Sylvan Plyboard in Kolkata has been a family timber business for around 65 years, and is continuing to grow. Now at around 1,500 employees across their various product divisions, the company processes approximately 700m3 of timber daily.
The company’s manufacturing operation is divided into two parts – the log peeling and plywood side of the company and then the solid wood side, which produces timber for sale through their dealer network across India.
Although traditional bandsaws are used throughout the production area, over the past several years more and more machinery utilising thin-kerf bandsaw blades have appeared and been incorporated into the production process. Due to the age and mix of machines used previously, a decision was made gradually to modernise the section.
The first two Wood-Mizer machines implemented were a WM3500 industrial sawmill and an LT15 sawmill with a 15-metre cutting length capacity.
Mr. Anand Kumar Singh, the Managing Director, stresses that quality, productivity, and reduced waste were driving factors in the acquisition and implementation of the new Wood-Mizer machines.
“We use the LT15 or the WM3500 to cut the logs into the various sizes as required,” shares Mr. Singh. “Performance is very good. And the productivity – what we get from the machine – is better, because the blade thickness is less. The kerf thickness is around 1.5 or 1.6 mm, so in every cut we get 1 mm saving, which is a big benefit with this machine. We can realize the cost of the machine within one or two years.”
“We are focused on quality and customer satisfaction. We are trying to produce the plywood or timber with the proper dimensions as required – that is the main thing. Quality is to be good!”
First sawmill upgrade
The WM3500 is a robustly constructed thin-kerf sawmill designed for high volume production of larger diameter, 6-metre pine logs into 200+ mm thicknesses with the wane included. Afterwards, an incline conveyor transfers the cants down the line for further resawing. The incline conveyor and the log deck form part of the material handling options that can be matched to the WM3500, and which allow one operator to process timber without interruption.
The bidirectional chain turners, hydraulic rollers and heavy-duty log clamp provides for easy handling and processing of large diameter logs efficiently.
The operator station gives the operator full control over the entire process. A built-in laser shows the cutting line, and the electronic Setworks allows cutting lists to be pre-programmed, with the head adjusting automatically for each pass to cut the required thickness of board. A new ‘cruise control’ option allows the operator to pre-select the cutting speed for achieving high quality sawn timber depending on the size and condition of each log and the finished board dimensions.
Next to the WM3500 sits the Wood-Mizer LT15 mill - a very basic, but capable sawmill which Sylvan Plyboard uses to cut smaller diameter pine logs into boards for use for block board manufacturing. As opposed to the WM3500, all log loading, turning and offloading is done manually with the LT15. The LT15 has been extended to a total length of around 15 metres so that long logs can be cut easily, or so that two logs can be loaded on the sawmill end-to-end to increase productivity.
New sawmills added
Sylvan Plyboard has very recently implemented a whole new line of Wood-Mizer sawmills. The line begins with three LT20B sawmills connected in series. Three teams of workers keep each sawmill head busy, as logs can be added to the bed anywhere along the whole 20-metre length. Logs are simply cut on one side, flipped 180 degrees, and a second cut is made.
The two-sided cants are then taken to the SVS (Single Vertical saw) which removes the third side of the cant. The cant is then passed through Wood-Mizer’s new industrial HR700 multihead resaw. With a large square cant capacity of 400 mm X 400 mm, the HR700 cuts the cant down to the final required board sizes. The HR700 can be configured from one to six sawing heads, and is equipped with electronic setworks for quickly adjusting cut sizes depending on the orders being fulfilled.
Any boards that still have bark or wane are then passed through Wood-Mizer’s EG300 board edger for further trimming.
The result?
“We always tell everyone to buy Wood-Mizer machines because of the excellent performance,” shares Mr. Singh. Currently the Wood-Mizer sawmills are mainly used for all softwood cutting, while traditional bandsaws are used for hardwoods.
