Softwood Forest Products Buyer - January/February 2024

Equipment Forecasts for

Equipment Forecasts for 2024 Continued from page 6 Optical Belt Scale with Bluetooth handsets have given mills the power of accurate data. This scanner has a 99.8 percent accuracy reading, so mills will be able to definitively measure chips and hog fuel for improved returns. Advanced computer programming, software applications and the increasing development of AI processes that are aimed at automating and streamlining wood processing plants are becoming more important in the industry for maximizing profits and improving the execution of maintenance work as well as minimizing the effects of labor shortages. We are exploring new ways of implementing modern technology to complement our machinery such as AR (augmented reality) software to provide real-time 3D assistance in performing maintenance tasks and training. Other innovative trends that are making inroads in the industry in both hardwood and Softwood sectors are advances in wireless PLC controls that remotely attach to systems for remote monitoring, troubleshooting and upgrades. Brunette Machinery specializes in wood processing and material handling systems for the sawmill and biomass industries. Our machines can be configured for either hardwood or Softwood. Our experienced technicians provide on-site service for our machines, and we offer machine repairs in our facilities in Surrey, BC and Prince George, BC. As automation technology advances, the need for some people onsite in sawmills and machine shops will be reduced. With the implementation of AI and automated systems, the industries’ labor requirements will see a shift to workers who can complement this automation including remote operators, IT personnel, as well as machinists, advanced welders and other technicians who can maintain facility machines. Eric Michaud Carbotech Group Plessisville, QC We do business in both industries, Softwood and hardwood. We have seen a decrease in requests from both industries mainly due to the poor lumber prices over the past several months now. If the prices don’t go up, 2024 may become a difficult year for some equipment manufacturers. The situation that the Eric Michaud supply chain was in and the ability to get parts has improved over the last 12 months. It can be complicated sometimes with some electronic components still, but it is not as bad as it was during COVID. Transportation and labor is acceptable at this point. Discussions with customers about artificial intelligence and robotics are still hot these days. I’m convinced that we will see new developments and new offers to the market in those areas in 2024. There is so much potential for sawmills. Autolog, part of the Carbotech Group, is presently working on transverse scanners with visions, using artificial intelligence, for hardwood and Softwood sawmills. We started offering this product for Softwood at the end of 2023 while the one for hardwood should be ready at the end of 2024. These products will have the power to grade Softwood and hardwood lumber on edger and trimmer lines. Carbotech manufactures material handling equipment for Softwood and hardwood mills that has a focus mainly on log and lumber handling for sawmills and planer mills. Autolog provides automation and optimization solutions for both wood types, logs, cants and lumber. We also provide installation services when our customers don’t have the resources or time to take care of the whole project. Of course, all of our equipment is installed and started up by our technicians in order to help you run the equipment at its maximum capacity, as soon as possible. We can see the elimination of at least 50 percent of workplaces in many projects as most of these workplaces are ones in which it is hard to find employees that enjoy these jobs, as they’re physically demanding and are less attractive to young people. read every issue online www.softwoodbuyer.com Paul Cleereman Cleereman Industries and Cleereman Controls Newald, WI Most equipment purchases in 2023 have been for improving yield at each machine center and/or improving the workers work area itself. If you can reduce some of the mental and physical aspects of each work area, it may help keep employees and may make it work for less qualified workers. I think Paul Cleereman this trend is going to continue for years to come as the hardwood and Softwood industries struggle to hang on to their workforce. Cleereman Industries will be coming out with an optimized 8-inch semi-combination Edger for both hardwood and Softwood sawmills. This will be a fixed-box unit with overhead scanning capability. Cleereman Controls offers optimization and controls packages for many different lines of equipment. Our controls company also builds custom controls packages to fit customers’ individual needs. By using different types of automization we have been able to eliminate employees and save labor costs. Cleereman Industries offers complete sawmill solutions for both grade hardwood and Softwood sawmills. Whether it is a completely new sawmill or an addition to an existing sawmill, Cleereman can offer to sit down and work closely with customers to determine which equipment will be the best solution for their production goals. Cleereman can also offer controls packages for existing carriages, resaws and edgers, not to mention that we work with a wide spectrum of other equipment manufacturers like Nicholson Debarkers. The current trend in the sawmill industry both in hardwood and Softwood mills is to be as efficient as possible. In the last few years, we see more optimization packages being put on our equipment. Mills are having equipment manufacturers and controls companies automate different lines to replace employees. Cleereman Industries and Cleereman Controls have been focused on reducing labor costs and increases yield for their customers. Frances Cooper Cooper Machine Company Inc. Wadley, GA We work with both hardwood and Softwood companies. The industry is still struggling to get people to come to work and we are selling more sorters/stacking systems to prove it. We expect the trend of mills automating to continue into 2024. We are also seeing labor has had inflationary pressures, especially Frances Cooper for skilled personnel. Parts have stabilized a bit in being able to get them in a more timely fashion, but prices remain high. Electrical parts, specifically Allen-Bradley still have long lead times. Importing/Exporting is getting a little better and we are not seeing the delays due to lack of trucks and drivers, like we were, but prices have remained more costly than previous years. Cooper Machine has been busy doing a good bit of work with the post and pole industry to set up new merchandising and sorting mills to get the posts and poles ready to go into a perfect peeler or through the mill with Morbark peelers. We are now offering a five saw chop saw option with or without optimization for our customers. We are also offering a pole grading system. For the pallet industry, we are offering an optimized Tandem with a special second saw to get the most out of each log. This system works well with our inline splitter. Adding a VSA and pallet trimmer to process the slabs adds the cherry on top. We’ve teamed up with Brewer and Precision Husky on a project here recently to provide a complete pallet mill. Cooper Machine has been teaming up with Automation & Electronics for a lot of our PLC controls, and it’s been a great partnership. We have found more customers wanting to optimize their equipment to get the best yield. We have an updated ultrasonic board that we are starting to roll out to our customers. We will announce when we are finished developing the updated controls system to be rolled out to our existing customers. We are also offering a simple PLC on some of our smaller machines that we are doing in house. Cooper Machine is best known for our long lasting Scraggs. These are good for both hardwood and Softwood customers and have different options to assist in making pallet boards, chips, lumber, cants, mats and crossties. Whether it be for small or large logs, we have options. We also build merchandising and debarking systems as well as sorting systems for both the hardwood and Softwood industries. We have a new version of our pole/post merchandiser/sorter system for Softwood mills that is more high production, which merchandises up to six tree length logs per minute and sorts 24 posts/poles a minute. We are also adding a classifying line option to our offerings. We are seeing that even smaller mills are wanting to do more optimizing to help reduce the amount of labor needed. This is why we continue to develop and offer options for our customers to make this a reality. Merchandising and sorting lines continue to be a popular buy these days. Henry German DMSi Omaha, NE DMSi offers a range of software products to support the building products industry, from timber to consumer. This includes a full ERP solution with an integrated CRM, log and lumber inventory products, AI hardwood end tally system and a grading system. Developed specifically for hardwoods and Softwoods, our log and lumber solutions allow you to do more with less. Workers can save time searching Henry German for material or pallets when an automated system is presenting the information right away. Full ERP systems make inventory data considerably easier to track. Costing, inside sales, and other administrative tasks can be automated to eliminate manual efforts for your team. This means hours of manual work can be cut down to the click of a button. The DMSi product team is working towards incorporating AI technology to provide information that will support even faster and easier decision making to support your day-to-day operations. There’s no question that technology can ease the strain of labor shortages. For instance, our computer vision grading system uses industrial cameras and artificial intelligence to identify defects and automatically assign grades to lumber. You would no longer depend on someone to visually inspect the grade. Your work will keep flowing through a staffing crisis. PEOPLE-FIRST. RESOURCEFUL. INNOVATIVE. At DMSi, we partner with customers to provide on-site, customized utilization reviews. Our team improves the efficiency of customers’ businesses and makes their lives easier. Arianna Giudiceandrea and Norvin Laudon MiCROTEC Corvallis, OR and Vancouver, Canada We service both hardwood and Softwood companies. For hardwood we observed high interest in valuebased log optimization with the CT Log and expect this interest to increase in 2024. For Softwood we developed our own hardware and production (e.g. cameras and critical parts.) For Arianna Giudiceandrea the next 10 years, we guarantee spare parts without any major difficulties expected. In the coming year we will offer the Goldeneye lumber scanner for green, dry and planer mills, and Lucidyne scanner upgrades to Softwood companies, and for hardwood companies we will offer value-based log optimization with CT Log. A new technology that we have introduced to the hardwood and Softwood industries is MiCROTEC Connect, a fingerprint system based on CT-scanned logs. Through the integrated scanner and software solutions and MiCROTEC Ai platform, logs can be traced from virtual to real boards. We also have our MiCROTEC Customer Care Center, a customer support service that we are working to put into place in 2024. MiCROTEC offers scanning and optimization solutions for the complete wood processing industry, from logyard to secondary processing, for hardwood and Softwood - always committed to providing our customers with the most economical Norvin Laudon and sustainable wood utilization. We see technology making up for the shortage of labor through automation, digitization and optimization. Continued on page 60 Page 58 Softwood Forest Products Buyer • January/February 2024 Softwood Forest Products Buyer • January/February 2024 Page 59