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New technology makes logs user-friendly

Major New Zealand MDF producer Nelson Pine Industries Ltd (NPIL) has diversified into the laminated veneer lumber business, having opened a NZ80 million (US$34 million) LVL complex in October at its site on the north end of the South Island. Full commissioning is just being completed to give it a capacity of 100,000 m3 a year.

A major component of the investment is new wood-conditioning technology that enables the plant to peel logs faster and with greater precision.

NPIL has three medium density fibreboard lines and is one of the largest single-site producers in the world. The new development comprises a veneer plant, where logs are lathe-peeled, and an LVL plant to hot-press the veneer into laminated wood. The finished LVL has been going to Japan and the veneer to other LVL plants around New Zealand, though must of the veneer will now go straight to the on-site LVL plant for processing and export.

Log processing begins with debarking and cutting, then conditioning in a revolutionalry new system supplied by Southern Cross Engineering. It’s function is to soften the logs for easier and more precise veneer peeling, by immersing them in vats full of water at 85Co to head them to 60Co at the core, before they go to the belt lathe for peeling.

Southern Cross has serviced the Pacific Rim sawmilling, wood reprocessing and mechanical engineering industries since 1954, and this conditioning system is the first of its kind designed and manufactured in New Zealand or Australia. It was a total turnkey project encompassing the design, manufacture and installation and commissioning of the civil, electrical and mechanical systems.

“This was an extremely big project for a New Zealand company to take on,” says Southern Cross Marketing and Sales Manager Mike Howie. “All the mechanical equipment was designed and manufactured in our Christchurch works, and we accomplished the project without using consultants as project managers as is often the case in New Zealand. This saved the client a lot of unnecessary cost.”

Nelson Pine LVL manager Rick Herd sees the conditioning system as a big improvement on alternatives such as steaming chambers and spraying.

“It provides a better log for processing, it cuts down energy consumption and waste, and it reduces wear on the belt lathe,” he says.

“It’s significant that the hot water baths where the logs are soaked have increased our water use by only about 10%, with little increase in effluent load, because the logs soak up the water. The log conditioning baths need to be cleaned out about twice a year, but the effluent can be processed through existing treatment systems on site.”

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