West Fraser’s New Boston, Texas facility installed a PSI Log Ladder in 2003. It had performed well, but the day to day abuse from handling the large diameter pine logs was creating more maintenance and unscheduled downtime than was acceptable.
We suggested a visit to Weyerhaeuser’s Dodson facility to review our recent project there, where we replaced their old 3 stage Log Ladder with a new Clockwork Singulator. The project at Weyerhaeuser was a major success. West Fraser personnel were very impressed and placed the order to replace their existing unit.
We had been wanting for some time to sell our first fully plated lift design. Once WF understood our idea, they wanted to be the first to get one installed. The fully plated lift section provides a squaring surface without protrusions that can flip logs on end. The lift section is not designed to singulate, but to keep the singulating push back area charged.
The clock style arm is fully balanced, so that less HP is required to reciprocate the arm. Being fully balanced, the main pivot shaft sees much less torsion than in non-balanced designs.
A single “Cone Drive” Double Enveloping Worm Gear Reducer smoothly moves the arm through the lift cycle and gently lifts the logs out of the discharge pocket onto the transfer conveyor. This gentle lift motion reduces impact and provides more control of the log during the transfer.
The demolition of the existing unit started on a Friday morning and the new machine was in place by 2 o’clock that afternoon. All the existing substeel was utilized with minimal modification. The welding of infeed/outfeed transition plating was finished on Saturday while the electricians completed the tie-in. Test logs were run on Sunday to make sure everything was ready for Monday morning production start up.
This was the first unit to utilize a “Yaskawa” U-1000 Regenerative Vector Drive System. This type of drive is 100% regen and no braking resistors or braking modules are required.
The unit started up meeting/exceeding the production requirements immediately.
Call Endurance to set up a site visit to see how we can improve your woodyard efficiency.