Thomson Sawmills Ltd says it has doubled the service time of its saw blades following an investment in a five machine Vollmer saw blade shop.
Thomson, which manufactures fencing and landscaping/architectural timbers, decided to replace the subcontract reconditioning of its bandsaw blades and circular saw blades with the new facility in a separate building on its 50-acre Felthorpe site.
The company estimated bandsaw blades needed sharpening after only a single day’s cutting under the old arrangement, equal to 75 large bandsaw blades (17ft, 18ft and 28ft diameters) and 45 circular saw blades each week. Now each blade lasts two days.
“The increase in quality also means we can increase the feed speeds on our sawmill machines, therefore our production output is higher since the Vollmer machines were installed,” said company director and sawmill manager Jamie Thomson.
Overseen by a saw doctor, the Vollmer machines are arranged in cellular format.
After leaving a checking station, blades are re-tensioned on a Vollmer RC 100 benching centre for fully automatic dressing, before progressing to a Vollmer CA 210 automatic profile grinding machine, where each tooth receives a reground top and face, taking 30-45min.
For blades where teeth have worn, a Vollmer GPA 200 is deployed to deposit new Stellite material on the tip of each tooth. Using a plasma welding technique, work speeds are up to 10 teeth per minute, with a bandsaw taking 30min.
After re-tipping, blades receive profile grinding on a Vollmer CA 210 and side grinding on a Vollmer CAF 100.
The final machine is a Vollmer CHC eco, a sharpening machine with automatic bevel grinding control for face and top machining of carbide-tipped circular saw blades with different diameters and tooth geometries.
All timbers processed are softwoods, predominantly pine, with 100,000m³ of round timber cut every year.
