Tigercat has announced that Nate McMurtrey has joined the Tigercat product support team

Based in Elmira, Oregon, Nate McMurtrey will focus on providing after-sales technical support to Tigercat’s expanding customer base in the Pacific Northwest. Nate has been working on product support for heavy-duty equipment for over a decade with numerous qualifications in engine diagnostics troubleshooting and repair as well as electronic engine control troubleshooting.

Neuenstein-based HEPACK druck+verpackung GmbH has invested around Euro 12 million in overhauling its entire production and logistics operations. The construction work created an additional 5,000 square meters of space and the flow of goods was completely redesigned based on the lean principle.

Production is now organized efficiently with two new large, format 6 presses from Heidelberg, a folding carton gluing machine, and three die cutters in a fully integrated Prinect workflow – a solution that is unique within the industry. In the first five months of the year, this resulted in a 10% increase in throughput despite the ongoing construction and installation work.

Around 80% of HEPACK’s production is accounted for by food and confectionery manufacturers with production sites in Germany and neighboring countries, and approximately a fifth of its contracts fall under the general packaging segment.

By working with Heidelberg to redesign and restructure its production operations, HEPACK has also done much to optimize the energy balance of its folding carton production. An idea proposed by Heidelberg made it possible to implement the concept of using waste heat from the presses and additional warm air from a wood-chip heating system and a cogeneration plant to preheat the process air for drying the print sheets.

Cardboard is delivered to HEPACK on single-use wooden pallets, with a throughput of around 28,000 metric tons annually. The pallets are now processed to make wood chips for burning, reducing energy consumption in the print area by approximately 30%. The additional gas cogeneration plant also heats the production hall in winter.

The technical outlay and installation of the wood-chip system pays dividends for the environment on a daily basis, with HEPACK saving around 100 kW per operating hour and press.

The Gladstone Ports Corporation in Queensland now has the second largest log export operation in Australia, processing one shipment per month with a new woodchipping facility. The new log and woodchip is a collaborative effort to salvage timber plantations that were impacted in the Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Marcia earlier this year. Thousands of hectares of trees were left wind-thrown and damaged, and needed to be salvaged as soon as possible.

GPC has been working closely with HQ Plantations to finalise a contract to commence export of the damaged trees and woodchip from Auckland Point. The woodchip operations include chipping, stockpiling and export, and will be coordinated by HQ Plantations. The first shipment of 38,000 tonnes of logs was sent to China last week. It is envisaged that woodchip exports will commence in September.

Source: Gladstone Observer

Steep terrain harvesting can be expensive and have high safety risks. Mechanised ground-based machines are increasingly being used on steeper slopes to decrease harvesting costs and improve safety by removing the manual tasks of tree felling and choking. Recently, researchers set out to determine whether the slope that the machine was operating on was the same as the actual slope of the machine.

Slope measuring equipment was attached to 22 forest machines to capture real-time measurements of machine slope. 18 studies were completed in pine plantations in New Zealand, and two were carried out in Austria and Norway respectively. Actual terrain slope was calculated using GIS. The machines evaluated were grouped into one of four machine types; felling, shovelling, skidder or “European”. The “European” machines were purpose-built steep terrain machines, whereas the New Zealand felling and shovelling machines were modified excavators.

Interestingly, all the machines studied operated on slopes that exceeded the New Zealand Approved Code of Practice guideline of 17 and 22° slope for these machines. The New Zealand-based machines exceeded the guidelines more frequently, and by a greater amount, than the European-based machines. The results showed that the relationship between machine slope and terrain slope was poor for all machines. This indicates that the terrain slope does not accurately predict the actual slope of the machine. This means that terrain slope is not sufficient on its own for planning purposes, but other aspects such as the specific operator, ground conditions and the machine itself need to be considered.

For more information check out the latest issue of R&D Works.

Modern day sawmill machine centres collect vast amounts of information about logs, lumber, breakdown solutions, downtime, productivity and more. However, more technology has not made life any simpler for mill managers. In fact, it has become more difficult to keep track of whether the technologies are being utilized properly or not, especially as machines are now much too fast for visual inspection.

Current machine-level optimisers are applied to machine centres but they lack a coordinating “command centre” that ensures they are working in unison to maximize sawmill production. Opportunities exist to utilize this information to identify problems and to improve production and value recovery in real-time.

A current project from the Canadian research organisation, FPInnovations set out to develop real-time production planning tools for sawmills to evaluate the current state of production and to identify and rectify production issues quickly. Two software tools have been developed to date: a real-time target volume monitoring tool, and a real-time historic production tracking tool. Further details can be found from FPInnovations.

A range of other new tools that can be used by local sawmills to improve machine centre productivity will be outlined to New Zealand and Australian companies as part of the WoodTECH 2015 – Sawing, Scanning and Mill Optimization series being run in September.

WoodTECH 2015 runs in Melbourne, Australia on 16-17 September and again in Rotorua, New Zealand on 22-23 September. Remember, in order to get as many of your production and operational staff through to the programme, a special limited “2 for 1” registration deal has been set up which finishes next Friday, Friday 24 July. The full programme for each venue can be found on the event website, www.woodtech.events

Bandit Industries has announced it has been awardeded an additional contract from the National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) contract for Medium Duty and Compact Construction and Maintenance Equipment with Related Attachments, Accessories and Supplies. (Contract No. 042515-BAN).

This was awarded in addition to Bandit’s existing NJPA contract for Landscape and Grounds Maintenance (Contract No. 031014-BAN).

“Bandit’s previous Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance contract with NJPA is a great tool for some of our customers to cut through red tape and buy the machines they need when they need them,” said Bandit Sales Manager Jason Morey. “This latest contract for Medium Duty and Compact Construction Equipment with Related Attachments, Accessories and Supplies will, without a doubt, expand the number of municipalities that can take advantage of the benefits of purchasing Bandit equipment through NJPA.”

This additional contract gives potential municipal customers an added incentive to purchase Bandit equipment. Buying through NJPA lets them avoid the lengthy and costly request for proposal process, so they can get right to buying the equipment they need.

Backed by nearly 200 dealer locations across North America and a dedicated team of professionals waiting to provide unbeatable customer service and support, every customer can be at ease in the knowledge that their Bandit machine will be a wise investment.

For any NJPA contract questions, contact Bandit Sales Representative Brenda Lint or Bandit Sales Manager Jason Morey.

Learn more about Bandit’s NJPA contract and learn about our complete lineup of wood processing machines at www.banditchippers.com or by calling 1-800-952-0178.

In Australia the state of Victoria’s low grade native timber could soon be packed into shipping containers bound for China and other cut-price countries for processing under a plan to help ailing state timber company VicForests.

VicForests has been left without a market for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of so-called “residual” timber following the loss of a key contract with Japanese-owned wood-chip company South East Fibre Exports (SEFE). In response, a rule requiring local processing before export has now been relaxed in a bid to open up new markets for the struggling state-owned wood business.

A confidential November 2013 Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) briefing seen by The Age confirms the industry has for months been lobbying to relax the requirement for domestic processing of timber.

“VicForests indicates the Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI) now supports relaxing certain aspects of the export restrictions,” the briefing to former treasurer Michael O’Brien, said. “Such a change should lead to improved outcomes for both VicForests and industry. DTF supports the reconsideration of the timber export policy.”

It follows the expiry of a clause that has for the past decade effectively allowed VicForests to legally operate against Commonwealth competition laws by favouring domestic over international wood processing.

Source: The Age Victoria

TPP talks see Canada and Japan wrangle over log export protections – As Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations are heading to a finale, there is concern in Canada that its most protected industry, British Columbia timber is under increased pressure. Canada is also pushing for tariff reduction in other forestry markets, while Japan is targeting Canada for removal of export curbs on its precious BC logs as a matter of reciprocity.

According to reports, Japan is pressing Canada to eliminate or modify curbs it has imposed on BC log exports, which are driving up their cost for foreign buyers. The ‘forestry impasse’ with Japan has been mentioned in the official documents from Canada’s Foreign Affairs department marked as secret and was accessed by the media. Besides Japan, Canada is also pressured by the United States, which is taking aim at its coveted supply management system that protects the country’s dairy and poultry farmers.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has vowed that Canada will go to any extent to protect its supply management system while pushing the TPP, though the PM considers it vital for the country’s future economic health. The dilemma for the Conservative Government is that it has to face an election in October, and trade impasses will hurt them with so many implications. The PM had invested much of his political capital in various free trade talks by positioning himself as the most reliable devotee of the Canadian economy.

Source: International Business Times