Big as TEXAS
Only this Houston is in BC, home to Canfor’s monster mill and West Fraser’s growing lumber complex. After careful investment and a third shift, the latter now tops 400 million bdft/yr.
By: Bill Tice
One of the claims to fame for the small town of Houston, BC is being home to “the world’s largest fly rod.” The 60-ft long fishing rod, which is constructed of aluminum and is anodized bronze to simulate granite, is a landmark in this north central BC town that is located between Prince George and Terrace on Highway 16.
Another area where Houston holds bragging rights is lumber production. The town of 4,200 people (6,500 including the surrounding area) hosts two major sawmills with a combined annual production capacity of one billion bdft. Canfor’s super mill, which is touted as the “world’s largest sawmill,” leads the way at approximately 600 MMbf, but the number two mill in town is no slouch either. The West Fraser Houston mill produced 330 MMbf in 2004, but that was only on two shifts. It added a third shift in the summer of 2005, bringing total capacity up to 400 MMbf.
The West Fraser mill was originally built in 1978 and operated as a 50:50 joint venture between Eurocan and Weldwood of Canada Ltd. Eurocan, which held the timber license, also operated a pulp mill in Kitimat, BC. West Fraser purchased Eurocan’s pulp mill and interest in Houston Forest Products during the 80’s, although Weldwood remained the managing partner and the sawmill operated under its name. That all changed on December 31, 2004, when West Fraser acquired Weldwood from International Paper, and the mill officially became a 100% West Fraser operation.
Recent upgrades
The mill has seen numerous upgrades over the years, many of which have contributed to the increased production numbers that peaked with the implementation of the third shift this past summer. One of the largest projects on the books was a $14 million upgrade to the planer mill in 2003.
“We added an entire second line into the planer mill because we needed to cure a major imbalance in production capacity between the sawmill and planer mill,” notes Brian Balkwill, general manager for the operation. “We did everything from the infeed to the outfeed, including adding a second Stetson Ross 614 20-knife planer. We also added a Mill Tech two level grading station and an Autolog linear (grade) optimizer with Autolog process controls on each line. In addition, the new line has a Mill Tech 40-bin push sorter. With the way we have designed the planer, we are geared towards flexibility, as we can run one of the planers to each line, or we can run both planers to the new line.”
Balkwill says they did their research when it came to selecting the equipment and technology for the planer upgrade. “We spent quite a bit of time with a lot of our key staff members touring a number of different mills, including several West Fraser mills,” he says. “The concept of the dual grading station came from West Fraser’s Fraser Lakes mill, except we added the flexibility of being able to direct the lumber to either of the two lines, and we added a roll case that allows us to transfer production from one stacker to the other.”
For the planer project, the mill formed a project team, which Balkwill was part of. After visiting the other mills and deciding what would work best for the Houston mill, they requested proposals from various suppliers, and then made their final selections. Construction started in May 2003 and was completed in October of the same year. With a 25% improvement in planer production as a result of the second planer line, Balkwill says they had concerns that the back end of the planer mill wouldn’t be able to keep up as they only had one banding and wrapping station.
“We didn’t want to bury the back end, so in early 2004, we added a second strapping and wrapping station,” he says. “This is not an automated system. It is one that we produced ourselves here at the mill, and it is working for us. With the addition of the third shift, the new planer line and our strapping and wrapping station, we have been able to balance the flow and we haven’t had the same issues that we were dealing with before.”
Another recent addition to the mill was two new kilns, increasing kiln capacity and bringing the total number of kilns on site up to eight. The two new kilns are both from Wellons Canada (formerly Salton Fabrication) in Surrey, BC, and are 120 ft. double track models. Prior to the new kilns being installed, the mill was running its six existing kilns on a Salton energy system that ran on shavings. A gas booster was added to help handle peak demand requirements during the colder winter months, and allowed the mill to manufacture enough energy to power the two new kilns.
When the mill added its sixth kiln in 2002, they also added a vent exchanger, which Balkwill says is “essentially a heat exchanger.” Instead of the kilns venting into the atmosphere, they vent into a main header for all of the kilns and the exchanger captures the heat from the air prior to venting and uses this heat to warm incoming ambient air prior to entering the kilns.
Balkwill says other minor upgrades to the sawmill have been implemented to help the mill deal with the smaller piece sizes that are consistent with the changing log profile northern BC is facing. This includes a late 2005 upgrade to the USNR/Ukiah vertical arbour gang on the small canter line. “We converted the vertical arbor gang to electric drives from hydraulic drives so that we can run faster to make up for the smaller piece size we are starting to see.”
Optimized Optimil
Today, mill flow at the Houston plant starts in the log yard where a Wagner loader offloads the incoming logging trucks. The logs are either hot fed into the mill or decked for later use. A Cat 966 loader or a Cat butt-n-top loader feeds the logs onto the mill’s four separate infeed decks. The logs are then sent to one of four cut off saw decks and then sorted into three different log sizes. An 18-in Cambio debarker and a 35-in VK Brunette debarker feed the mill’s large log line, while a 17-in Nicholson A4 double ring debarker handles logs going to the small log line.
On the large line, the debarked logs are processed with an Optimil canter with true shape scanning and a quad band mill, also from Optimil. From the band mill, sideboards are directed to a Powell edger while the cants go to a Powell 12-in horizontal double arbour. Optimization on the edger is from Coe Newnes/McGehee (CNM) in Salmon Arm, BC.
On the small line, an Optimil canter equipped with Porter RT3 scanning technology handles the logs prior to a USNR/Ukiah 10-inch saw box gang. At this time the small line does not have any sideboard capability, but that is something Balkwill is working on and he expects approval on an upgrade in early 2006.
Product from both lines is then scanned with CNM equipment prior to being trimmed and sent to an older model USNR/LSI slope bin sorter and stacker with a Moore strip placer. From the stacker, the rough lumber is moved to one of the mill’s eight kilns, which include the two new Wellons kilns and six others that have the Salton name plate.
The planer mill has two separate tilt hoists, which feed the dried lumber into the planer mill. The two lines are almost identical with each one featuring a Stetson Ross 614 planer followed by Autolog linear planer optimization. Typically, both planers feed into one grading line, which is a two-tier system equipped with a low-maintenance, soft-touch auto board turner from BC-based Mill Tech.
“Our graders stand and actually touch the boards rather than sit in a booth,” says Balkwill. “The Autolog system prints a machine code on the board that is read by a grade reader, which then sprays a colour on the board. The Autolog decision is checked manually by a human grader, who can override the system. They can downgrade a board, but they can’t upgrade it.”
Following the Autolog grade optimizer, the boards are singulated with a Mill Tech Clamp-n-Load highspeed lug loader, and processed further with a Gemofor multi-saw trimmer and a cut-in-two system from Mill Tech, which Balkwill stresses is not what is commonly referred to as a “skip a lug” system.
“Once the board is cut, one of the cut pieces drops to a lower belt so we are not skipping a lug as is the case with many cut-in-two systems.”
Boards go to the Mill Tech 40-bin push sorter and then to either the Mill Tech stacker or modified Newnes stackers, each equipped with auto lathe placement. From the stackers, the finished packages are strapped and wrapped at the Samuel strapper and Deltech wrap dispenser.
The mill focuses on standard dimension lumber products, including 2x4 to 2x10 in lengths from 6 ft to 20 ft, with the primary species being spruce and pine. Balkwill adds that the mill’s forest license includes approximately 30% balsam, but right now they are minimizing the balsam coming into the mill so that they can use a higher percentage of local pine that has been infested with the mountain pine beetle. Traditionally, approximately 50% of the mill’s products have been shipped to the US, while 10% to 15% is sold offshore and the balance remains in Canada.
“Because of the amount of balsam in our license we stay with the standard dimension products,” notes Balkwill, “In terms of specialty products, we do produce a JAS Certified grade that meets the Japanese building code, and we also produce a highline product that is essentially a square edge product that accepts blue stain from the beetle wood. Some of this goes to Japan, but most of this product stays in North America with a large percentage of it shipped to Alaska for the DIY market. We do not produce any MSR (Machine Stress Rated) products due to the amount of balsam that is in our license and we don’t have any plans to add MSR to our product line in the near future.”
The mill also produces a significant volume of chips for West Fraser’s Eurocan pulp and Paper Co. in Kitimat, BC. Both of the Optimil canters are equipped with Key Knife systems, which help to increase lumber recovery, improve the surface finish on the lumber and reduce knot tear out. In addition, the Key Knife system provides a more uniform chip with a higher number of accepts at the pulp mill, making the sawmill a premium supplier to the Kitimat plant. Approximately 18 rail cars of chips per day are shipped to the Eurocan mill, which amounts to about 130,000 bone dry units annually.
With lumber production numbers in the 400 MMbf range, Balkwill is happy with the direction the mill has taken with its upgrades and product line, but he says it is the 300 plus people who work at the facility that really make it all work.
“We can spend all the money we want on new equipment and implement new technology, but without the right people, we are still not going to make a profit. We have a lot of 27-year employees that have been here since day one and they want this mill to succeed.”
No small task, since in this billion bdft town, the bar of success is set high indeed.
