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Comeback-Sawmill [Holzkurier issue 30/31/2004]
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Comeback-Sawmill [Holzkurier issue 30/31/2004]
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| A million m³ sawmill takes off in Romania |
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Opening Ceremony for the 70 Mio. €-investment: Minister of the interior Saniuta, President Iliescu and Mr. Schweighofer (from left.)
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He is back again – Gerald Schweighofer, one of the most enigmatic personalities in the European timber trade has started a sawmill in Romania which is said to process one million cubic metres of round logs already in the year to come.
70 Millions hobby
Schweighofer calls the investment of 70 Mio. € a hobby. The main source of profit is meanwhile the real estate business. But the fact that he flies to Sebes/Romania every two weeks accompanied by a team of 5 leading persons to take care of the smooth operation of the sawline, makes everybody aware that the sawmill is still his number 1 – still ahead of real estate, forest ownership and property administration.
Wood – or better the sale of his 6 sawmills to Stora Enso Timber – made Schweighofer one of the richest men in Austria. Schweighofer starts his work in Sebes with a team which already assisted him with regards to technology, purchase and sale in Austria in the eighties and nineties. For example, the sawmill was planned under the overall control of Otmar Mittermüller. With regards to lumber sale, Schweighofer relies on the experience of Max Luger and Josef Zeller – for legal advice with excellent knowledge of the Italian market, Schweighofer was also able to hire Bruno Ruhdorfer, a friend of his youth.
Controversial location
It fits Schweighofer’s temperament that with Sebes he chose a sawmill location which other Austrian sawmill owners found to be unworthy. Schweighofer countered their argument – too far away from the raw material – with the cooperation with the neighbouring lumber production: up to now 1000 m3 MDF and 1500 m³ of particle boards per day were produced by the Gruppo Frati and have been produced by the Kaindl-Group since July 1st. The neighbouring company as purchaser of by-products provided for the proper infrastructure.
Sawing in Eastern Europe same as in Western Europe
The 1,4 km long shape of the 34 ha site required a parallel arrangement of sawline and lumber sorting. Only here Mittermüller had to make concessions – otherwise the production flow corresponds with his ideal of a Central European high-performance sawmill.„600 km East of Vienna you cannot experiment with starting a sawmill, only well-established and reliable equipment, counts,” Mittermüller is convinced. “However also newest technology is important.” Accordingly the list of suppliers only contains the Who-is-who of the European suppliers of sawmill equipment (see also case on page 12, bottom).
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After 5 years of absence, comeback as sawmill owner – Gerald Schweighofer
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Container loading on railroad for transport to the Black Sea port – in the background the tubulator belt conveyors to the nearby Kaindl plant.
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Twice a month – Schweighofer (left) and Ruhdorfer on their way to Romania.
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2 log yards
The log yard supplied by Springer is designed for processing 800.000 m³ round logs per year and will be extended by a log yard for 3 m logs only (40 sorting bins) still this fall. The 2,5 to 5 m logs are sorted out into 76 concrete bins according to their quality criteria determined by the operator and the two 3D-scanners, supplied by Sprecher Automation, Linz, Austria, installed in front of and behind the Nicholson A7-27’ debarker. Debarker and log yard equipment are designed for a feed speed of up to 120 m/min. Logs with 12 to 45 cm small end diameter are processed on 7 days a week in 3-shifts. Butt reducing is provided in the debarker for larger diameter logs.
Impressive rolling stock
With full production in 2005, 6 Volvo 180 HL will take the sawlogs from the sorting bins to the log deck for feeding the sawline. 4 Liebherr A924 will be used to unload the round log railroad cars. The company Springer installed two standard log decks with log turners for orienting 42 sawlogs per minute with large end leading. Sawlog size is controlled by a Sprecher-3D scanner at the sawline infeed. Sawlogs are then accelerated up to 150 m/min. and turned into correct sawing position in front of the first chipper canter according to the cutting patterns. Up to two profiled sideboards per side can be produced. |
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The two-sided cants, one after the other, leave the profiler unit VPF 340.
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42 sawlogs per minute are fed to the sawmill by each of the two log decks.
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Horizontal split saw provides enormous quantity of cants
A surprise is the following machine combination. At the outfeed side of the double arbor circular gang MKV, Schweighofer installed a horizontal split saw HK for direct splitting of large four-sided cants, Morali or in the near future 2-by-4 in the sawline. You can easily calculate how many products (3 m long, 4 pieces each) will race towards the sorting station at 150 m/min. feed speed.
Therefore Schweighofer did not exaggerate by ordering two sorting lines each with a capacity of 220 cycles per minute in Friesach. Following a 90° curve conveyor, the sorting lines are installed parallel to the sawline.
Transport with one layer of boards only
Different from other start-ups in 2004, the Sebes mill only includes tray sorters with one layer of boards. “Edge protection has always been important for me in former sawmills as well”, describes Schweighofer. Grading of boards takes place in one layer with turning device between top and bottom working level.
For thin boards, Springer recommended to install two decks for grading on top working level. Presently two each sorter per station are operating.
The advantage of the parallel arrangement of the lumber sorting plant is the short distance of about 30 m to the packaging station.
Prior to being transported to the packaging station, the (Levante) boards pass a dip tank (this impregnating method was developed by Springer). Servo-controlled turning device, infinitely adjustable layer trimming and double lifting table are the features of the packaging station.
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Linck-profiling line operating at up to 150 m/min. feed speed
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Full spare parts stock
The saw doctor shop equipped by Hackl, Martinsberg is located in the sawmill building. Machines installed were supplied by: Oppliger, Uetendorf / Switzerland, Vollmer, Biberach / Germany, Petschauer, Bodelshausen / Germany, and Reformmaschinen, Fulda /Germany. The spare parts stock is also located in the sawmill building which has to be equipped with all wear parts due to the distance to the different suppliers.
The dry kiln complex supplied by Mühlböck-Vanicek, Eberschwang, Austria is installed immediately behind the sawmill building. A sixth block of kilns is ordered, foundations for a seventh are prepared – this results in a lumber drying capacity of 420.000 m3/year in 2005. Starting in August, the heat required for the dry kilns is provided by two 10 MW-boiler plants supplied by Urbas, Völkermarkt, Austria.
Flexible handling preferred
A building larger than 1 ha presently houses two 2 Waco-/Weinig-planer mills as well as a simple, second-hand finger-jointing plant. Different to other large sawmills, Sebes relies on smaller planer mills allowing a more flexible and reliable production, Mittermüller describes the departure from the trend to high-speed planer mills – however “small and slow” planer mills working at 150 m/min. feed speed and planers in 10- and 6-spindle design is more than relative. It will be possible this year to plane 200.000 m3 of lumber, starting in September in 4 shifts. The operation of 3 planer mills is scheduled for 2005.
Where planing is still manual work.
All lumber is manually de-stacked. 6 persons control and de-stack the products at 10 % of the Austrian wages. Up to now only one batch of lumber was complained about by customers which is for Schweighofer the positive result of the intensive visual control and the production quality.
Loading into containers next to rails.
Bundled and wrapped, the lumber packages are leaving the lumber yard for loading into containers. The containers are then transported by train to the Black Sea port Constanza and by ship to the markets Schweighofer already focused in 2002: „The typical Romanian destinations Greece and Levante. We sell the lumber at Central European prices – however make use of the freight advantages of up to 15 €/m³ lumber.” Lumber is also sold to Japan, the market Schweighofer opened for European lumber producers at the beginning of the nineties, to China, Korea or Vietnam where the abbreviation HS (Holzindustrie Schweighofer) still has the highest reputation. |
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Smooth fibre, little hard streak –according to Schweighofer the caracteristics of the Romanian spruce
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Alternative markets
„For sideboards we have better markets than Italy“, Schweighofer smiles about the continuous uncertainty with regards to his presence on the Italian market. „These opportunities exist as we use more creative cutting patterns for lumber production than some of the Austrian sawmillers”, Ruhdorfer adds. Schweighofer purchased a complex solution for sawing optimisation from the EDP supplier Info-Data including round log-, lumber- and stock administration.
With regards to the main markets, Schweighofer specialized on the supply of 3 m logs. A bonus-system led the Romanian forestry companies and forest owners to deviate from supplying the standard 8 m logs – meanwhile 85 % of the round logs are supplied in 3 m length.
Source of friction supply of raw material.
A hard winter, inflexible forest owners, missing trucks and a complicated log auction system led to a lack of raw material especially in the first three months of this year. As to attorney Dr. Ernst-Hans Lackinger, 65.000 m³ of round logs were supplied to the sawmill in June, he hopes to have up to 100.000 m³ of round logs on storage in fall. Assistance shall be also given by the ÖBf-subsidiary Foria, where Schweighofer ordered 40.000 m³ of round logs. In the future, Foria shall supply 20 % of the required raw material.
With regards to lumber quality, Schweighofer – respectively Japanese customers – is enthused about the smooth fibre with little hard streak. The strength sorting for the American admittance was carried out by Holzforschung Austria, Vienna. As soon as Schweighofer has received the admittance for spruce in July, he opens the door for the planned lumber export to North America.
The problem of missing rolling stock was solved with the pre-financing of dozens of trucks for local forwarding agents – even for the raw material supply Schweighofer pays in advance respectively upon receipt of the logs on site.
A 350 m long tubulator conveyor belt supplied by Bruks-Klöckner, Arbrå/Sweden transports pulp chips and shavings to the nearby manufacturer of timber based products. Chips are collected underneath the sawline from where a tubulator system takes it to the three screens. The material flow requiring little space only makes Sebes one of the conjured integrated sites.
Timber trade centre.
The building of an own particle board manufacturing plant on site and the settling of other investors of the wood industry, could make Sebes to a Romanian timber trade centre. The visit of the Romanian president Jon Iliescu as well as the OECD-investment-award „Country Award for Romania“ received on July 8, emphasize the importance of the sawmill. The fact that Schweighofer quickly overcame all initial problems, leaves only one conclusion that he acquired a taste for more. “There are many possibilities…..” is one of his most used sentences. GE |
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2 parallel sorting lines – up to 220 cycles following the profiling line are required.
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