Weyerhaeuser’s Plymouth, North Carolina facility recently wanted to upgrade their existing 5 stage Log Ladder we installed 17 years ago. The Log Ladder was due for a major rebuild requiring new drives, reducers, shaft work, etc. After review, we proposed a new design that would handle the deep pile seen during re-entry of large pine logs, be more maintenance free and run at a higher production efficiency and… be less expensive than upgrading their existing unit.
The number of drive units was reduced from 5 to 2. The new Singulating Jackladder with Indexer fit the same space as the existing Log Ladder with minimal substeel changes. The heavy duty jackladder section is rugged enough to handle the abuse of the deep pile and keep the indexer charged so that a log is always ready to be indexed into the system.
The unit was put in over a long weekend and started up immediately handling the production requirements of the mill.
Jackladders in general have gotten a bad reputation mostly due to misapplication and not being designed properly. They cannot normally be used as a consistent, never-miss-a-lug type singulator. In this application it does not matter if it misses a lug or if it carries two logs on a lug. Its purpose is to keep the indexer pocket charged.
Weyerhaeuser was pleased that the unit arrived pre-wired, shop tested and completely assembled, making installation simple.
Call us for a site evaluation so that we can offer sugestions on how to improve your log handling needs.