Features Mills Sawmilling
Integration maximizes fibre use

May 22, 2013 – The Nairn Centre sawmill is part of EACOM's Ontario operations, an integrated fibre basket of 2.8 million m3 per year of softwood capable of producing more than 680 million bdft of lumber and feeding a variety of other forest products operations (see our main story on Nairn upgrades here). The operations include:

Nairn Centre: A single-line mill with access to more than 600,000 m3 of timber producing more than 150 million bdft annually. Recent investments include a USNR optimized three-saw board edger, Porter scanning/optimization for the Optimil DBL infeed, an FEI-Wellons track kiln, and VAB Solutions auto-grading on both stud and random planer mill lines.

Gogama: This stud mill was formerly a joint venture between Day Forest Products and Domtar and is now wholly owned by EACOM. It takes the smaller stems from the Timmins wood basket, with a small amount from the northern part of the Nairn Centre supply, for a total volume of 400,000 m3. Its logs are mostly in the 5-in range, and are processed through two HewSaw 200 lines for a simple, efficient mill flow. In 2011 a HewSaw log positioner with ProLogic+ scanning was added to the newest line to improve recovery. Most of the 100 million bdft are shipped green to Nairn Centre for drying and dressing.

Elk Lake: This mill can process up to 670,000 m3/year and produce 165 million bdft/year on two recently added Comact DDM6 and DDM12 machines. The planer mill was rebuilt in 2005 after a fire, with the resulting mill a "wonderful operation" according to Mel Lemky, vice-president of Ontario sawmill operations. It features a Gilbert 2500 pull thru planer that has excelled, followed by an Autolog linear grade optimizer and UV printer, and two human graders. The line is completed by a Samuel bar code system, which applies bar codes for the mill's box store customers; a Carbotech grade stamper and 75-bin double bundle push sorter; a Carbotech double lift lumber stacker; a Samuel strapper; and a Pelliko automated wrapping station.

Timmins: The mill has access to 600,000 m3 per year of timber, and following a fire will be a brand new breakdown system. The rebuild is a USNR turnkey project that includes the supplier's shape sawing system. The mill will also sport two Nicholson debarkers and a used 33-bin sorter that USNR will install and start up. The latter will eliminate some of the issues the old mill had with its 14-bin sorter. The new mill is slated to make approximately 150 million bdft annually.

May 22, 2013  By  Jayson Koblun