Head of Wood-Mizer European operations Richard Viver makes no bones about it. The market for the company’s mobile sawmills has been hit by recession just like the rest of the global economy. But the company has also seized on the slowdown to reappraise and improve its product line-up and implement further aspects of lean manufacturing.
“The focus has been on new products that provide great productivity and good value,” he said. “One of our main Ligna exhibits, the €9,000 LT20B, is a good example. This is designed for the small to medium-sized business and combines an LT20 band sawmill, which runs with a diesel, electric or petrol engine, and a ‘B’ bed which comes in 2m modules giving the option to increase cutting length for single logs or to load two end-to-end in the same bed and use one head to cut them in rotation.”
Another newcomer was the EE20 edger which has been fitted with a more powerful engine (18.5kW) than its predecessor. It has two circular blades, one fixed, one adjustable. and doubles as a multi-rip with five blades.
The new model is also more compact than previous Wood-Mizer edgers and comprises three modules, cutting mechanism, infeed and outfeed tables, cutting delivery costs.
