The sawmill yield increase potential with manufacturing increased wane and random width boards for engineered wood products

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to assess the potential gains in log processing yield when integrating sawmill and engineered wood products manufacturing, a process which enables the use of random board widths and higher wane allowances than normal. The simulation was utilized and validated against real log sawing. The validation study showed that simulations consistently over-estimated the actual volume recovery by 2.1%. Simulation results showed that logs with smaller diameters returned higher recovery increases when adopting an increased wane strategy compared to large-diameter logs. When combining both increased wane and random width strategies, the recoveries were the highest. Using a weighted average of log classes (according to a common log size distribution in South African sawmills) an increased wane strategy returned higher recovery (11.0%) than a random width strategy (2.0%), but a combined strategy (13.0%) was the most efficient. The gains in volume recovery presented in this study showed that it is worthwhile to consider the integration of engineered products manufacturing in primary log processing using random widths strategy combined with higher wane allowance. For better use of the raw material, the maximum wane that engineered products can allow without compromising its strength and stiffness must be further investigated.

KEYWORDS:

• Simulation
• wane
• random width
• Pinus radiata

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).