‘cool’ and lucrative career choice.

By Kit Tan

F

or most of the past century, Canada’s sawmilling industry has excelled in its response to two major drivers—markets and process technologies. A third driver—labour shortages—has been emerging for some time, which accounts for today’s intensive focus on closing the ‘skills gap’.

This is a vital industry level response.

But an even more fundamental challenge lies in attracting people into sawmilling jobs in the first instance and, of course, retaining them. On that score, we do not seem to be targeting the most promising demographics as well as we should.

Current best practices suggest that the

4

fastest payback from these efforts may be at the company level rather than the more generalized industry level. After all, most young people think in terms of joining a specific company. And it’s the career prospects with that company that helps retain them.

Let’s look at what the Canadian lumber industry has done well traditionally. The first takeaway is manufacturers always have been sensitive to their markets. Peter Drucker may well have had our industry in mind when he outlined his Marketing 101 advice: “Make sure the customer gets what he wants, but make sure that what he wants is what you have”.

Isn’t that why Canadians are known as savvy traders? We get the product sold

and shipped—and what we produce rarely is left as expensive unsold inventory back at the mill. As lumber producers, we ‘get the job done’.

To the industry’s credit, over the past decade it has achieved a significant upgrading in its sales culture. With more competition, sales departments now place increasing emphasis on meeting the emerging needs of customers—with new products such as CLT and new design concepts, including six-storey plus wood frame buildings.

Secondly, as Canadians, we are tech-

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

to page 6

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spotlight from page 4 nology groupies. We love process technologies! If we can produce an extra widget or save a dollar in costs by adopting a new technology, we’re all over it. That’s why we have the most productive sawmills in the world.

Canada’s equipment supply industry has gone through several cycles. We lost our initial leadership to Europe and elsewhere. But in the recent past, Canadian suppliers of sawmilling equipment have re-captured most of this leadership role.

It has helped that Canada’s sawmills are huge first adopters of high productivity technology, and we now have a much larger and vibrant OEM industry.

The Global Competitiveness ‘Playing Field’ is Changing

Over the past few years, however, Canadian sawmillers have been taught some humbling lessons. The first is, although we might have been ‘Numero Uno’ global producers of softwood lumber in the past, that is no longer the case today.

In the North American market, Canadian producers’ share of the SPF market —while still important—is declining. In the future, we will play second fiddle to the U.S. South. European supply is very high quality—but a distant number three.

In part, that’s why the bulk of new Canadian sawmilling investment over the past decade has been directed to acquisitions in the U.S. South. They can ship high quality product to major markets in days—vs. the weeks it takes us to deliver from Canada.

Of course, U.S. buyers want both SPF (a lighter, easier to handle species) and Southern Pine. Projections indicate, however, that SYP will capture market share for the next decade—for a number of well researched reasons that are beyond the scope of this article.

But then, we have to remember that at the depths of the U.S. housing downturn, Western Canadian producers pulled a ‘rabbit out of the hat’. They developed the China market.

This did two things. It reduced the traditional dependence of Canadian sawmillers on U.S. housing-related markets.

It also helped B.C. Interior sawmillers sell

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

a huge inventory of lower grade (#3) SPF lumber to fast-developing markets with a seemingly insatiable demand for cheap SPF lumber.

Without this, B.C.’s Interior lumber industry would not have survived the U.S. housing downturn.

The second humbling lesson we Canadians have been taught is that some of the resources that we took for granted in the past—including an abundant supply of low-cost trees—are no longer valid assumptions.

Labour Shortages are the ‘New Normal’

Leaving aside the issue of the future supply of economically accessible sawlogs, what we also have learned is that we can no longer assume that the huge labour force—and dedicated workforces that we have been used to in the past—are still going to be there when we need them.

They are not—and they will continue to diminish unless we change the way we think and the things we do. This is driver #3 of our industry, and possibly our biggest challenge yet.

In fairness, this will not be a surprise for most progressive forest industry firms.

Among industry CEO’s views of their biggest future strategic challenges, human resource challenges have ranked tops for many years. The lurking danger to our future prosperity already is a well known foe.

Trouble is, it’s the same for all other industries. Horrors among horrors, many other natural resource industries seeking the same trade skills and managerial talents (such as Alberta’s oil patch) are able to outbid the B.C. forest industry for these HR talents.

Adapting to the New Realities: HR Policies, Not Trees, are Our Limiting Resource

Getting ahead of the competition in the HR game requires a vision about— and commitment to—the future of the wood products industry. Most companies know this, at some level. But not all are committed enough, and equipped, to do what is necessary at the HR level.

Among the more progressive—and Canadian companies increasingly fit this description—there is an emerging understanding that to be successful as rounded and sustainable global firms, they need to be pro-active, not reactive, in their HR policies.

Modern HR management approaches suggest four things about organizational effectiveness that are vital. We can summarize these under the acronym ‘ARRT’— respectively, meaning ‘Attraction, Recruitment, Retention and Training’.

In the past, the Canadian forest industry has performed adequately in some — but not all—of these vital categories. Very high comparative wages in sawmills and pulp mills—reinforced by trade unionenforced seniority rules —have assured the sawmilling sector of a statistically comfortable level of retention among the traditional workforce.

The ‘sleeper’ of course is the aging demographics that characterize our workforce today—and the diminishing attractiveness of the wood and forest products sector as a ‘cool’ and lucrative career choice. This exposes the weakness

to page 8

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

7

spotlight from page 7 in our thinking about the ‘ARRT’ element in developing our future workforce.

In the forest sector ‘Field of Dreams’ on workforce development, if the jobs exist and the wages are attractive, will the applicants come? The answer sadly most often has been ‘no’. That’s wishful thinking!

HR recruitment policies must begin with capturing the hearts and minds of our future workforce. This is no small task in the modern-day forest sector! But it is a fundamental building block for getting on the radar of bright young professionals and skilled trades people, then nurturing the relationships to engage and recruit them into our industry.

Leading-edge HR practitioners in Canada’s forest sector already are addressing these issues. This bodes well for the future of our sector. Our Achilles heel, however, may be that not enough companies are dedicating sufficient or the right resources to this objective.

Short-sightedness in this regard—and too much of a focus on training for skills needs—could cost the B.C. industry and deprive employers and investors of what otherwise could be a very profitable and sustainable future.

Kit Tam is a senior associate at Woodbridge Associates Inc., with focus on research, strategy and planning. This is the first in a twopart series she is writing for Logging and Sawmilling Journal. She can be contacted at kt@woodbridgeassociates.com.

CALENDAR January 27-28

Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia 81st AGM, Halifax, NS, 902-895-1179, www.fpans.ca February 2-5

Paper Week Canada 2015, Montreal, QC, 514-392-0265, www.paperweekcanada.ca February 4

Association of R.P.F of New Brunswick 78th AGM, Fredericton, NB, 506-452-6933, www.arpfnb.ca February 4-6

Western Silviculture Contactors’ Assoc.

Conference & Trade Show, Victoria, BC 604-736-8660, www.wsca.ca February 10-13

Association of Equipment Distributors (AED) & Condex, Orlando, FL 800-388-0650, www.aednet.org Feb 17-19

Montreal Wood Convention, Montreal QC

418 650-6385, www.montrealwoodconvention.com Feb 18-20

Canadian Wood Pellet Heat Conf., Montreal, QC 250-837-8821, www.pellet.org Feb 18-20

Association of BC Prof. Foresters AGM, Nanaimo, BC 604-687-8027, www.abcfp.ca 8

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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industrysafety

Truck Loggers President Don Banasky started from the ground up in the B.C. forest industry, working as a chokerman, and has had a strong focus on safety throughout his career.

Safety champion Don Banasky, president of the Truck Loggers Association and vicepresident of operations at fast-growing Tamihi Logging, is a champion of safety in B.C.’s coastal forest industry.

By Paul MacDonald

T

here’s no doubt about it—Don Banasky is a champion of safety in B.C.’s coastal forest industry. The vice-president of operations at Tamihi Logging—and the president of industry association, Truck Loggers Association—has been acknowledged for his safety efforts.

Banasky received the Forest Safety MVP of the Year award in the fall of 2013, from the BC Forest Safety Council. The award recognizes an individual or group that has made a notable contribution to forest industry safety within their operation or company.

12

Banasky has had a long commitment to safety. It has not only been at the top of his list with the companies he has worked for, but he has volunteered his services to help others improve their safety programs.

And he knows safety from the ground up. He started out his career in 1994 and worked as a chokerman, rigging slinger, hooktender, and a mechanical processor operator for forest company, TimberWest Forest Corp. In fact, Banasky can still recall the processor he worked on: a Hitachi 330 carrier with a Keto processing head. Along the way, he has operated dozers, excavators and off-highway rock trucks.

He’s tackled a lot of the heavy equipment used in the British Columbia coastal forest industry.

In 2002, along with Bryan Gregson, Banasky launched FallTech Logging Ltd., which provided mechanical falling and bunching services of a million cubic metres of logs a year. At the time, he also began D. Banasky Logging Consultants Ltd., which focused on project management, safety, and systems development, team building and training.

In 2011, FallTech Logging Ltd. was purchased by the Nanaimo, B.C.-based The Gregson Group, which has more than 30 years of experience doing land clearing

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

industrysafety and roadbuilding work in B.C. Banasky provided consulting and management service to both companies.

In November, Banasky took over as vice-president of operations at Tamihi Logging, based in the Fraser Valley, where he works closely with Tamihi Logging owner Brian Dorman, and his son, Jesse.

Banasky is one heck of a busy guy. As noted, he also serves as a President of the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) and sits on numerous committees including the Steep Slope Advisory Committee, Incident Investigation Advisory Committee, Safety Training and Industrial Relations Committee, and various other safety committees, working to make a difference in the B.C. forest industry.

In 2013, he was part of the working team overhauling SAFE Certification into an updated, industry owned certification system to reduce fatalities and serious injuries in the B.C. forest industry.

With his safety and leadership experience, Banasky has been asked to visit and speak to groups in the United Kingdom and New Zealand on integrating safety, quality and production in forestry contracting operations.

In accepting the Forest Safety MVP of the Year award, Banasky reminded everyone that they just had to look around the room to see all the personal connections and why safety is so important. He encouraged and challenged everyone to get back to the basics—to go beyond the stereotypes that rough, tough forestry folk don’t talk—and really communicate.

“Acknowledge people as individuals— speak up for safety and speak up for co-workers.”

In an interview, Banasky said he believes his varied background in the forest industry serves him well. “It allows me to talk with people who are out there in the bush, because I’ve been there and done that with many things on the logging side.”

Both then, and now, Banasky looks for the better way to do things. “I’m kind of a sponge that way—I want to learn and do better. And safety has always been a big component of that.”

He’s quick to note that the industry has made some significant strides forward from the days when accidents were just accepted. There were safety programs, but the best advice was often… try to stay out of the bight.

The focus then, he recalls, was on production. “We wanted to get as many logs out of the bush as we could—often

you would be stepping off a log just as it started to move.”

But Banasky developed an interest in safety, and got his Level 3 first aid only a few years into his career. “That raised my awareness of injuries and accident outcomes.”

It also led in part to setting up his own company, which in part focused on logging safety. “I started developing new safety systems around the equipment, different lock-out styles compared to what was being used and more awareness of what machines may or may not be capable of doing, and what to watch out for when you’re doing equipment maintenance,” he explained. And that commitment to safety continues to this day.

Each day, Banasky and his colleagues at Tamihi Logging work hard to see that

safety is an important part of every employee’s work day.

To help that along, they ensure people are working with modern, and wellmaintained, logging equipment.

These days, Tamihi has 26 highway trucks, five off-highway trucks, two lowbeds, 16 log loaders, three bunchers, two processors and they run three Madill grapple yarders. In the equipment fleet is a fair bit of Hitachi equipment, from B.C. Hitachi dealer, Wajax. Included in this are four new Hitachi ZX290 Forester log loaders, a ZX290 Forester road builder, a 210 road builder and a 290 Rock Drill.

Tamihi Logging also has a fair bit of Madill equipment, including eight log

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

to page 14

13

industrysafety from page 13 loaders—a combination of 2800, 2850 and 3800 machines.

They also have three Madill grapple yarders—two 120 machines, and a 122 unit—three Madill 071 mini towers and two older 90-foot Madill yarders. They have two Madill bunchers, a 2250 tilter with a 24-inch Quadco head and a 2250 flat bottom, with a Madill head.

Also fairly new to the operation is a Tigercat 870 buncher, with a Tigercat head, and a massive Tigercat 635D skidder, from B.C. Tigercat dealer, Inland Kenworth Parker Pacific. Just prior to their purchase of the Hitachi equipment, they bought three Cat 325 machines, two of which are doing processing work, and the other is a log loader. The 325 machines have Southstar heads. Also new in the last few years are two Cat 320 machines, and a John Deere 210.

Also in the equipment line-up at Tamihi Logging are some Link-Belt loaders, and a Hyundai loader with a power clam in one of their log sorts.

All this new equipment is nice, of course, but service, is key, too, says Banasky. “At the end of the day, to a certain extent, machines are machines—it’s how well they are supported that’s going to

Each day, Don Banasky and his colleagues at Tamihi Logging in B.C.’s Fraser Valley work hard to see that safety is an important part of every employee’s work day. To help that along, they ensure people are working with modern, and well maintained, logging equipment, both in the bush and in the sortyard. make the difference for you.”

In the past, safety efforts in the forest industry have been mostly focused on what goes on in the bush. But Banasky is

one of those in the industry who believes that to keep on top of safety, companies increasingly need to consider what goes on beyond the workplace—at home. And he is seeing that implemented and practiced throughout the industry.

“A lot of safety for me in the last few years is about the individual loggers, and their home lives. The decisions they make off the job—and the mindset that can be created from what is happening off the job, wither it be financial burdens, family relationship issue, substance abuse … or whatever.

“That can all impact their ability to think clearly each second of the day at work—and that’s huge. People do make poor work decisions sometimes, and it can be because they are distracted with all the other things going on in their lives.”

The industry can provide tools, through initiatives such as Employee Assistance Programs, for people to make changes in their lives, he believes.

And Banasky continues to fight against the long-held view that injuries are just the cost of working in a high risk job, in the forest industry. The work culture has to change in the forest industry, he says.

“We’re trained, we’re well qualified; why are we getting hurt? People say, well, stuff happens, that it’s just a dangerous

to page 16 14

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

industrysafety from page 14 industry. That does not cut it in 2014— that’s BS. “Yes, it’s an industry known to be dangerous, but we need to manage our work activities, create safe work conditions, and qualify our people, and help keep them focused. For example, a logging contractor might have the most productive, efficient piece of logging equipment going—but they could have a distracted operator running that equipment who might be a danger to himself and others.”

Banasky said there is some risk of pushback to the move to helping employees deal with issues off the job—after all, they are used to dealing with issues that are only on the job. “You can’t—and don’t want to—dig into someone’s personal life, but you can create a space where they can openly communicate, and we encourage them to communicate.”

All of this may sound a bit soft compared to the macho image of loggers from the past. But more than anything, Banasky is interested in achieving results, and seeing fewer people in the industry injured, and killed. And communication, such as talking about any issues an employee

16

might have, on or off the job, is an important part of that.

And so is talking about close calls.

Banasky has had his share of close calls. “And I’ve seen many guys get hurt in the years past. Something new is we’re encouraging people to talk about their close calls now. We don’t want to place blame or give people crap. It’s important to let your employees know it’s ok to talk about this—you want to get rid of that fear.

“Knowing about close calls allows us to dig in a little bit, and it allows us to pass that information to our other workers, and to industry, so perhaps they don’t get in the same situation. If it was a close call for one person, it might not be a close call for someone else—it might be an injury, or even a fatality.”

In terms of injuries related to logging equipment, often it’s as basic as reminding people to execute three point contact when entering and exit equipment— meaning keeping two hands and one foot or two feet in contact. Studies say than one-quarter of all injuries to equipment operators and truck drivers occur during mounting and dismounting.

And the equipment makers, and

dealers, can also be part of the safety effort, and make improvements to their machines. Banasky said both Madill and Tigercat are very interested in getting feedback on their machines.

“Tigercat wants to know if something might need to be changed—and they get their engineering department on it, and it is fixed or a retrofit goes out and it is fixed.”

Much has changed on the safety front in the B.C. forest industry, but more change is still to come—and that’s a good thing, says Banasky. The BC Forest Safety Council, along with industry, has done a solid job of making changes in the industry, and reducing injuries and fatalities.

But there is now a shift going on, and the council is making a move in the direction of the industry “owning” what it does, with more training and development directed by the industry, and the people in the bush. “We want to minimize the paperwork and bureaucracy, and maximize delivering the safety message to people on the ground,” says Banansky. “That’s how we can continue to improve things on the safety side.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

“It regens for 30 to 45 minutes twice a day. It just muffles the sound, but no power loss. It doesn’t affect that at all. It’s a gorgeous machine.”

Les works his Cat® 568FM shovel logger hard. In nine-hour days it’s averaging 7.9 gallons/hour.

“That’s good for that size machine. That’s what we were looking for,” he says. The 568, which can also be configured for road building, harvesting, processing and loading, combines strong swing torque and lift with long reach. The cross roller swing bearing along with dual swing drive boxes give you the highest load bearing capacity on the market. All sitting on a big track footprint built for stability. Simply gorgeous. That’s what we’re built to deliver.

Look to your Cat dealer for financing and all the machines you need for sustainable harvesting and land management, forestry road construction, hauling and millyard. Total support from one source.

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Winning

milltraining

the sawmill battle—and the war Saskatchewan’s L & M Wood Products is winning the employee training battle, with a program that was actually designed for training people on the manufacturing line in World War II.

By Tony Kryzanowski

A

chieving the demanding multiple objectives of training new employees quickly, avoiding costly errors, cross-training employees, and providing a positive work environment was a constant battle for the builders of military equipment during World War II. And it is an ongoing battle for many Canadian forest companies today.

But L & M Wood Products in Glaslyn, Saskatchewan has found a training program developed in the U.S. in the 1940s to boost industrial production and support the war effort that is now delivering meaningful and measurable results for the company in all these areas.

It’s called Training Within Industry (TWI) and it focuses primarily on standardization in the workplace, something that Zane Delainey, co-owner of L & M Wood Products, says is not common, but is badly needed in many sawmills.

The company can manufacture up to 144 different wood products and the work flow based on customer orders can change almost on a daily basis. They produce dimension lumber and timber products in dimensions from 1 X 4 to 12 X 12 and in lengths from 8’ to 16’.

L & M Wood Products discovered a training program developed in the U.S. in the 1940s to boost industrial production and support the war effort—called Training Within Industry—that is now delivering meaningful and measurable results for the sawmill in a number of areas, including training new employees.

“What we came to realize is that while there are no standardized jobs, there are standardized ways of teaching people those jobs quickly,” says Delainey. “The

flexibility of TWI was great because we could take a person who might be running our debarkers one day and they might be working in our firewood department the next day, or the planer or over in the remanufacturing area. We had to be very comfortable that we were training the right way.” The business has 90 employees and about 65 per cent are First Nations.

Since starting down the TWI road in 2012, they have developed over 150 job instruction breakdowns. Delainey says they have witnessed a dramatic drop in employee turnover. Four years ago, the company processed close to 300 Records of Employment—last year, they processed

to page 20 18

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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milltraining from page 18 only about 30. They also have a file with about 200 job applications in it.

TWI was implemented at L & M Wood Products on a pilot basis soon after a period of significant transition at the company, with new ownership taking over in 2011.

They are the brothers Zane, Pat and Brent Delainey, and fortunately, they had considerable knowledge about the business’s sawmill and woodlands operations.

Zane began with P & E Logging in 1990, which is the business’s logging contractor, and he went on to complete his accounting and business management training before joining the staff at L & M Wood Products as a bookkeeper. He worked his way up to become general manager of the company eight years ago and then partnered with his brothers to purchase the company.

P & E Logging is also a Delainey family company, owned by the three brothers, and they have participated in TWI training as well so that their operations mesh with the sawmill’s requirements.

Zane says that they heard about TWI while attending a seminar sponsored by the Saskatchewan government and hosted

by FPInnovations, at a time when the gov-

ernment was looking for ways to help the forest industry get back on its feet.

“At the seminar, they showed how they had taken farmers and trained them on how to assemble aircraft, just from applying the Job Instruction module from TWI alone—and it really fit in well with what we were trying to do here,” says Zane.

That triggered the pilot program to implement TWI’s Job Instruction module at L & M Wood Products.

TWI is a program that applies to all company personnel from owners to line workers and consists of Job Instruction (JI), Job Relations (JR), Job Methods (JM), and Job Safety (JS) components.

Each module consists of 10 hours of classroom instruction, usually taking over a week to complete, with two hours of classroom instruction per day followed by oneon-one work between the FPInnovations instructor and key individuals. The instructor follows up in a few months to get feedback on implementation and to suggest where tweaking might be required.

Roland Baumeister, FPInnovations Member Relations Manager, says that the forest products institute has been providing TWI training since 2011 and has had hundreds of participants go through the various TWI modules. Initially, it was

On the equipment side, L & M Wood Products has three Morbark debarkers to feed a carriage and an Optimil chipper canter line. aimed primarily at small to medium size enterprises because with fewer supervisors often wearing many hats, they were more challenged with providing quality supervisory training.

“What we were seeing is that organizations were having challenges in implementing new knowledge,” says Baumeister. “We looked at TWI as an opportunity to provide some structure to help transfer knowledge, particularly from our research programs as well as our best practices manufacturing knowledge.”

He says the main benefit that each company that has participated in TWI training has reported is that the time needed to train individuals within their operations has been reduced considerably.

TWI has become more popular over the past decade—particularly within the manufacturing sector—because of the need to transfer knowledge with older, experienced workers leaving the workforce, as well as the need to train new hires more quickly in areas experiencing higher staff turnover due to competition for workers from a variety of industries.

Job Instruction (JI), the first component that L & M Wood Products initiated,

to page 22 20

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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milltraining from page 20 teaches how to effectively breakdown a job and provides a methodology for trainers to successfully deliver instructions for individual tasks. The focus on this module at L & M Wood Products was on owners and department managers, because they would be the ones delivering the training to their staff.

“L & M Wood Products was a good candidate for TWI because they were experiencing high turnover in their workforce and they were trying to engage with First Nations in their area,” says Baumeister. “Overall, they were looking for a structured way to transfer their knowledge and manufacturing practices.”

JR (Job Relations) teaches the foundations of positive employee relations. This module trains supervisors in methods to identify and resolve problems when they occur by teaching a proven method of getting the facts, weighing options, deciding, taking action and checking results.

Participants in JM (Job Methods) training are taught how to break down jobs into their constituent operations. The aim is to produce greater quantities of quality products in less time by making the best use of people, machines, and materials.

One of the results from applying this training at L & M Wood Products was to put employees into much more productive positions. Initially, that led to a drop in employees from 70 to 60, largely because some employees were in positions that should never have existed, but employment has now increased to 90 because of increased production.

JS (Job Safety) focuses on environmental health and safety, leveraging the skills learned in the three primary modules. It helps supervisors engage employees in identifying potential hazards, and eliminating them, in conjunction with their training and knowledge. It also teaches supervisors a method to analyze the chain of events leading to accidents and hazardous situations.

L & M Wood Products has completed all JI, JR, and JM modules, and implemented the final JS module in September.

TWI implementation at the company occurred during a significant period of growth resulting from the acquisition of more wood fibre. This happened when Weyerhaeuser’s Forest Management Area (FMA) in the northwest area of Saskatchewan was reallocated. L & M Wood Products’ softwood allotment of white spruce, black spruce and jack pine doubled from about 75,000 cubic metres to 163,000 22

A Porter scanner was recently added to the Optimil chipper canter line at L & M Wood Products to better optimize their wood product recovery. cubic metres. They also harvest 40,000 cubic metres of hardwood, which they sell to Meadow Lake Pulp.

In 2010, they produced 15 million board feet of wood products. In 2013, that had increased to 21 million board feet and that was expected to increase another 12 per cent to 24 million board feet in 2014.

The increase in wood fibre has helped the company diversify its product line to include more value added products aimed more toward the agriculture industry and industrial applications, as demonstrated by their focus on supplying large timbers. It has also allowed the company to expand its geographic reach and customer base. But with growth comes challenges, and TWI has been an effective tool to address those challenges.

Delainey says in past years, a long term employee was someone with over 20 years’ tenure. In today’s world, that might be a person with over two years’ tenure.

“In order to make things work properly here, we had to find a way to make sure that someone who started today could productively be doing a job within four hours,” says Delainey.

Among the changes implemented at the sawmill was a switch from five eighthour days to four 10-hour days, meaning that employees had one less travel day and the company could draw from a larger area. They also focused on more

First Nations hires, visiting many of the surrounding communities and setting up programs to encourage more participation by providing transportation to work from the communities, and a meal program at the sawmill with the cost coming off employees’ paycheques.

Working with the JR module and implementing programs like these helped to establish good relationships between managers and employees.

P & E Logging adjusted its work schedule, making the transition from seasonal to year-round logging, which has helped to retain employees.

Higher production and productivity is leading to capital investment. About three-quarters of a million dollars is being spent to optimize the sawmill’s trimsaw and recovery edger. The company is working with Wolftek Industries on both of these projects.

L & M Wood Products has also established a new wood residue and firewood department that offers a new engineered wood product for playgrounds through a new company called L & M Wood Residuals.

Significant change has occurred at L & M Wood Products since 2011, largely through implementation of TWI, and it’s all been positive.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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WHEN IT’S TIME TO EXIT YOUR BUSINESS

Strategies to transition on your terms and get the highest value

By Scott Wisdahl, CPA, CGA There’s no greater feeling than looking at your business and seeing firsthand the success you have achieved. Like many businesses in the forestry industry, you’ve seen your share of tough times—but despite this you have pushed through.

However you are also tired. This is not your first time through the cyclical ups and downs of the forest industry—and now you are ready to move on to the next stage of your life, perhaps spend more time with the grandkids and improve your golf game. But how do you effectively transition?

You could just take your equipment to auction but not necessarily get back the value of the business you built. And what about the employees and other subcontractors you work with? In the “good old days” you would just look for a buy out, but many of these larger companies are not as interested these days. So now what? Have you considered your children, key employees, sub-contractors, your competitors, or even a combination of these options as potential buyers?

Deal Financing Options Although there are many aspects of finding and negotiating the deal, let’s focus on how the purchaser finances the deal. As the seller, it’s important you know how this can be done, so you can exit your business with the highest value. There are a number of options (or combinations of options) that the purchaser can look at and as the seller, you may have to assist with. They include: • Purchasing shares of the company for the value of the net assets plus the goodwill value

• Re-financing assets to generate cash within the company to fund the sale • Asking the seller (vendor) to finance the sale; receiving their payment over time from company profits • Selling the company a portion at a time • Restructuring the company to build separate units to be sold individually so each unit is more affordable.

Out-Right Finance Purchase An out-right finance of the purchase is great for the seller and generally acceptable to the purchaser. However, unless the sale price is very close to the net asset value (minimal goodwill) it will be difficult to find financing unless mixed with other options like vendor financing.

Re-financing inside the company may work but likely will have tax issues and may make it very risky for the purchaser to remain profitable.

Vendor Financing Vendor financing (where the seller is paid over time) is used in many small-and medium-sized businesses, especially to finance the value of goodwill.

The rationale behind this is that if the business is worth more than its assets and generates a good cash flow, then it actually has goodwill and as such the company can afford to pay over time.

There are risks for the seller, including the fact that you won’t have all of your money up front. For the purchaser it generally means they pay more but they also do not incur crippling debt and often have access to the advice and support of the seller since the seller has a vested interest in ensuring the business is successful.

Sell Over Time Another option used with vendor financing or with bank financing is to sell the business to a successor over a period of time. For example, you sell 10% of the business to a key employee / manager / or child, and after it has been paid for, you sell them another percentage. In essence, this is a form of vendor financing. It gives both parties a chance to learn from each other and eventually you will have sold a controlling interest and will move away from the business.

Restructure the Business Another option is to restructure the business to break it into different components. Perhaps all of the real estate is moved to one company, major equipment to another, hauling and sorting . . . and so on. Each component is smaller now and perhaps easier to afford by the purchaser. Sometimes the operations are also broken into separate geographical units so that they can be sold separately.

A Final Word There are serious financial, tax and legal issues in using any of these options and that’s why it’s important to speak to a professional about the pros and cons of each. You’ve spent significant time, effort and money building your business and you should expect to do the same to effectively transition out of the business.

By integrating the right strategy, you can transition on your terms and get the highest value from your business.

Scott Wisdahl, CPA, CGA is a Business Advisor with MNP and can be reached at 250.794.5101 or scott.wisdahl@mnp.ca

IT’S TIME TO TRANSITION YOUR FORESTY BUSINESS

Where do you go from here?

You’ve worked hard to build your business and it’s important that your legacy endures. While succession is something you need to plan for, it can be difficult to prioritize. That’s where MNP can help. Whether you are looking at transitioning your business to your children, key employees, sub-contractors or your competitors, we deliver the succession, finance and tax strategies you need to be confident that both your legacy and lifestyle will turn out exactly how you’ve imagined them.

Visit MNP’s Forestry Services Team at the TLA Convention and Tradeshow in Victoria from January 21 to 23, 2015.

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loggingattachments

True multi-purpose

B.C.’s Tolko Industries has been trying out the GP grapple processor head, produced by Pierce Pacific, and after six months the multi-purpose GP head has been able to prove its stuff successfully in two different types of trials in the B.C. Interior.

By Paul MacDonald

T

here’s really no other way to put it: Earl Corsi has a pretty cool job.

Corsi, who is woodlands manager for the Thompson Nicola Woodlands division of forest company Tolko Industries in B.C.’s Southern Interior, has the usual responsibilities of a woodlands manager.

But a special focus for Corsi is to always be on the lookout—and to check out—new types of equipment.

26

“I’m always looking for new and different logging and log handling equipment,” says Corsi, who works out of Tolko’s office in Heffley Creek, north of Kamloops, B.C. Which led him directly to the GP grapple processor head, manufactured

by Pierce Pacific Manufacturing, at their plant in Portland, Oregon.

In an era of multi-tasking, as we work hard to make the most of our work time and the technology and equipment we have at hand, the Pierce GP grapple

processor looks to be the perfect machine for the times. It combines the functions of a grapple and the utility of a processor into a single machine. Loggers can increase their productivity with a machine that sorts, loads and shovels like a grapple—and delimbs, measures and cuts like a processor. Six-plus functions, in one attachment, says the company, and at a price less than that of an ordinary processing head.

The GP allows a single carrier to

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

loggingattachments

head

From those trips, Tolko confirmed that Pierce was ready to enter the Canadian and B.C. market—and that Tolko would work on their end to help introduce the GP to their contractors.

Tolko has now purchased two of the GP heads, which are being supported and serviced in B.C. by dealer, Inland Parker Pacific.

“We stationed one head in the southern interior of B.C., doing a similar type of wood profile to what they have in Oregon, and what the head was designed for,” explained Corsi. “We took the other GP head to Quesnel, in the Central Interior, and put it in the kind of wood and terrain that it wasn’t necessarily designed for, just to see what it could do.”

And after six months, the GP has been able to prove its stuff successfully in the two different types of trials.

And so far, it’s been a good fit. The unique arm contour of the GP features patent-pending technology that makes it easy to handle timber up to 52” and efficiently feed logs without releasing or re-handling. The grapple arms can handle big timber, and are said to be ideal for picking individual stems, as well as handling multiple logs without crisscrossing.

The innovative arm design also includes integral feed wheels that allow operators to shovel logs farther in fewer turns. Other advances include a full scale measuring system for calculating log length and diameter, allowing the processing function to easily merchandize logs.

The GP grapple processor head from Pierce Pacific on a Tigercat 880 carrier. The head allows a single carrier to accomplish tasks that normally tie up two machines, offering loggers significant savings in time, fuel, labor and maintenance costs, not to mention radically improved equipment utilization.

Integral feed wheels grab and shovel logs farther in fewer turns, as well as easily move or reposition logs without re-handling while loading or sorting.

The GP’s innovative design allows it to reposition long logs, handle bundles of short wood and distribute brush. It can be used with both new and pre-existing log loaders, making it economical as well as efficient.

Tolko took on the job of introducing the new attachment to its contractors, with the purchase of the two GP heads.

Corsi explained that this initiative is part of an effort to support their logging contractors, in making the move to new equipment, and encourage innovation.

“We wanted to help the transition, and communicate what the equipment is all about—not simply do a one day demo, but have it working in the bush.

“We’ve been bringing as many guys as we can that work for us to see the machine, and show its capabilities, and what kind of niche it can fit. It is a different attachment, but we believe we know enough about it to see that is has a place in the woods in B.C.—but you have to find the right place.”

With Tolko’s encouragement—and support—the GP has worked in two contractor operations. “We went to them, asked them to put a man in the seat, and

to page 28

accomplish tasks that normally tie up two machines, offering loggers significant savings in time, fuel, labor and maintenance costs, not to mention radically improved equipment utilization.

Tolko’s Corsi came across the GP when it was still fairly new, and there were only nine or ten GP heads out there, mostly in Oregon. “At that point, Pierce wasn’t ready to expand beyond that, to Canada. But I let them know we were very interested, and asked them to keep us in mind.”

Following up, Corsi did two “intel” trips to Oregon, to see the Pierce manufacturing facility, and to see the GP in action.

Illustrating the company’s level of interest in the GP, one of the trips included members of the founding family of Tolko, the Thorlaksons, who take a keen interest in new and emerging technologies in the forest industry.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

27

loggingattachments from page 27 worked with them on it, and helped reduce their cost exposure,” said Corsi.

Feedback from the operators has been positive. Within an hour, they’ve figured things out, and are seeing how the head can work well. Processor operators seem to make the transition easier than loader operators, but that really depends on the operator. “We don’t want to generalize because there are lots of versatile operators out there that can run anything,” says Corsi.

Some minor fine tuning and tweaking was required, with adjustments to pressures and feed speeds, but this is to be expected since the head is new to these operations, he added.

The heads are put on machines with live heels, which helps considerably with the hoe chucking and wood decking applications. “You can grab a big grapple of wood and really swing it around,” says Corsi.

One of the contractors, Main Logging, has since purchased one of the GP heads, which is mounted on a Tigercat 880. “They really like it, and now they’ve purchased it.

“That’s really our end goal—to get new equipment that works well introduced to our contractors,” explained Corsi. “Tolko is not in the business of owning equipment. We just want to make sure that innovation happens.

“Sometimes what happens in our industry is that if contractors can’t see the light completely in terms of the benefits of new equipment, they just won’t go there.”

This is often understandable, considering perhaps the uncertain benefits, and the costs, of new-to-the-industry equipment.

“But what we’ve done is taken some risk, to push the innovation side of it— Tolko has some skin in the game, to help contractors learn about new equipment.”

The other machine is mounted on a Link-Belt 290 carrier.

In terms of applications in B.C., Tolko

A niche Tolko has identified for the GP head are small volume applications, where a contractor might send a processor and a loader in to an area. But the GP is a head that can do both those tasks, allowing the contactor to reduce the number of machines, moving costs, and the number of operators. sees the GP head as a multi-purpose attachment for processing, loading and hoe chucking. “Those really are the three applications we’ve found for our operations,” says Corsi.

“The GP is really a bit of a hybrid,” he explains. “It’s not the equivalent of a big loader, or the equivalent of a big processor. It does a lot of things really well. It does not do one thing really excellent— but that’s not the way it was designed.”

It was, Corsi says, designed for niches.

“The niches we’ve identified are small volume applications. Today, someone might send a processor and a loader to an area. But the GP is one head that can do both those tasks. You can cut down on the number of machines, the moving costs, and the number of operators. You can have one person, one machine, doing the job.” It could also be used as a very versatile tool in general operations for a

large contractor, he added.

What’s coming up for Tolko and its contractors is a large part of the reason why the GP head is an especially good fit.

“The number one reason why we went after it is we have a big steep slope initiative—and we’re talking about towers and grapple yarders in these settings. And the GP head is a good fit for that.” A contractor could be in an area where they are doing just three to four truckloads a day, and it’s difficult to justify a large number of pieces of equipment in this kind of volume.

“This one piece of equipment fits really well into those small volume applications— that’s probably its best niche,” says Corsi.

The reason they sent one of the GP heads to Quesnel, in B.C.’s Central Interior was, again, for niche situations—where a contractor might be out of sync between phases.

“This happens all the time,” says Corsi.

“You’ll have x number of bunchers, x number of skidders and x number of processors. If you’re in the perfect type of wood, with perfect conditions, the volume of wood you produce will line up from one phase to the next, to the next.

“But in the real world, at points during the logging season, a contractor can get out of sync a bit—the wood is too big or too small and phases will get out of balance.

“This niche machine allows a contractor to balance his phases—it’s a versatile tool. For example, if he’s loading during

to page 30 28

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

loggingattachments from page 28 the day and processing at night, and gets behind on processing, you can just double shift the processing.”

As part of their due diligence, Tolko toured four different logging operations in Washington and Oregon that use the head, and the contractors they talked with said it has done more than they anticipated—one contractor is now on his second GP head.

“The loader or processing functions are not one to one compared to a dedicated

loader or processor, but you’re not comparing apples to apples. It’s done better than expected; they thought it might perform at 50 per cent production rates, and it’s more like 75 to 80 per cent.”

The serviceability of the GP is also a selling point, says Corsi. It’s made up of standard components, with lots of access panels and it has a DASA computer system. “If anyone is used to working on standard heads, they can pick up and learn on the GP head pretty quick.”

Perhaps its biggest limitation is the size

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of carrier needed to support the head, which weighs in at 6,000 pounds. “To use it in a loading application, you need a little bigger carrier, to unload the trailers. And if you are unloading quad trailers, the loads can be very heavy.” So the counterweight, and reach, is important. Pierce recommends a minimum 85,000 pound carrier.

“On the B.C. Coast, a lot of people have iron that big, but not so many people in the Interior,” notes Corsi. “They are usually down one size from that. So you need to get into larger scale production to see the justification to get into that larger carrier and capital costs, and higher fuel consumption.”

Having Inland Parker Pacific onboard for support is crucial, says Corsi. “We really need to have all three parties involved for this to work—Pierce, Parker Pacific and Tolko. We all need to play a role to introduce the head properly.” He added that both Pierce and Inland Parker Pacific have stepped up to the plate in providing service and support.

Tolko’s plan is to take the second GP head to their High Level operation in Alberta this winter, and try it out there for four or five months. It will be working in a greener profile, with larger pieces, and in some colder weather. “By break-up, we’ll have a more complete understanding what the real niche is for the head.

“Our plan is to go to our contactors— and there will be a select group we talk with because we think it fits their operations—and ask them to have a better look at the GP, and consider an investment in it.

“We’re not going to go to every contractor and ask them to have one—that’s not what we envision for the GP head.

But we think there is a large opportunity for the head.” Corsi said he would be surprised if the head is not picked up by contractors for use on the B.C. Coast, too, because of its versatility.

At the end of the day, Tolko sees that by helping contractors stay up with technology, they are also helping Tolko stay up with technology, and be efficient. “We’re really working for a win/win,” says Corsi.

While he’s working on getting acceptance for the GP head, Corsi is continuing the hunt for what might be next for new technology in logging. “I’m looking every day for the big game changer for the industry,” he says.

“The forest industry and Tolko will be facing some challenges, whether it is a shortage of skilled labour or going to more difficult terrain, and we know we need to pursue innovation to meet those challenges.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling

Canada’s newest sawmill revs up Lakeland Mills’ newly completed sawmill in Prince George, B.C., is like no other sawmill built before it in terms of production, employing the very latest technology to attain the maximum recovery and value from its available wood fibre—but with a very strong focus on safety.

to page 32

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

31

BCsawmilling

By Jim Stirling

C

anada’s newest sawmill is like no other built before it.

Lakeland Mills Ltd.’s new plant in Prince George, British Columbia does have familiar objectives. It’s designed to attain the maximum recovery and value from its available wood fibre. And it employs sophisticated high speed log breakdown and conversion machinery to manufacture Lakeland’s premium stud lumber.

But what sets Lakeland’s new mill apart from other recent rebuilds is the integration of safety features throughout the sawmill’s design. The overall goal is sawdust mitigation, and the approach has been twofold: to capture and remove dust at source through an elaborate, mill-wide automated vacuum system and to reduce areas where dust can collect. The result is expected to be a sawmill with a dust control improvement factor more than seven times that of the mill it replaces.

Lakeland Mills’ preoccupation with sawdust mitigation became that of an entire continental sawmilling industry following the events at Lakeland on April 23, 2012. On that date, a catastrophic explosion and subsequent fire killed two Lakeland Mill workers and 22 other employees

were injured. Three months earlier, a similar explosion and fire at the Babine Forest products sawmill near Burns Lake, B.C. had also killed two sawmill workers and injured 20 others. Detailed investigation into both incidents confirmed sawdust accumulations with their propensity to explode were a contributing factor to the incidents at both mills.

“We wish this tragedy had never happened but we are committed to learning from the experience,” said Greg Stewart, president of Sinclar Group Forest Products which owns Lakeland Mills. His comments were made when the decision to rebuild the mill was made public in July 2013. “Obviously the circumstances that led to this are not ideal and it continues to weigh heavily on our minds, our thoughts.

It’s with that incident in mind that we put a lot of effort into this,” announced Stewart in December 2014 just prior to the new Lakeland Mills start-up. “We’re all committed to making sure we have a safe operation.”

Sawdust is a natural byproduct of sawmilling, albeit an insidious one with an ability to accumulate in a multitude of

to page 34

Most of the breakdown equipment on the single production line is from USNR. Lakeland’s configuration of features from the USNR equipment was tailored specifically to the mill’s requirements.

32

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling

Greg Stewart (above, centre), President of Sinclar Group Forest Products, which owns the Lakeland sawmill, is proud of the rebuilt sawmill, and the many safety features built into the mill. With him is Marc Witte (right), plant manager of Lakeland, and Bruce McLean, senior woodlands manager for Sinclar.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

33

BCsawmilling from page 32 unwanted places. The fine, dry sawdust created by processing mountain pine beetle killed timber—as Lakeland has to do—can be especially challenging to repel. But Lakeland has made it difficult for the stuff to accumulate. The new mill’s interior contains fewer flat surfaces.

Beams are rotated 45 degrees on the diagonal to help prevent dust accumulating.

Process centres are enclosed and have direct dust removal and peaked roofs, making Lakeland’s the first mill floor with an alpine theme.

Control rooms have been designed floor to ceiling to help prevent dust accumulations. Shedder plates have been added to horizontal beams and dust resistant cable trays have been installed.

Other safety initiatives include positive pressure and the isolation of machine and electrical rooms from the process environment; a sparking detection and control system; sprinkler system; low energy lighting and methane monitoring.

The latter factor is a precautionary safety first factor. It’s believed long before it was a sawmill site, the area or part of it, was used as a landfill. The new system draws

34

air from the surroundings through wells and any methane identified is piped out and discharged.

Several of the dust control features incorporated into the new mill came directly from the people who spend their working day there. “We have regular meetings with our employees and we have incorporated their ideas into the mill design,” said Marc Witte, Lakeland’s plant manager.

The mill’s new interior roof is a further eye-catching feature with a safety angle.

The roof is constructed of Cross-Laminated Timbers (CLT) from Structurlam Products of Okanagan Falls, B.C. Witte noted steel will buckle in a fire before laminated beams burn. The same type of laminated product was used in construction of the six-storey Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George, the tallest wooden structure in Canada, which opened in October. The building is connected to the Prince George District Energy System which begins at Lakeland.

The system uses surplus capacity from

to page 36

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

Production capacity in the new mill is 200 million board feet/year on a two eight-hour shift basis, five days a week. Products include Lakeland’s blue-end studs in 2 x 4, 2 x 6 and 2 x 3 dimensions along with 1 x 3 and 1 x 4 board stock.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

35

BCsawmilling

from page 34 Lakeland’s wood fired energy system to deliver “green” renewable energy to buildings in the downtown core. Lakeland also has an agreement with the University of Northern British Columbia to supply wood fibre for its Nexterra gasification system, currently undergoing expansion to service other campus buildings.

The new Lakeland mill will have 110 workers, down from the approximately 160 prior to the explosion and fire. Most of the employees are returnees, said Witte. All participated in a comprehensive orientation and training session on the new mill and its equipment. Production capacity in the new mill is 200 million board feet/year on a two eight-hour shift basis five days a week (down from about 225 million board feet/year on

three shifts). Products include Lakeland’s blue-end studs in 2 x 4, 2 x 6 and 2 x 3 dimensions along with 1 x 3 and 1 x 4 board stock. The new mill has the capacity to manufacture in metric sizes as well as American Lumber Standard products.

Indeed, expanding product range and market potentials is second only to safety in the new Lakeland mill’s design.

Room to expand has been built into and throughout the mill layout. The timing of expansion into nine and 10 foot product manufacture will depend on market conditions.

Wood fibre to support the new Lakeland sawmill will be harvested from the sprawling Prince George Timber Supply Area. The Sinclar Group holds three forest licences, two in the name of Lakeland Mills totalling about 750,000 cubic metres, said Bruce McLean, Sinclar Group’s senior wood lands manager and operations

manager. The short term wood supply appears secure but there are no such guarantees beyond that, added McLean “We’re anticipating a cut in the Prince George AAC,” he said as a result of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.”We’re anticipating we’ll be purchasing wood like other mills by 2018.”

McLean added that Lakeland’s present wood profile is characterized by more than 70 per cent in dead lodgepole pine with stems less than 22 inches in diameter.

Lakeland’s logging contractors and haulers will deliver to the millyard lengths of 33 feet, 24 foot 10 inches and 16 foot 7 inches.

Plant manager Witte described some of the major steps taken to transform logs into quality studs. The mill has installed four Price Log Pro Merchandisers.

McLean noted that they are well-built, proven machines (including dealing with southern yellow pine in the U.S.) and incorporate standard parts regularly available. Witte said the merchandisers are designed to run at 16 cycles/minute and do not require a dedicated operator. The

to page 38 36

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling The Lakeland mill has installed four Price LogPro Merchandisers. Mill management liked the fact that the merchandisers incorporate standard parts regularly available. The merchandisers are designed to run at 16 cycles/minute and do not require a dedicated operator.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

37

from page 36

ADVANCING THE TECHNOLOGY OF

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equipment comes with a 98 per cent stem singulation guarantee.

As evident throughout the new Lakeland, there’s an ability to add a future scan. Other features include a built-in surge capacity, even stem ending with a butt pusher and there’s rotary positioner assembly prior to cutting. A smart tipple assembly directs the flow of blocks to one of two fixed belts. The two identical Nicholson 22 inch A8 Tandem ring debarkers are fully certified for use under the Hazardous Location Designation, Class II, Div 2 (Group G) category. It means the debarkers fully meet all existing safety standards.

The two tandem debarkers at Lakeland are the first Class II, Div 2 (Group G) certified debarkers produced by Nicholson, and are also the first hydraulic roll control machines sold in Canada. Nicholson had previously sold A8’s in Europe and the U.S. with the optional hydraulic roll control system, but Lakeland is the first in

Canada. This system provides enhanced feed roll positioning with very smooth log feeding and provides the user with significant energy savings benefits over the long term compared to the standard pneumatic system, says Nicholson Most of the breakdown equipment on the single production line is from USNR. Lakeland’s configuration of features is tailored specifically to the mill’s requirements. Among the features Lakeland chose are: auto rotation optimizing with log geometric scanning; log surface vision scanning; lead and tail end vision scanning; split detection and automatic turn error connection on the fly. The line also features a reciprocating quad roll log turner; SQI Scanner to verify rotation angle and log positioning prior to chipping.

There are top, bottom and side chipping heads with Andritz Iggesund knives;

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sales@brunettemc.com www.brunettemc.com 1-800-686-6679 38

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

to page 40

BCsawmilling from page 38

Sawdust is a natural byproduct of sawmilling, but Lakeland has made it difficult for sawdust to accumulate. The new mill’s interior contains fewer flat surfaces.

Beams are rotated 45 degrees on the diagonal to help prevent dust accumulating.

40

side profile chip heads and quad arbour circular saws. Top and bottom profiler chip heads and a six inch straight sawing vertical double arbour gang are included in the system. USNR and Lakeland staffers collaborated with the design of dust capturing heads for the equipment.

Secondary breakdown equipment includes a WaneShear edger, contributing single board solutions at 50 pieces/min and double board solutions at 35 pieces/ min. The line also features electric positioning robots and Microtec Goldeneye 900 scanners.

Throughput is important and the USNR line is designed to deliver anticipated feed speeds of about 600 feet/min on the chipping cant line; 500 ft/min on material between nine inches and 13 inches and about 395 feet/min for material greater than 13 inches. Lakeland’s line features one of USNR’s new ElectraTong lug loaders, which offers all electric board control at high speeds including boards of random thickness. The 35-bin, 240 lugs/minute bin sorter is from Mill Tech Industries with the moisture scanner and lumber scanning systems by Microtec.

The Lakeland Mill has two GradExpert systems that were installed in 2007.

During the mill shutdown, they took the opportunity to upgrade their grading optimizers to get the benefits from Comact’s constant development in technologies to meet the highest standards in the industry.

With the latest generation of equipment, their GradExpert systems are now like new, says Comact.

Allied Blower designed Lakeland’s dust control/collection system. The 4.5 inch vacuum system can support two, threeinch diameter suction hoses or three two-inch diameter hoses. The sawmill has three baghouses at 60,000 cfm capacity each while the hog building has one baghouse at 25,000 cfm. A 50,000 cfm baghouse will be installed at the planer, which escaped the fate of the sawmill during the horrors of the 2012 explosion and fire.

Now the major pieces are in place, it’s a matter of Lakeland’s people getting used to their new sawmill, and delivering on the potential of a safer environment so they can move forward with confidence.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BEING SMART WITH YOUR POWER IS SMART BUSINESS.

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A10-549

BCsawmilling

The new Lakeland sawmill supplier team I t took the teamwork, co-ordination and sound planning of a military manoevre to successfully and expeditiously construct the new Lakeland sawmill. The company looked close to home base for many of its key partners. Helping quarterback the

new mill construction was International Quest Engineering Ltd. of Prince George as the prime consultant for engineering/civil/ mechanical/structural and construction management.

Other Prince George-based companies

playing key roles were: K2 Electric Ltd., electrical; R. F. Klein & Sons Ltd., site preparation; West Central Fire Protection Ltd., sprinkler system; Admiral Roof Ltd., roofing installation; Mayfair Gas & Plumbing, methane mitigation system. Allied Blower & Sheet Metal Ltd. of Surrey, B.C., provided the mill's dust collection system.

Following recent industry events, Allied felt that a re-think of its combustible dust designs was in order. To meet this objective, five different new approaches to design for managing the risk of combustible dust were employed: integrated design; the mill being designed and constructed to the highest current standards; verification by a Professional Engineer that the final design/installation met or exceeded above standards; multiple levels of protection being employed to mitigate the eventuality of fire; and Lakeland and the design team collaborated to develop several new approaches to combustible dust mitigation.

Associate consultants on the work included: Westwood Engineering Ltd., Vernon, B.C., electrical (Westwood’s services included 12.5kV and 480V power distribution, power system studies, grounding, complete equipment specifications including Class II Division 2 requirements, MCC/VFD design, lighting systems and cable tray); Pacificon Systems Ltd., Burnaby, B.C., electrical controls/programming; Woodpro Engineering Ltd., Prince George, engineering structural/steel detailing; Stolberg Engineering, Richmond, B.C., engineering mechanical/structural, block storage/waste conveyors; Geonorth Engineering Ltd., Prince George, engineering civil/ground preparation; Murray Johnson Engineering Ltd., New Westminster, B.C., engineering, fire protection system; Mirkwood Engineering Ltd., Calgary, engineering heating/ventilation/air conditioning; Scouten & Associates Engineering Ltd., Prince George, septic systems/ foundations; AZ Petro Energy Enterprise Ltd., Nanaimo, B.C., design compressed air system; Wolftek Industries Inc, Prince George, drafting, mechanical/structural debarker infeed decks; Techfor Services to page 44

42

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

ANDRITZ Iggesund Tools Sets A Higher Performance Benchmark!

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BCsawmilling from page 42 Ltd., Kamloops, B.C., drafting, mechanical/structural debarker infeed conveyors, and RC Design, Prince George, elevation/ drainage/grading.

Other services co-ordinated through Lakeland’s staff included: Wellons, (engineering) Surrey, B.C., mill heating system; Allied Blower, (engineering) Surrey, B.C., dust collection system; HDR Engineering, Vancouver, methane mitigation system; McElhanney Engineering, Prince George, surveying, site locales/ parking.

Also among the Prince George-based companies playing key roles was Salem Contracting Ltd., (mechanical). Salem Contracting has the manpower to complete projects of all sizes, and the company’s fleet of mobile cranes ranging from 22 ton up to 150 ton allows it to handle lifts of all sizes quickly, efficiently and safely. The company also has an in-house fabrication facility allowing it to fabricate the needs of a project in a cost effective and timely manner.

Additional suppliers for the new Lakeland mill: Linden Fabricating: Step feeder Nicholson Manufacturing: Debarkers Price LogPro: Merchandisers MDI: Metal detector USNR: Optimizing and primary breakdown equipment Comact: Sweep sawing, grader optimizer upgrades Springer Microtec: Wane scanning and optimization WaneShear: Edger Mill Tech Industries: Scanning equipment, sorter Allied Blower: Dust extraction and cyclone system Versatile Fab and Machine: Conveyors and steel fabricating CAN-AM CHAINS: Mill Chains SM-Cyclo: Enclosed reducers with high efficiency motors Arrow Speed Control: Mitsubishi Hyper-Drive DAGR Industrial Lighting: LED lighting system ScanMeg: Scanners Skeans: Air system at the front end Baldor: High efficiency motors Andritz Iggesund: Chipping heads Simonds: Saws Reform: Grinders Vollmer: Rebuilt top and face grinders Gerling: Mill blade tipper Delta Computers: Control systems Siemens: Fire alarm system Western Belting: Belting and product installation Williams Equipment: Equipment rental Western One: Equipment Rental BRUNETTE INDUSTRIES: Vibrating Conveyors 44

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling

More stringent WorkSafeBC investigation techniques being introduced

L

akeland Mills Ltd.’s management group decided in October 2014 to officially launch an appeal of WorkSafeBC’s decision to impose a fine in excess of $724,000 following an explosion and fire at its sawmill.

The blast killed two workers, Alan Little, 43, and Glen Roche, 46, in the April 2012 incident, and 22 others were injured, some of whom are still on disability. Three months earlier, a similarly devastating explosion and fire killed Carl Charlie, 42, and Robert Luggi, 45, and injured 20 others at Hampton Affiliates’ Babine Forest Products Mill near Burns Lake, B.C. Hampton Affiliates is appealing an approximately $1 million penalty levied by WorkSafeBC. “After assessing all evidence gathered

by WorkSafeBC about the Lakeland incident, on April 14, 2014 Crown Counsel decided not to prosecute the company for regulatory infractions under the Workers’ Compensation Act,” explained Lakeland in a statement. “In May 2014, despite the Crown decision, WorkSafeBC nevertheless chose to issue sanctions (an administrative penalty and claims cost levy) against Lakeland Mills, based on the very same facts that the Crown had declined to pursue,” continued Lakeland.

WorkSafeBC’s investigative practices and procedures and their admissibility in the courts were called into question in the wake of the sawmill explosions.

Shirley Bond, B.C.’s Labour Minister, called for changes within WorkSafeBC and appointed Gord Macatee, a former BC Ferries Commissioner, as Worksafe’s administrator. In a December 2014 report, Macatee said more stringent investigation techniques into workplace incidents are being introduced. “To me, that’s the bottom line point of this, that if a prosecution is needed, WorkSafeBC has the tools to do it and be successful,”

to page 46 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

45

BCsawmilling from page 45 explained Macatee at a news conference. WorkSafeBC plans to achieve that through a dual investigative system with the ability to examine workplace incidents on separate cause and prosecution levels, with the prosecution team called in when required.

The provincial government has ignored opposition and public calls for a public inquiry into the explosions, but a coroner’s inquest into both incidents is scheduled for March 2015 in Prince George. A coroner’s inquest can make recommendations but not assign blame.

Meanwhile, Macatee reported some positive news. In an approximately sixweek time span ending November 25, 2014, 118 mills were monitored for sawdust accumulation by WorkSafeBC. Two mills received orders to manage sawdust accumulation/dispersal properly and one stop work order was issued.

“This is a dramatic improvement from where things stood six months ago,” declared Macatee.

46

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

Millwide. Worldwide.

BCsawmilling

Sinclar Group a PowerSmart leader

T

he common sense practice of saving money by curtailing energy use has become second nature for sawmills and plants run by Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd. And it’s not gone unnoticed.

BC Hydro, through its biennial recognition programs, has acknowledged the Sinclar Group operations for their best-in-class energy management and conservation practices.

In 2010, BC Hydro recognized Sinclar with a PowerSmart Leader award. It was based on the Sinclar plants’ collective ability to slash energy consumption by about 25 per cent in 18 months. This was achieved by applying and combining a couple of Sinclar’s guiding principles. The first was paying attention to small details.

Most of the energy savings achieved were of the little here/little there variety which

collectively became significant.

The second applied principle was tapping into the mill workers knowledge and experience of their working environments.

As Sinclar declares on its website: “Valuable ideas can emerge from day to day experiences in the field and on the shop floor. Therefore, we encourage a culture of creativity and innovation among our staff.”

That same “creativity and innovation”

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48

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

was evident with some of the safety design features that have been incorporated into the new Lakeland sawmill. No-one knows better than the employees the places where potentially hazardous sawdust collects around their work stations and how best to eradicate or control it.

BC Hydro recognized the Sinclar Group again in 2012, that time with a Leadership Excellence Award. The same award came Sinclar’s way again in 2014. “The Sinclar Group has demonstrated strong leadership in the sawmill industry, with its innovative

project to generate electricity by burning waste wood at its Nechako Lumber plant,” noted BC Hydro when announcing the award. “Over the past two years, Sinclar has achieved a 30 per cent savings in both avoided and actual energy usage.”

The utility also credited Sinclar’s appointments of dedicated energy managers through the years and “energy champions” in each mill or plant to help drive energy savings projects. BC Hydro also recognized Sinclar’s pioneer work among B.C. sawmills with LED lighting, another feature in the new Lakeland sawmill.

DAGR Industrial Lighting, which specializes in rugged, high-performance LED lighting for industrial operations, supplied a range of energy-efficient bay lights and flood lights for the new Lakeland mill, all of which are certified for hazardous, dustexplosive environments. These lights will reduce energy consumption at the mill by approximately 75 per cent compared with traditional metal halide fixtures.

BC Hydro is scheduled to acknowledge Power Smart leaders again in 2016. Don’t bet that the Sinclar Group won’t make it a four-timer.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

49

BCsawmilling

Lakeland’s —and the Sinclar Group’s —rich community history

T

he new Lakeland sawmill puts a missing piece back where it belongs.

The operation is one of the Sinclar Group’s family of eight sawmills and value added plants in British Columbia’s Central Interior. The group was incomplete during the mill’s rebuild.

Values like roots, family and community can be thrown around cavalierly these days, devaluing them in the process.

But for Sinclar, they’re a proven modus operandi, part of their way of doing business. The family-owned group has more than half-a-century of involvement in and with the communities of the region, having contributed to their growth and employment bases. That involvement close coupled with a strong business case were

to page 52

50

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling from page 50 key factors in the decision to rebuild the Lakeland mill after the shattering explosion and fire at the old mill in April 2012.

Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd., began as a lumber wholesaler in 1962.

Ivan Anderson and Bob Stewart developed one-on-one relationships with the local mill owners. They were among the approximately 20 lumber wholesalers operating in the region at the time.

Anderson and Stewart’s involvement and community contacts indicated to the pair potential business opportunities, and it led to the pair’s first mill acquisition.

Apollo Forest Products Ltd’s stud mill, which opened near Fort St. James in 1969, had recently been awarded its first lumber quota and a contract to build ties for B.C. Rail. The provincially-owned railway was building an extension to Dease Lake. The right-of-way was eventually constructed but the government ran out of money and ambition before all the steel was laid. But Apollo Forest Products adapted and flourished under Sinclar.

In 1995, Sinclar made a second com-

mitment to Fort St. James through a joint venture partnership with the Nak’azdli First Nation. Their Tl’oh Forest Products continues to produce finger jointed stud lumber and provide an employment base for band members.

The late 1960s and early 1970s were

an active time for Anderson and Stewart in the community of Vanderhoof, west of Prince George. Nechako Lumber, acquired in 1969, produces studs and one inch boards. L&M Lumber followed about four years later and became a pioneer of successfully converting small timber

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

BCsawmilling The 1980 Lakeland mill incorporated features and techniques in log processing that were to become well established industry standards.

Lumber recovery factors were a driving principle. To attain the greatest amount of marketable product from the mill’s available raw material required extensive scanning from raw logs through breakdown and processing stages of stud lumber production. Tolerances in the mill were finer,

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

Th fo a n s c r re k y a n ly o u n i ing L ng o A so n M K E L lu ic A tio r N ns ote D c

profiles into valuable wood products.

Premium Pellet continued the Vanderhoof plants’ tradition of full wood utilization when it began operation in 2001. The plant turns sawdust and planer shavings from its sister mills into wood pellets.

Back home in Prince George, the Sinclar Group expanded its reach in the forest industry with Winton Homes & Cottages (1996)—builders of premanufactured homes and cottages—and AllPro Building Systems, a supplier of pre-fabricated home packages and preframed cabin kits.

In 1987, Sinclar acquired The Pas Lumber Company Ltd., in Prince George.

Its founders, the Winton family, had been active in the regional forest industry since 1917 and in Prince George since 1954, Doing business as Winton Global, the recession of 2008 forced Sinclar to declare an indefinite shutdown of the aging Winton dimension lumber sawmill at Bear Lake, about 70 kilometres north of Prince George, and its planer mill adjacent to the Nechako River in Prince George.

Permanent closure was announced in September 2011.

As for Lakeland, its Prince George history dates back to 1963. It was owned

by Anderson, Stewart and George Killy beginning in 1973 and through to 1985, when Killy sold his interest in the company. The Anderson and Stewart families continued with their investment in the company. The Lakeland mill and planer went through a major upgrade in 1980.

“It may be the most modern mill in the world ... as far as technology is concerned,” Killy told the media in 1981. “It’s high investment, high recovery.”

throughput was faster and cuts could be tailored to market values.

The new Lakeland mill uses some of those same guiding principles. It has the advantage of incorporating all the sophistication and precision developed by sawmill equipment manufacturers through the intervening years. It makes it easier for Sinclar to deliver the quality products expected by its customers while maximizing the company’s returns on investment.

53

December/January 2015

The Edge Robots and forest machines take centre stage at FPInnovations' FMTC 2015 coming up in April

By Jean-Luc Bernier, M.Sc., FPInnovations

T

he Canadian forest sector is more than ready to accelerate the implementation of technological solutions that will make forest jobs more satisfying, secure and efficient. This would make it easier for the industry to attract crucially needed qualified workers, as it’s estimated that Canada will require some 60,000 forest workers by 2020.

On top of supporting the development of many solutions in collaboration with its members, FPInnovations is organizing a key event this April to bring together experts on innovative technologies

from around the world to Montreal to meet with representatives from the Canadian forest sector. “Robotics, automation, telematics and autonomous vehicles—you really will be able to have a look at the possible future of forestry machines,” says Jean-François Gingras, conference director and Harvesting Systems Research Manager, FPInnovations.

The first Forest Machine Technology Conference (FMTC) being held April 21 to 23 will indeed showcase advanced technologies that might soon be found in a forest near you. The FMTC will bring together stakeholders from the forest industry and other industrial sectors to define the challenges of using advanced technologies in the forest, present the technological potential in other sectors and encourage new partnerships as well as initiatives in R&D. “When we think of robots working in the forest, we may imagine a science fiction movie. Yet it is a possibility that is seriously being considered,” stated Pierre Lapointe, President and Chief Executive Officer of FPInnovations. “As

the forest industry develops, it becomes absolutely necessary to think about what advanced technologies might offer the forest industry in terms of productivity and sustainability,” added Lapointe.

International and Cross-Disciplinary Reach

Conference participants will have the opportunity to listen to forest industry leaders from Canada and Brazil, major manufacturers of international forest machinery and keynote experts from the mining and agricultural sectors. The FMTC will also feature technical presentations on advanced technologies, booths of various advanced technology providers, ideation working groups and presentations of technical and scientific posters.

The FMTC is intended for managers of companies in the forest industry, equipment manufacturers, supply chain managers, technology providers in the forest sector and other sectors, members and partners of Unmanned Systems Canada as well as universities and R&D institutions interested in shaping a vision for the future.

For people interested in contributing toward developing a vision for the future in the forest industry, registration has now begun.

Registration http://fmtc.fpinnovations.ca Montreal, Québec April 21 to 23, 2015

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

55

The Edge

Cross-laminated timber enables taller construction of wood structures

Nordic Engineered Wood

By Tony Kryzanowski

A

member of Alberta’s governing Conservative party recently introduced a private member’s bill in the provincial legislature that would allow builders to construct six-storey wood buildings throughout Alberta—30 percent higher than the current four-storey limit.

This follows the City of Calgary’s decision to allow all-wood, mid-rise building construction up to six storeys. British Columbia and Quebec already allow midrise wood construction up to six-storeys.

Ontario joined them on January 1, 2015.

Political action like this—to allow more wood use in taller all-wood or wood hybrid buildings either for residential or commercial/industrial use—is good news for the Canadian forest industry, says Steve Price, of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions (AI Bio). Furthermore, the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) is likely to accept six-storey, all-wood construction within its “permitted” solutions category when the 2015 edition is released.

Many of these taller buildings will feature new wooden support structures like crosslaminated timber (CLT) instead of concrete or steel. CLT can be engineered for use in building construction as support beams, walls or floors and has strength properties comparable to other non-wood building products. It was first produced commercially in Europe about 15 years ago.

Researchers in the Network on Engineered Wood-based Building Systems (NEWBuildS) have been leading the development of technical performance standards for CLT in Canada.

The most economical uses for CLT are for wall panels but it can also be used in floor construction, says Dr. Y.H. Chui, scientific director for NEWBuildS. From the production standpoint, there is an evolving business opportunity for solid wood producers to attach CLT production plants to existing facilities like sawmills.

Some companies have already done so, as over the past decade two commercial 56

CLT production facilities have already been built in Canada. NEWBuildS and FPInnovations have done the technical groundwork needed by industry to guarantee CLT’s engineered performance when using Canadian wood species.

Engineered wood products like cross laminated timbers “We have models that are becoming more prevalent as an alternative to steel predict how strong CLT and concrete in mid-rise building construction in Canada. is, based on the lumber properties,” says Chui.

AI Bio is an ongoing funder of the specifications for a conceptual 20-storey, NEWBuildS network. Price, AI Bio’s execvirtually all-wood building, with concrete utive director for bioindustrial innovation, use only for the floors and steel in some agrees with Dr. Chui that if the trend tointernal support structures. ward greater CLT use continues, Alberta’s Speaking to an audience of wood solid wood manufacturers should consider product manufacturers, designers and capitalizing on it with investments in CLT architects at the seminar, Dr. Chui said: production, but they should first concen“I’m quite confident that we are going trate on developing the sorting capability to see a tall wood building somewhere to capture the high-quality wood fibre in Canada in the next few years.” CLT is needed to engineer this type of product. proposed as the main support structure Price adds that while other jurisdictions for this building. have been reducing the constraints for The introduction of the National Buildwood use in taller building construction, ing Code of Canada in the 1940s limited Alberta has experienced the opposite wood construction to four storeys because trend because of negative public percepof fire safety and wood durability contion resulting from recent large building cerns. But through research conducted fires, largely during construction. “We felt

by NEWBuildS, FPInnovations, and a that our support of networks like NEWvast network of technical experts working BuildS would assist in Alberta overcoming together across Canada on the perforsome of the constraints that were being mance of wood buildings taller than four considered, and we wanted to overcome storeys—as well as the introduction of those constraints through the transfer of new structural wood products like CLT— knowledge resulting from good, sound greater wood use in mid-rise construction research,” says Price. is making a comeback.

However, he says, more work needs The trend now is to adopt a more perto be done with provincial and municipal formance-based approach in the building building and fire inspectors to better inform code, which provides solutions addressing them about the fire and durability perforthe arguments against greater use of wood mance of wooden building components in taller building construction. like CLT, based on the work conducted by NEWBuildS and especially when paired with an adequate sprinkler system.

For more information about AI Bio AI Bio recently co-sponsored a semisupport for the NEWBuildS network, nar hosted by NEWBuildS at the Univercontact Steve Price at (780) 427-2567 sity of Alberta that discussed the technical or steve.price@albertainnovates.ca.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

The Edge

FPInnovations develops new wood composite panel to meet building code challenges

By Jean-Luc Bernier, M.Sc., FPInnovations

W

henever we walk into a museum, the office, the kids’ school or the shopping mall, most of us unknowingly benefit from the work of thousands of experts that design and enforce practices and obligations that make these places safe. The construction sector refers to these rules as building codes.

As the world changes, new technologies are developed, processes are refined and markets shift their priorities, and building codes must constantly be adapted and improved.

While benefitting the population, these changes can mean big challenges for the industries involved.

The wood products industry is no exception. With the building codes in Canada, the U.S. and other jurisdictions, the wood products industry needs to ensure that its products now meet higher energy-saving requirements than before.

The new requirements, however, represent significant technical, economic and competitive challenges.

Putting its science in service to support the industry, FPInnovations’ research team is already making important headway in this direction. In fact, FPInnovations’ latest report on Development of Multi-Functional Wood Composite Panel Products for Next Generation Building Systems offers some encouraging news, highlighting promising progress with prototype sandwich design panels.

Work on the project got underway in 2011. “With competition ready to displace these traditional wood product markets, developing a new concept from

scratch wasn’t an option,” says Bob Knudson, Research Leader – Engineered Wood Products Manufacturing at FPInnovations.

“We needed a practical, fast-track solution that would combine products already available. In addition to being technically and economically viable, we needed something compatible with existing wood construction practices. Anything requiring

a significant change in building practices—a lengthy process—would defeat the purpose.”

Earlier project work looked at what products were available, including plywood and OSB, which products could be combined and how to combine them, how they would work and potential problems. The multi-functional panels require a host of key performance attributes: structural strength; thermal insulation; moisture control, including wall cavity ventilation; effective attachment to the wood frame; and effective attachment for exterior cladding.

The latest work evaluated prototype panels made with OSB faces and two types of rigid insulation core, dry process wood fibre insulation or extruded polystyrene foam (XPS). It focused on how the multifunctional panels performed: the connection to a wood structure frame, the connection of exterior cladding to the panels, and the lateral load resistance of a wood frame wall construction sheathed with these panels. Simulations of the panels’ thermal and moisture control performance in a typical wood wall construction were

also conducted. The simulations suggest that multi-functional panels made with OSB or plywood faces can perform well in even the coldest climates.

“After all of the work to date with various prototypes, we’ve narrowed it down to something that looks very promising,” Knudson explains. “It’s required a wide range of skills across FPInnovations to get here—expertise with the structural, durability and moisture issues, plus the skills to make these panels.

We’ve also used outside sounding boards and conferred with a lot of different industry people, associations and other research institutes.”

The next steps are now well underway.

FPInnovations has already completed fabrication of the full-size panels. In November, FPInnovations began working with the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures team in Edmonton to construct the first demonstration building. An identical structure will then be built in Vancouver. From there, instrumentation will be installed, followed by the finishing touches (exterior cladding, gypsum board, paint, etc.). FPInnovations will also carry out structural testing on additional full-size panels at its Advanced Building Systems testing facility in Vancouver.

“There are still things to solve along the way,” Knudson adds. “But we’re heading in the right direction with something that will meet the technical, cost and competitive challenges and keep wood manufacturers in the game.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

For more information, contact Bob Knudson at (604) 222-5738 or bob. knudson@fpinnovations.ca.

57

The Edge FirstNationsawmilling

Real world data fuels FPInnovations' forest operations tools

By Jean-Luc Bernier, M.Sc., FPInnovations

Express is designed to compare simple cost scenarios between different machines or methods, rather than develop tactical or strategic analysis.

I

n the FPInnovations treasure chest of innovations, ideas and tools, there are many jewels to be discovered. One of them is a comprehensive forest machine productivity database. It was created and has since been meticulously taken care of by the Harvesting Operations research team in collaboration with hundreds of people in the forest sector.

Field measurements taken over the last several decades date as far back as 1975.

Thousands of entries and data points describe performance characteristics of specific forest equipment. Some of these machines are, of course, now closer to belonging in a museum instead of working their way through thick black spruce forests. Nevertheless, the vast chunk of this mountain of information realistically describes the productivity potential of all the popular machine technology that has navigated through Canada’s forests from coast to coast in the last four decades.

Analyzing the entire forest operations process

FPInnovations aims to help its member organizations increase the efficiency of their operations and develop cost-effective practices, from making the best possible use of forest fibre to efficiently and safely delivering products to end users.

From felling, delimbing and bucking to skidding and forwarding, FPInnovations’ research teams have gathered precious productivity data for every step of the logging operation and its many variants. A wide variety of conditions has also been observed in terms of types of soil, steepness of terrain, season, types of settlement and regeneration dynamic. Also, and most importantly, the productivity of forest machinery was observed and measured for a range of harvesting practices.

FPInnovations has been in a position to achieve this goal by drawing on its comprehensive forest machine productivity database, and forest companies that are members of FPInnovations are benefiting from it. Tools such as FPInterface, FPInterface Express, Provue and the Fuel 58

ProVue

The ProVue software allows questions to be asked directly to FPInnovations’ forest machine productivity database. The software helps forestry contractors choose the best harvesting system according to their operating conditions and harvesting practices. By entering their own data in ProVue, users see what they can expect in terms of productivity based on real world data.

FPSuite, the integrated process control platform – FPDat, FPCom and FPTrack Economy Guide are just a few of the many examples of applications that stem from this mountain of data. They all base their core algorithms on real data. This helps companies make better informed decisions. Moreover, tools from the FPSuite operational platform—FPDat, FPCom and FPTrak—also allow data to be collected from the field in order to support industrial companies in making better management decisions.

FPInterface & FPInterface Express

The FPInterface software platform was initially designed to simulate forestry operations: route building and maintenance, harvesting, silviculture, biomass and transportation. Today, with the latest version of FPInterface, users can carry out analyses on potential scenarios that could lead to optimizations in specific forest operations activities. Designed as a user-friendly tool, FPInterface allows data visualization directly on the forestry map. In fact, all Canadian wood processing plants are now geo-referenced in FPInterface.

FPInterface Express uses the same production equations as FPInterface, but provides the user with a simplified interface presented within a calculation spreadsheet, and without the cartographic aspect of its “big brother”. FPInterface

FPDat, an on-board tool designed to collect data on machine performance and productivity, is key to productive and efficient operations. It is a heavy-duty device and therefore capable of withstanding difficult conditions such as those in which forest, mining and farming equipment operate. It provides operators and managers with information on performance, areas treated and utilization rates. The data can be viewed and analyzed on the FPTrak web interface and downloaded to carry out personalized analyses.

Innovations from the ground up Though collaborative research programs, FPInnovations develops science to help the Canadian forest industry increase its efficiency, its capacity and, in turn, its competitiveness. As the saying goes, you can’t improve what you can’t measure.

FPInnovations has measured the many parameters of forest machine productivity and still does, day in and day out. Only by relying on tools fed by real-world data will the sector be able to transform its culture and practices, and truly compete in today’s globalized market.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

For more information on FPInnovations’ harvesting operations research program and tools, please contact Jean-François Gingras at 514-7824543 or jean-francois.gingras@fpinnovations.ca

The Edge

CWFC addresses changing land use priorities with innovation forest management expertise offer to new partners

By Tony Kryzanowski

T

he Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) continues to refresh its research program. It has identified several opportunities where it can share its extensive knowledge in forest management practices with new partners working in a wider variety of landscapes, given so many examples of changing land use priorities and their potential impacts on Canada’ s commercial forest.

Over several decades, CWFC and the Canadian Forest Service have accumulated extensive knowledge on afforestation, enhanced forest management practices, and production of high yield, short rotation woody crops. It is looking for new avenues to share this knowledge. This research refreshment at CWFC also reflects a growing concern within government and the forest industry about the amount of productive forest being lost every year from nonforestry related activities on the landscape.

Derek Sidders, CWFC Prairie Regional Co-ordinator and Program Manager, says the organization is developing partnerships to address varying land use priorities with a focus on innovative reforestation to counteract the reduction or loss of productive forest disturbed by pests, pathogens or wildfire, sub-surface resource extraction or urban sprawl.

They are also investigating impacts of forest management practices over the past four decades, what impact they are having on the mid- to long-term fibre supply, and how these managed sites could be enhanced by adopting additional forest management applications; and refining forest management practices to reduce risk to natural and introduced hazards. All of this is being done while supporting the expansion and transformation of the Canadian forest industry, looking specifically at the areas of bio-energy and specialty bio-products, as well as maintaining quality solid wood product and pulp feedstock.

“Changing forest land use priorities is impacting a significant amount of forest in Canada,” says Sidders. “Some of these lands have moderate to high productivity potential, and as such, we should be looking to expand the forest land base to maintain that forest cover and fibre.”

The question is how to establish that forest cover economically to counteract loss of forest land as a result of land fragmentation, whether from urban sprawl or industrial use. One obvious approach is land reclamation for disturbed forest sites, and CWFC wants to develop collaborations with industry in this regard, particularly with its knowledge of

natural forest renewal and establishing short rotation woody crops. However, that alone may not be the only or the most economical approach. That’s where CWFC’s knowledge, experience, and approach can really make a difference.

Sidders says establishing forest cover on parcels outside of areas where land or industrial development is occurring may be more economical from a reforestation standpoint, because in addition to the economics and ecological values, in some cases there are also scale and timing issues. Oil and gas companies, for example, often keep lease sites and roads open for decades despite inactivity on many of these sites, and many of these sites may be small and low value.

Another area where CWFC believes it can play an important role is developing mitigation strategies to help Canada and the forest industry adapt to climate change, because it has the potential to have an adverse social impact, threaten the sustainable commercial fibre supply and upset the ecosystem balance particularly along the forest fringe.

Sidders says that CWFC will also investigate commercial forests managed by the forest community from the early-1970s to the late-1990s, when more intensive and progressive forest management and silvicultural practices were adopted. “And we will look at the impact of those activities on the 10 to 30 to 50 year wood supply.”

“There’s been a lot of time spent focusing on the establishment and maintenance of preferred crops,” says Sidders. “Now it is time to look at maintaining, managing and manipulating them to access feedstocks that are desirable for the forest industry and protect our investment and environment.”

In keeping with CWFC’s mandate to contribute to the competitiveness of the Canadian forest industry, CWFC has also identified opportunities where it can work more closely with industry to establish fibre crops for specific end uses.

“There are opportunities to adapt short rotation woody crops close to urban centres where there are specific feedstock requirements or fibre characteristics for an expanding industry, whether it be for specialty bio-products or conventional products,” says Sidders. The goal is to establish these feedstocks in appropriate locations to minimize transportation costs to give industry access to a very consistent feedstock source.

For more information about these new initiatives at CWFC, contact Derek Sidders, CWFC Prairie Regional Coordinator and Program Manager at (780) 435-7355 or Derek.Sidders@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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equipmentprofile

New grapple yard for British Columbia loggers

60

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

der

equipmentprofile

By Jim Girvan Working with its industry-leading design expertise—and with an industry heritage reaching back decades—T-Mar Industries recently introduced the Log Champ 550, its new steep slope grapple yarder designed to take on the increasing volumes of second-growth timber in B.C.

G

eorge Lambert, the president of T-Mar Industries in Campbell River, B.C., does not see himself as a visionary. But the need for a new steep slope grapple yarder specifically designed to address the increasing volumes of second-growth timber in B.C. became clear to him many years ago.

“We did a study in 2009 that showed a few things,” Lambert explained. “That the proportion of second-growth harvest on the B.C. coast would increase significantly over time, and that the current fleet of grapple yarders is not suitable for secondgrowth harvest given their operating costs, size, and the lower value of logs that result from second-growth forests. The study also showed that WorkSafe BC regulations restrict the use of conventional, groundbased equipment on slopes over 40 per cent, the same terrain where the majority of grapple yarder harvest has taken place over the last few decades, and a forecast increase in steep slope harvesting in the B.C. Interior after the beetle.

“Together with interest from abroad, we saw the need for a new generation machine designed specifically to harvest this volume on these slopes in a safe and cost effective manner.”

A lot of the traditional grapple yarding machines used on the coast are old and in various states of repair and they were all designed for larger, more valuable logs, Lambert added. “We needed a new solution to make second-growth and B.C. Interior harvesting viable on steep slopes—and we knew we could do it.”

The T-Mar design team has deep roots in the forest industry. Jim Mantle has a long history designing forestry machinery used on coastal British Columbia as the lead designer at Mantle Industries, and then lead designer at Cypress Equipment.

In 1995, Mantle joined T-Mar Industries and assumed the role of engineering manager and lead designer. This allowed T-Mar to develop as a well-regarded manufacturer of forestry equipment. Mantle is highly regarded by the industry as one of the best designers of his generation.

Ed Hughes was a senior engineer and designer at Madill Equipment from 19772008. Hughes joined T-Mar in 2008 to augment their engineering group and positioned T-Mar to be able to develop a new generation of forestry machinery.

to page 62 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

61

equipmentprofile There was a particular focus on meeting the one-piece move criteria with the Log Champ 550. With an operating weight of 105,000 pounds, shipping width of 12 feet 6 inches and shipping height of 11 feet 6 inches, the entire machine can be moved as a single piece.

from page 61 Hughes’ experience with grapple equipment design is unparalleled.

George Lambert’s son, Tyson, joined the T-Mar team in 2011 and brought with him university training in computer technology and controls. His addition to the design team brought a new and unique system to the table.

But with a sputtering forest industry in the midst of a global economic recession, why did T-Mar take the risk of engineering a completely new design when the forest industry was down and out?

“We knew that the knowledge of this type of product and design rested with our team, two of which are approaching retirement,” laughs Lambert. “If we didn’t do it, there was a risk that their collective knowledge base might be lost—and with the industry coming back after the recession, we knew we had the time to get the design right.”

62

With the skills, experience and confidence that they could design something that would work for this new application, they decided to completely modernize the traditional machines including a new winch, power train, hydraulics, engine and superstructure to meet the design objectives, all with efficiency, speed, weight and transport in mind.

There were plenty of challenges over the next four years as the machine came to life, with a particular focus on meeting the one-piece move criteria.

The resulting Log Champ 550 (LC550) was designed using solid modelling in Auto Desk Inventor, a computer engineering design software that allows the building of a three-dimensional model, and then drawings to be pulled out. As a result, every part fits when it is manufactured. Stress and weight analysis can be done prior to ever building the machine.

This program, which proved to be a key factor in T-Mar’s success, was traditionally

used for fighter jet designs and has only recently become available for this type of application.

“We came up with some pretty clever ideas,” notes George Lambert. “We used some conventional stuff that worked on other machines, but updated everything else including the layout of the powertrain, a modern regeneration clutch which is lighter with higher torque—less weight being the key—and a unique superstructure and gantry that holds it all together.”

Mantle and Hughes put their collective experience and skills into the design. This was the first time they had worked together, and the result was a true collaboration of skills and experience. Mantle designed the winch and Hughes designed the superstructure and gantry. “They knew what would not work and what they did not want to do,” says Lambert. “They used experience not available anywhere in the world—and the result speaks for itself.”

The LC550 utilizes a Cat 9 litre engine, Cat CX28 Powershift transmission with lockup torque converter and five speeds forward, a new generation 25-inch Wichita regenerating clutch and, of course, the side by side winch, all built on a T-Mar designed mainframe utilizing a Cat Forestry undercarriage.

The main drums have a 1,500 foot (3/4 inch) capacity and the haulback drum has a 3,100 foot (3/4 inch) capacity. The gantry is a 35-foot walking fairlead design.

With an operating weight of 105,000 pounds, shipping width of 12 feet 6 inches and shipping height of 11 feet 6 inches, the entire machine can be moved as a single piece.

But it is the PYC (Precision Yarder Control) system that is the signature advancement in the machine. “We had to have a modern controller to interface with the operator and the parts of the machine we were trying to control,” explains Tyson Lambert. “The result is a precise and easy to control computerized system that can be customized to the user. It is significantly easier to operate than any machine like it.”

On its maiden voyage, the Log Champ is being used by new owners Southview

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

equipmentprofile Forest Services Ltd. on Redonda Island, on B.C.’s lower coast, yarding secondgrowth fir.

Southview Forest owner Howie McKamey said they carefully thought things through when they considered the LC550 purchase. “We asked ourselves two questions: First, what is our timber going to look like in the future? And second, where is this timber going to be? The answers were a diet of largely second growth timber back up on the hills on patches of ground that are too severe for conventional ground base equipment.”

The LC550 made a lot of sense for them in a number of respects, says McKamey. “Second growth wood is smaller, so a smaller yarder makes sense. We will be moving lots, so a one piece move yarder makes sense. A yarder with versatile logging capabilities—we will be faced with logging among retention trees or poor deflection where we need skyline capabilities—also makes sense. And a smaller yarder requires less power to run. Less power translates into less fuel and cost.”

But there is really more to the story. “I don’t believe the industry really understands the cost of downtime or the cost of lost productivity,” notes McKamey. “There are only so many yarding days in a year and we can’t afford to lose many. How does the downtime of a key piece affect the equipment down the chain? You can have a loader, processor, log trucks and an entire log sort that are all affected. A day of lost productivity in a camp results in enormous lost revenue. Yes, new equipment breaks down, but not as much as older iron”.

And with the shortage of experienced yarder engineers and hook tenders in the industry, the decision became easy. “Will it be easier to attract people to run a new piece of equipment? We thought so—and in fact we have had applicants send in resumes with a note they would like to have a job on the Log Champ. Will it be easier to train young operators on the new yarder? We believe so,” smiles McKamey.

But with a brand new state-of-the-art piece of equipment to own and operate, how did Southview Forest make financing affordable? “First, we discussed buying a new yarder with our banker. We demonstrated that grapple yarders do not depreciate like other pieces of logging equipment, and as a result amortized the purchase over six years which reduced our unit costs of production; that we had a reasonable balance sheet; showed some resale history; and we had the bankers’ confidence that we maintain our equipment well.

“And with the shortage of grapple yarders in B.C., the value of well-maintained used grapple yarders is at an all-time high.

We were fortunate to sell one and end up with a substantial down payment on the new one,” added McKamey.

“We couldn’t be happier with the result so far,” summarizes T-Mar’s George Lambert. “We see the Log Champ as the first significant step towards a company strategy to be global leaders in steep slope harvesting solutions. We have started

construction of the second unit and have had serious inquiries from B.C., the U.S. and abroad. We hope to build and deliver three to four units per year.”

Jim Girvan, RPF, MBA, is the principal of MDT Management Decision and Technology of Ladysmith, B.C., where he provides consulting support in the areas of timber supply and fibre flow modeling and analysis, industry forecasting, statistical analysis, license acquisition and forest policy.

INTRODUCING THE NEW

LOG CHAMP 550

• One piece move • Smooth, powerful and fast • Easier to operate • Excellent visibility • Modern, responsive, adjustable control system • Best ever service access COST EFFECTIVE FINANCING OPTIONS AVAILABLE

To learn more about T-Mar’s Custom Manufacturing capabilities go to

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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equipmentprofile

Going four-whe with Waratah’s new 622C 4x4 head Waratah’s new 622C 4x4 multi-tree processing head with four roller drive is getting solid praise from the folks at McNeil and Sons Logging in the B.C. Interior.

64

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

equipmentprofile

eeling Steve Tresierra (right) of logging contractor McNeil and Sons is a big fan of the new Waratah 622C head with its four roller drive. The 622C four roller easily pulls in the larger wood and increases feed speed. “It’s excellent,” says Tresierra.

By Jim Stirling

P

erformance is persuasive—and Waratah’s new 622C 4x4 multi-tree processing head is proving its effectiveness in the bush, getting the job done where it counts.

The harvesting crews with B.C.’s McNeil and Sons Logging have seen for themselves what the 622C head can do in both multi-tree and single stem processing applications.

“I was a bit iffy to begin with,” conceded Steve Tresierra, logging/foreman with McNeil and Sons, based at 100 Mile House in British Columbia’s southern Cariboo region. Tresierra’s natural wariness comes from having run processors for more than 10 years, and despite being a big fan and user of Waratah heads in

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equipmentprofile

McNeil and Sons teamed the Waratah 622C to a John Deere 2154D, a 21 ton class excavator well suited to the 4x4 head which is heavier than the 622B. "Our 2154D has enough flow to provide the power that the 622C head needs,” says Steve Tresierra.

“They're a great combination together." from page 65

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general. Loggers have learned it’s wise to adopt a “prove it” attitude about equipment. But about six weeks and approximately 400 hours experiencing the 622C dissipated all remnants of iffiness. “We love this head. It’s excellent,” Tresierra enthused. He offers an example for the endorsement. “I ran it through some big fir. It processed two 14 inch diameter peelers at the same time consistently within half-a-centimetre of target size.”

The 622C four roller easily pulls in the larger wood and increases feed speed, he added.

Stem size uniformity is not a multistemming prerequisite for the 622C. “One really great thing about the 622C is that when multi-stemming, the trees don’t all have to be the same size,” he said. Part of that is attributable to Waratah’s unique auto stem alignment system coupled with a shuffling feature for independent log driving that limits trim waste when multi stem processing.

“In small to medium size wood, multistemming is the way to go and definitely boosts our productivity. Even in the bigger wood, where you would want to single stem more, the extra power in the head really goes a long way to contributing to

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

equipmentprofile the speed and smoothness of operating the machine,” continued Tresierra.

“A lot of thought has been put into the design of the 622C head,” he noted.

Tresierra cited features like a ¾ main saw with Automatic chain tensioning; the 360 degree continuous head rotation capability to help boost operator productivity, and a new, more efficient hydraulic valve design contributes to increasing hydraulic flow. “They’ve reconfigured the entire head, in my opinion.”

The on-board automation system also passes muster with Tresierra. “It’s easy to go through, all on one touch screen about three inches thick. It’s very user-friendly.”

Tresierra reckons processor operators familiar with the Waratah 622B will encounter few problems getting comfortable with and getting the most from the 622C 4x4. “If you’re familiar with the 622B, then it’s best to just have some fun with the new head for the first little while, let it show you what it can do,” he recommended.

McNeil and Sons teamed this Waratah 622C to a John Deere 2154D, a 21 ton class excavator well suited to the 4x4 head which is heavier than the 622B. Tresierra concurred. “Our 2154D has enough flow to provide the power that the 622C head needs. They’re a great combination together.”

The pair delivers an additional advantage. “Our 2154D with the 622C has increased our production a lot, but the fuel efficiency seems pretty comparable to our other (excavator) machines. You get more trees processed using the same amount of fuel,” explained Tresierra.

“Our little company has always tried to keep up with technological changes,” pointed out John McNeil, a partner in the family-run log harvesting and hauling company which traces its forest industry pedigree back into the 1950s. These days, McNeil and Sons Logging is not exactly the “little” company McNeil described.

It’s followed the trend of licencees opting for fewer and larger log harvesting contractors. Latterly, McNeil and Sons has been harvesting about 350,000 cubic metres a year for West Fraser Timber, sending volumes to the company’s processing plants in both Chasm and 100 Mile House.

McNeil and Sons operates 20 pieces of logging equipment to produce its volumes. The fleet includes three Tigercat 870C bunchers, a Cat D8 dozer, four Deere 748H skidders, a Deere 850J dozer, four Deere 2154 log loaders, a 2154 and a 2454 Deere roadbuilder, and

five John Deere 2154D processors with Waratah heads.

“The idea of multi-stemming has always interested us. And especially so now when we’re often operating in .2 cubic metre piece sizes,” noted McNeil. The log processing function generally—and how efficiently it’s being performed specifically—is really important to the mills, he added. For that reason, the process has always been under McNeil and Sons microscope as it strives to find ways to improve. In 1998,

for example, the logging contractor put a couple of the Lim-mit delimber processors from Risley Equipment through their quality control paces. More recently, McNeil tried more than one new processor brand before deciding on the 622c 4x4.

McNeil and Sons complements its log harvesting activities with a log hauling

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equipmentprofile from page 67 side. The company runs eight of its own logging trucks—five Freightliners and three Western Stars—and sub-contracts six others from regional owner operators.

When the Logging & Sawmilling Journal visited, McNeil and Sons logging crews were working on various cutting permits about 70 kilometres east of 100 Mile House, near Bowers Lake.

The Waratah 622C on the JD 2154D were proving what they could do and helping make converts of the crew. In total there were about 135,000 cubic metres in the area scheduled for harvesting and delivery to West Fraser mills. The 100 Mile region encompasses a diverse range of biogeoclimatic zones and harvesting conditions. But McNeil has few concerns about the 622C/2154D combination’s versatility under differing operating and ground conditions.

In winter, company crews are often assigned wetter ground with bigger diameter wood; conversely in the summer, it’s typically smaller wood and drier sites. McNeil reckons the 622C has got what it takes to get the right quality of wood processed on the ground for the company—wherever they’re operating.

The nitty-gritty on Waratah’s new 622C head

W

aratah’s HTH 622C 4x4, four-roller processing head was designed with input coming directly from B.C. loggers working alongside Waratah’s regional and overseas engineering teams.

“We studied B.C. licencee field results for multi-tree processing and it was evident from contractors and licencee feedback that what was often being gained in productivity through multi-tree processing was also risking or leaving the quality aspect behind,” said Rob Agassiz, North America Operations and Distribution Manager for Waratah.

“Our customers approached us for a 622 model that would do everything our 622B model can do for single stem productivity and quality, but coupled to a level of multi-stemming capability where contractors have a stronger chance of being able to meet saw log quality specs for lengths and diameter,” said Agassiz. “Our customers requested this new head be

68 68

capable of feeding a larger diameter range of stems when multi-stemming.

“At the same time, they wanted the ability to push the envelope in handling peelers and large log sorts while matched to a 21 ton carrier to minimize capital cost and maximize fuel efficiency,” added Agassiz.

The 622C has a number of new innovations including eleven new patents pending, said Agassiz. New features like two stem-diameter readout on the display during multi-stemming means an operator does not need to guess on the two separate stem diameters, and provides individual log volume recording.

The head’s dual photo eye-independent find-end feature uses an industry first laser technology in tandem for find end of either multi-stem logs or single stem applications. The dual laser design does not need to be cleaned for upwards of 400 hours. Waratah’s automated shuffling mode is a step forward in traditional

independent log driving capabilities, said Agassiz. This patent pending feature allows a one button push for auto alignment of both stems (using the dual lasers), and then drives both trees automatically to the target length.

In addition, a new 622C hydraulic valve was designed to enable the drive arms to pendulum to maintain traction even with two stems of varied diameter; this allows the 622C to be run optionally without a drive arm link. The head is 800 lbs heavier than the Waratah 622B 3 roller model. The 622c 4x4 is coupled to a long list of standard features including Waratah’s 3/4 pitch main saw unit with automatic chain tensioning, and the 360 continuous rotation rotator which facilitates increased operator control and productivity, says the company.

Logging & & Sawmilling Sawmilling Journal Journal -- December/January December/January 2015 2015 Logging

equipmentprofile

Right tool for the job

Two Sennebogen 830MT D material handling machines have proven to be the right machine for the specific jobs—requiring both versatility and a deft touch—at two Stella Jones pole plants in British Columbia.

By Jim Stirling

S

electing the right machine for a specific job is key to running a cost efficient operation. The decision is challenging when the work place is a log yard and the material handling within it requires both versatility and a deft touch.

The material handling equipment in Stella-Jones Canada Inc.’s pole processing plant in Prince George, British Columbia had served the company well but was old and in need of replacement.

“We took a look at different makes of machine to find the right one for us,” said Andy Vogt, Stella-Jones plant manager in Prince George.

As it turned out, the answer was close to home. A Sennebogen 830MT D which had been used in recent local equipment demos was sitting in dealer Great West Equipment’s yard in Prince George.

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“Great West is our regular equipment dealer—they’re just down the road from us— and they’ve always looked after our needs well, and given us the service we require,” added Vogt.

The Stella-Jones team took a close look at the Sennebogen 830MT D and liked what they saw.

Robert Stewart, who was plant manager at Stella-Jones in Prince George when the business plan to acquire the machine was first put together, took up the story.

“The Sennebogen has a lot of hydraulic power. It takes a fine touch to grab a large load without damaging the wood,” says Stewart, who is now sales manager with Stella-Jones in Prince George.

“The controls on the Sennebogen are very user friendly and the hydraulics are very responsive. We also found that the stance of the machine, with its wide wheelbase, is much better for getting

around—even in soft ground—than what we experienced before.”

The only significant change required on the Sennebogen was to customize the Rotobec grapple on the machine. The tines and tips were widened to minimize damage during wood handling.

“We have to be gentle with the poles.

We’re dealing with a finished product,” explained Vogt. “It just makes sense.”

The versatility requirements of the Sennebogen 830 at Stella-Jones are that it needs to be a lift and load, pick and carry machine. They use it to load and unload rail cars and to transport poles to the inspection yard, the finish stage and the other working areas around the yard, said Vogt. And until recently, the machine was also used to handle and load railway ties.

They required the Sennebogen to move and load square timber with the same dexterity as round wood.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

equipmentprofile

One of the features of the Sennebogen 830MT D is its elevating operator’s cab and the improved vision and comfort it offers. “You quickly get used to the high lift cab—it helps to get the job done better,” said Wayne Karlson (above, right), the Sennebogen’s regular operator, with Andy Vogt, Stella-Jones plant manager in Prince George.

The Sennebogen 830 has a heavy duty undercarriage engineered for towing stresses and a drive train for pulling loads.

The railway tie trailers used in the Prince George yard loaded up to about 75,000 pounds. The nearly 85,000 pound rubbertired Sennebogen is powered by a Cummins 206 hp engine.

Stella-Jones is a manufacturer of treated wood products with plants across North America. The company provides products primarily for railway companies, telecom providers and electrical transmission utilities.

The main end use for the company’s Prince George plant is now electrical distribution utility poles, continued Vogt. The most common lengths produced are in the 40 to 45 foot range with some customer requirements for 80 to 100 feet long poles.

The Sennebogen needs to handle the longer lengths with the same dexterity and velvet touch as the shorter poles. The poles are mainly of cedar and Douglas fir and acquired from as far away as Idaho, he added. That was not always the case. Sourcing the wood used to be much simpler: the poles were predominantly pine from regional forests. But the mountain pine beetle epidemic has put an end to that.

“The Sennebogen has given us no headaches or unwanted surprises since going to work for us about a year-and-a-half ago,” reported Vogt. The lack of surprises includes a built-in fuel efficiency. Fuel consumption with the Sennebogen hasn’t been an issue, he added.

One of the features of the 830 is its elevating operator’s cab and the improved vision and comfort it offers. Adjusting the cab’s height to match the machine’s function is an advantage when dealing with a finished product. The operator can see the tops of the rail cars when loading, for example.

“You quickly get used to the high lift cab,” said Wayne Karlson, the Sennebogen’s regular operator. “It helps to get the job done better.”

Interestingly, another Stella-Jones operation to the south, in B.C.’s Kootenay region east of Cranbrook, was discovering the same benefits of the Sennebogen 830 quite independently from the experience of the management team at the Prince George plant. The Galloway pole processing plant near the Montana border was recently acquired by Stella-Jones and is on the site of the old Selkirk Forest Products operation.

Dealer Great West Equipment played a role

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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equipmentprofile

The mobility of the Sennebogen 830 has proved to be an important factor for the two Stella-Jones operations in B.C., as they have large yards. They report that with a separate transmission on each axle, the Sennebogen pulls smoother, it doesn’t shift as hard and it’s more stable. from page 71 in this acquisition of the Sennebogen 830, just as it has up north in Prince George.

“We had already looked at the other two big names in material handling,” recalled Richard Harkies, Stella-Jones plant manager in Galloway. The people at Great West told Harkies about the Sennebogen

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and as a result, he travelled to an equipment demo of the 830 near Lavington in the Okanagan.

“I hadn’t heard of the Sennebogen before,” confessed Harkies. He knows all about them now and the compatible match the machine makes with his plant’s requirements.

As was discovered in Prince George,

the mobility of the Sennebogen proved an important factor. “We have to drive half-a-mile from one end of the yard to the other. With a separate transmission on each axle, it pulls smoother, it doesn’t shift as hard and it’s more stable,” he said.

It all adds up to the Sennebogen 830 proving itself to be the right machine for the job.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

SUPPLIERNEWSLINE DEMO International returns to the West Coast

Mark your 2016 calendar—the Canadian Woodlands Forum’s flagship event, DEMO International, will be held in Maple Ridge, British Columbia September 22-24, 2016.

The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia will host the event at their Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, about an hour’s drive east of downtown Vancouver.

This world class event, occurring only every four years, will mark the 13th edition of DEMO International. During the course of its 49-year history, DEMO International has evolved into one of North America’s largest and unique outdoor equipment shows. The “all live and in action, in-woods” equipment show will attract over 150 exhibitors featuring the latest technologies in equipment, products and services covering all aspects of woodlands operations. Past shows have attracted anywhere from 5,000 to 16,000 individuals interested in forestry, from around the world.

The UBC Knapp Research Forest has been helping fill the need for research, demonstration and education on 5,153 hectares of land owned by the University of British Columbia since 1949. The Knapp Forest is a unique “working forest” that contains stands ranging from new plantations to old growth and is accessed by a network of over 180 kilometres of forest roads, bridges and trails. It also contains a working sawmill and a retreat center at Loon Lake. The Knapp Forest is truly a multiple use research forest, providing an ideal location and forested venue for an event of the scope of DEMO International 2016.

In addition, the Canadian Woodlands Forum says that they will work once again with Master Promotions Ltd., Canada’s largest independent trade and consumer event management company, who will provide professional management services on behalf of the CWF. The CWF is a not-for-profit membership based organization recognized for its commitment to improving the efficiency and profitability of knowledge-based woodlands operations. The programs and services offered by the CWF help foster improved communication and business relationships, and provide the opportunity for members to network and share best practices, technologies and innovation. www.masterpromotions.ca 74

By Tony Kryzanowski

Tigercat FPT engine powers D-series loaders

Tigercat recently released its next generation 250D and T250D loaders. The D-series loaders are powered by the Tigercat FPT N67 Tier 4i engine, delivering 215 hp. The high horsepower Tigercat engine is said to be extremely fuel-efficient and positions the 250D/T250D at the top end of its size class.

Tigercat has introduced additional enhancements to the D-series loaders to increase productivity and performance, especially with respect to multifunctioning capabilities. With a highly refined hydraulic system, the main boom, travel and grapple functions are now routed through a new control valve, which improves multi-functioning performance and response. A separate valve is used solely for attachments and auxiliary hydraulics. The electronic controls have been replaced with pilot controls and the new joystick handles are taller, with improved ergonomics.

Other design features that maximize comfort and daily service access for the operator include the large entry platform, an air ride suspension seat and insulation and isolation mounting for reduced vibration and in-cab noise levels. The engine and hydraulic component layout has been improved, with easy access and serviceability in mind.

Tigercat FPT engines meet Tier 4 emission levels without the need for variable geometry turbochargers, an EGR system, a higher capacity cooling system, an intake throttle body or a diesel particulate filter. Furthermore, the engine series offers improved reliability and lower long-term maintenance costs. www.tigercat.com

Andritz rolls out wireless heat sensor for pelletizers

The global demand for wood pellets as a cleaner fuel source used in heating and energy generation has placed tremendous pressure on the industry and equipment manufacturers to produce higher volumes, quicker and cheaper.

Andritz Inc. and SST Wireless Inc. have collaborated to produce a customized version of SST’s wireless heat sensor technology for deployment on Andritz’s wood pelletizers as an OEM option.

The system will include SST’s high temperature sensors that are installed directly on to the rollers to provide real time monitoring of critical temperatures. Andritz will install a complete system at its Muncy, PA facility to demonstrate the technology and establish best practices and recommendations to reduce downtime and accidents caused by overheating of rollers and bearing shafts.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

to page 76

See us at the

Oregon Logging Conference 2015

Purpose-built

from the ground up Log Loaders from SENNEBOGEN – 44,000 lbs. to 750,000 lbs.

Simple design… Lift more. Move faster. Save fuel. Run longer. www.sennebogen-na.com Tel: +1-704-347-4910

suppliernewsline from page 74 SST’s Wireless Industrial Heat Detection (WIHD) offers an opportunity to directly measure the temperature of the rollers and other critical components inside the pellet machines while in operation. The system relays temperature readings in real time which provides actionable data for operators. www.andritz.com

Prime-Tech improves top-of-the line PT-300 unit

Drawing on nearly 10 years of technical experience, the Prime-Tech team has just completed design of the new PT-300.

The latest version of this 275 horsepower tracked, self-propelled carrier is said to be best suited for forestry management, land clearing and road construction.

The PT-300 introduces improvements for customers who are already familiar with the unit and have come to appreciate its outstanding performance and dependability, the company says.

In its brand new form, the PT-300 preserves the features of the previous model, with new additions such as a cabin that is 5” higher; an optional new compressed air cleaning system for the front windshield that ensures better visibility in case of dust or debris build-up; increased ground clearance from 16” to 18”; and a full tilting cabin for thorough servicing of all components. www.prime-tech.com

Tech advances for Autolog’s ProGrader optimizer

Autolog is a pioneer in optimizing planing processes, with over 15 years of experience in linear technology, and the company has recently announced some additional technological advances for its ProGrader optimizer.

Optimizer : • Analysis software allows for the classification of "decking" wood products (best face versus reverse face). It’s possible to make cuts in two with one of the two inverted pieces.

• A new generation of higher performing components has reduced the number of system computers by 30 per cent • The process for tracking pieces for analysis and quality control has increased from 150,000 to 25,000,000 pieces Linear Tracking System : • A control module called a Linear Tracking System (LTS) provides technical staff with detailed and precise data on the tracking and synchronizing of pieces according to their position, the space between them and the production line’s speed • LTS features include: – Automatic positioning of the drawer containing the 2D, 3D and tracheid readers, takes place during production changeover – The system provides tools to monitor and improve the planer’s log drive flow to optimize the power supply for the 76

trimmer and reduce downtime – In optimal conditions, the LTS provides tools to diagnose and maintain the planing line’s complimentary systems, such as the moisture meter and the stress rating machine (MSR) – An integrated oscilloscope improves calibration precision and cuts down repair time Support for UV code printheads : • A new support model for UV code printheads can be installed in a much more confined space at the back of the ProGrader • The heads can be placed in three positions: top, bottom and sideways • The system uses the same pneumatic adjustment system as the guide used in the front of the ProGrader, reducing the number of spare parts • The module’s vertical clearance is pneumatic and requires no physical effort www.autolog.com

Komatsu launches new C144 harvesting head

Komatsu America Corp now offers its new high capacity C144 harvesting head, the second model in its new C-series family of “carry-style” heads.

Weighing in at 3086 lbs, the high performance C144 has a recommended DBH working range of 8” to 20” diameter and has a 28” maximum cutting diameter. It is available installed on Komatsu 931.1 and 941.1 harvesters, and can be installed on other carriers as a loose head.

The C144 features a new robust frame design for improved durability and reliability, and a new swing damping system for more responsive head control. The 40 degree rearward tilt angle provides fast feeding performance and reduces head frame stress when harvesting and/or reaching on downhill slopes.

The feed system is completely new, using four hydraulic motors and four driven rollers. The standard single belly roller is now supplemented by an additional feed roller located in the feed path. The unique addition of the second roller ensures more contact with the stem, creating feeding force of up to 6654 lbf. With a maximum feed speed up to 16.4 ft/sec., Komatsu says that operators can handle more difficult trees and limbs. The feed roller hydraulic circuit has a differential function to ensure

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to page 78

For more information, please contact: Mark Cusack, National Show Manager mcusack@mpltd.ca • 1-888-454-7469

suppliernewsline from page 76 that stem feeding will continue even if one feed roller does not have a full grip on the stem.

The C144 is equipped with two upper and two lower hydraulically controlled delimbing knives, and a fixed vertical top knife.

The upper knives are specially designed to handle trees with tough limbs, such as lodgepole pine. The leading right upper knife has a ramped cutting edge to assist in cutting larger branches. www.komatsuforest.us

Trelleborg Tire Book app now available for all mobile devices

Trelleborg has extended its digital offering with the launch of its Tire Book app, the digital version of its technical catalogue, for use on iOS and Android smartphones.

The app, already available for use on iOS and Android tablets, enables users to access Trelleborg’s technical advice.

The intuitive app showcases Trelleborg’s forestry tire ranges, including information on the suitability of each range across multiple applications. It gives each tire’s optimum inflation pressures in relation to specific applications, loads and speeds and provides comprehensive practical advice on tire maintenance, storage and use.

The Tire Book app is regularly updated to ensure that technical data on Trelleborg tires and solutions is always up to date and accurate. www.trellebog.com/wheelsystems/apps

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Hyundai unveils new high chassis excavator

Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas Inc. recently unveiled its R330LC9A HC excavator.

This model was built with many enhanced features and benefits compared to prior models including a certified Tier 4 Interim engine upgrade, improved hydraulics, increased operator comfort and added durability.

The R330LC-9A HC offers a high chassis feature making it an ideal match for forestry applications where maneuvering through piles of timber is essential.

The R330LC-9A HC has an operating weight of 74,960 lbs and is powered by a 268 hp Cummins QSL9 Tier 4 Interim Engine. The engine is complimented by Cummins’ VGT turbocharger, which continuously varies the airflow boost to precisely match engine rpm and load demands for optimal performance.

Other innovations such as the variable speed fan clutch, twostage auto deceleration system and the economy mode help to conserve fuel and reduce environmental impact. Plus, operators can choose between three unique engine modes—power, standard and economy—which enable the machine to switch between full power and reduced fuel consumption, according to the user’s preference. www.hceamericas.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

suppliernewsline

New Link-Belt X4 excavators now available

Four new Link-Belt X4 excavator models are now available in Canada. These new models feature advanced, electronically-controlled Isuzu engines that meet Final Tier 4 requirements, with up to 12 per cent improved fuel efficiency than previous models.

Diesel particulate filters (DPFs) are not required, and this emissions solution is used across all X4 models. New features include a 30 per cent larger control valve that creates a larger hydraulic passage area, and larger spools and advanced controls to maximize hydraulic system control and responsiveness. Two electrically-controlled Kawasaki variabledisplacement axial-piston pumps and one Kawasaki

gear pump assure that hydraulic flow is delivered precisely when and where it’s needed. The result is more maneuverability and precision across all operating modes, smoother machine operation and up to 12 per cent faster cycle times, says the company.

The X4 excavator cab is said to offer better operator ergonomics and comfort. A large, automotivegrade high-back seat provides unprecedented lumbar support and reclines at a 65 degree angle for a relaxed environment during breaks. Arm rests move proportionally with the console, which means that the distance and angle between joysticks and operator remains the same, no matter how the seat is adjusted. With a large, 7” LED color monitor to interface with the machine, an operator can easily navigate a full menu of user-friendly controls to take full command of the excavator and attachments. www.lbxco.com

New wheel load scales with built-in solar charging

Intercomp, the world’s largest manufacturer of portable wheel load scales, has updated its most popular wheel load scale models.

A solar charger built into the scale indicator allows the scales to operate continuously without requiring direct power charging. This solar boost makes Intercomp scales even more turnkey, and eliminates the need to recharge batteries in between uses.

This time-saving, solar charging technology will be standard on all PT300, PT300DW, LP600 and LP600-15T wheel load scales. www.intercompcompany.com

Lives Lived: Phil Musgrave - 1921 to 2014 The B.C. coastal and interior forest industries lost an icon on December 8 when Phil Musgrave passed away at the age of 93 in Nanaimo, B.C. Phil, “The Silver Fox” as he was affectionately known in the wood chip business, was a pioneer for decades in all areas of fibre supply, fibre quality and fibre transportation with Crown Zellerbach and successor companies. His career in the forest industry started in the late 1940s as a log scaler with Comox Logging, after he had completed five years of service in WW II with the RCAF in Europe as a Spitfire pilot.

After years on Comox Lake and at Beaver Cove on Vancouver Island, Phil eventually transferred to Crown Zellerbach’s head office in Vancouver in 1958 and after a number of years in accounting positions, he became the “chip guy” supplying fibre to the Elk Falls mill, in Campbell River. His career in coastal and interior fibre supply spanned the 1960s right through to the early 1990s, until he formally retired at age 72 in 1994.

To no one’s surprise, Phil had no idea how to “retire” and immediately hung out his shingle as a fibre supply consultant and continued serving the B.C. and U.S. Pacific Northwest fibre industries until he was 84.

Industry consultant Murray Hall recalls that he met Phil in 1976, when Phil came up to Elk Falls to interview Murray for a position in his fibre supply department, which was run out of Fraser Mills. “My first impression of Phil has never left me,” says Murray. “Phil was short in stature, impeccably dressed, silver wavy hair and had a smile that was bigger than life. I accepted the job and had the good fortune to learn from and work with Phil for 20 years. Our relationship took on another interesting angle when he married my oldest sister in 1996.”

Phil was an amazing practitioner and role model for all that worked with him or knew him in his business life, says Murray. He led by example, pushed the boundaries of initiative and innovation, and always supported those under his supervision. Phil’s accomplishments in the fibre supply industry include developing sawdust and interior residual chip supplies for Elk Falls, the Port Mann rail offload facility on the Fraser River, early and ongoing use of computer modeling for strategic fibre supply planning and numerous technical advances in chipper design and operation.

Above all, says Murray, Phil was a teacher and mentor to many and instilled honesty, relationship building and technical competence in all those that worked with him. On a lighter note, those that had the pleasure of spending time with the Silver Fox will remember that every silver hair was in place, the Liberty tie was from a massive collection, the ultrasuede jacket was the latest style and the smile was always infectious.

Phil is survived by four children living in the Nanaimo area and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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INDEX

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December/January 2015

NAME:________________________________ TITLE/POSITION:__________________ COMPANY NAME:_______________________________________________________ ADDRESS:____________________________________________________________ PHONE: ______________________________

FAX:___________________________

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

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Ac# Advertiser Page Allied Blower.................................. 37 Andritz Iggesund Tools..................... 43 Arrow Speed Controls..................... 39 Autolog Sawmill Automation............. 5 BC Hydro........................................ 41 Brandt Tractor................................. 21 Brunette Machinery Co.................... 38 Can-Am Chains............................... 54 Caterpillar....................................... 17 Cleanfix NA....................................... 6 CNRE ............................................. 77 COFI Convention............................ 78 Comact........................................... 35 DAGR Industrial Lighting................. 48 Delta Computer Systems................. 52 DK-Spec.......................................... 73 Dodge Ram....................................... 9 Great West Equipment...................... 2 HMT Machine Tools........................ 50 HUB International........................... 46 Integrated Environmental Systems...... 8 International Quest Engineering....... 49 John Deere................................ 10-11 K2 Electric....................................... 51 KMC-Kootrac.................................. 67 Linden Fabrication........................... 46 Log Max.......................................... 15 Metal Detectors, Inc........................ 42 Mill Tech Industries......................... 52 MNP Advertorial........................ 24-25 Nicholson Manufacturing................ 45 NorMar Industries........................... 72 Peterson.......................................... 29 Pierce Pacific Mfg............................ 30 Price LogPro LLC.............................. 49 Pro Mac Manufacturing................... 62 Quadco.......................................... 16 SAFER Council................................... 7 Salem Contracting........................... 40 Sennebogen.................................... 75 Springer MiCROTEC........................ 53 Stihl ............................................. 19 Stolberg Engineering........................ 44 T-Mar Industries.............................. 63 Tigercat........................................... 84 Tsubaki........................................... 23 USNR ............................................. 47 Vulcan On-Board Scales.................. 66 Waratah.......................................... 83 Westwood Companies..................... 34 Wood-Mizer...................................... 6 Woodland Equipment...................... 69 WOODPRO Engineering................. 36

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thelastword

Taking action now to avoid hitting the fibre wall

By Tony Kryzanowski

O

n the positive side, the Canadian forest industry is poised for a very strong period of long term growth. On the negative side, my long suspected concern is that a looming fibre storage is likely just around the corner— and may already be here. In the supply and demand equation, the future challenge definitely won’t be on the demand side. It will be supply.

There are several reasons for this observation.

First, American consumption of Canadian softwood lumber is once again reaching comfortable levels at a time when the value of the Canadian dollar has fallen below 90 cents American, making our exports more attractive. For example, the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) recently reported that the local industry realized a 10 per cent jump in lumber sales in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the same quarter in 2013. Current softwood lumber prices are at healthy levels, and some are predicting prices of $500 per thousand board feet by 2016. I believe there is a very good chance it could go even higher if overseas demand continues to grow.

Second, China.

In November, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest economy according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), measured on the basis of ‘purchasing power parity’. Related to that, in just one decade, ending in 2013, B.C. increased its wood shipments to China by a stunning 3500 percent. That number is not a typo, by the way.

So this industry recovery definitely has a different feel to it; it seems to have the solid foundation that the last run-up in lumber prices did not. The housing collapse in the U.S. proved it.

Today, the Canadian forest industry is much more diversified in its export markets and product mix. With the advent of such

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technological advances as high speed computer grading in sawmills, companies are doing a much better job of selling value as well as volume. With impending changes to the National Building Code of Canada that will permit the construction of all-wood, six-storey, mid-rise buildings—as well as greater investments in modular construction by builders—there will be greater demand for high value products like cross laminated timbers (CLT) and structural insulated panels (SIP) both domestically and in the U.S. And the bio-economy—involving the greater use of residual wood fibre—has taken hold, as demonstrated by two, huge wood pellet plants being built by Rentech in Ontario, a plan to construct two 30-megawatt biomass energy plants in northern Alberta, and the Nova Scotia Power, 60 megawatt biomass power plant now operating in Port Tupper.

Canada hasn’t even scratched the surface regarding the production of green gasoline and diesel from wood fibre yet, which now appears as possibly the next big leap in technological advances.

Given this level of growing demand for what is a finite resource, the real pain ahead will not be downward like the housing collapse, but forward when we hit the fibre wall, and compounding the problem will be climate change. Looking at maps being generated by scientific experts on the likely impact on Canada’s commercial forest should global warming continue, there is only one word to describe the outcome: scary.

In my own province of Alberta, experts are producing maps showing that the boreal forest tree line will retract to somewhere north of Peace River, about 600 kilometres north of its current southern boundary. In other words, we will become the grasslands of Montana. As we share similar forests, I suspect that the same will be true of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The massive advance of the mountain pine beetle to areas much further north and east of where it has ever been before is just another example of the impact that global warming is having.

But there is hope, though the clock is ticking. If we don’t start to react and adapt to climate change now, we are in serious danger of experiencing an interval of significantly diminished commercial forest resources as we wait for better adapted seedlings to grow.

There are some who are seriously tracking growth and yield trajectories for seedlings and they have the evidence that climate change is having an impact in some areas on reforestation. They believe that the solution is transplanting native seedlings from areas and from certain elevations, as in the case of the mountain slopes, that are showing good adaptation to climate change. In fact, if handled correctly, it may be possible to reproduce extremely healthy forests well adapted to warmer temperatures, shorter winters and a drier environment.

In combination with greater knowledge transfer to industry of what seedling stock should be planted today for a healthy forest tomorrow, I believe we should also be encouraging more commercial tree farming on private land, perhaps enticing landowners with a well-managed carbon credit and trading program.

What concerns me is that while I hear a strong and growing voice from researchers on this issue, I hear very little coming from forest company boardrooms. That has to change—and sooner rather than later—or forest companies might find themselves short of commercial fibre a lot sooner than they think if demand continues to grow and there is no action taken to adapt to climate change.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - December/January 2015

THE BIGGER, THE BETTER

The severe-duty 25 tonne 1085B is the world’s highest capacity forwarder. A Tigercat designed and developed drivetrain allows it to carry massive loads on steep terrain.

Built for high production applications, the 1085B is equipped with a powerful new Tigercat crane. The F195T85 crane lifts significantly heavier loads and has more slew torque than anything on the market. It is well matched to the new high capacity Tigercat FG43 and FG53 series grapples.

If your application demands the biggest and best, look to the new 1085B for the most horsepower, the greatest tractive effort, the largest load capacity, the most powerful crane and the biggest grapple.

519.753.2000

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