Timber processors from across the world descended on the Dürmentingen HQ of long-standing machinery producer Paul GmbH in southern Germany for the company’s Optimising Days.
Major Chinese, Russian and Romanian processors were among the 50 companies that came to check out Paul’s cutting solutions, while UK sawmillers A&J Scott and Stuart Somerscales Ltd, Paul’s UK agent, Stenner, and TTJ also joined the throng.
Paul’s machines are found all over the world – its KME2 circular edger alone accounts for about 8,000 installations.
Established in 1925, the company has been a leading force in timber cutting technology, with landmarks such as the world’s first double edging circular saw in 1948.
It has developed a wide range of machinery for the sawmilling and secondary processing sectors, including CNC cross-cut saws, optimising rip systems, handling solutions and fully-automatic processing lines, while also becoming one of the leading manufacturers of equipment for pre-stressed concrete construction.
Its Dürmentingen factory was extended in 2010 and now covers 37,000m2, employing 250 people. A second production facility is located in nearby Riedlingen.
"Continuous improvement" is a Paul philosophy and to this end two optimising systems, already sold to Swedish and Romanian customers, were demonstrated at the Optimising Days.
The first, a RAPID SCAN DUO cross-cut system, set up to cut material for the finger-jointed wood production sector, consisted of a Paul wood scanning system in conjunction with two Rapid heavy-duty cross-cut saws.
It is designed for high daily output, optimised waste removal and high length accuracy at maximum speed rates. Each Rapid is equipped with two overhead saw blades – the first machine in the world with this feature, according to Paul – with the blades working independently of each other.
It can cut minimum lengths of 110mm to satisfy customer demand for short length sections for finger-jointing.
The second demonstration line, tailored specifically for its Romanian purchaser, was an automatically linked processing system for dried beech. This consisted of a semiautomatic AB-MA infeed system, a CGL rip saw, six marking tables and two cross-cut lines from the C11-MKL series with sorting systems.
Firstly, a chain conveyor buffers the workpieces, allowing an optimal cycle time for workpiece feeding. After alignment, the workpiece is measured before dividing into various grade zones.
The optimising software accepts the measuring data, calculates the best optimising result and transfers it to the CGL ripsaw.
During the next stage, features of the ripped boards are marked manually on six roller tables according to grades before being transferred automatically to the cross-cuts. The Maxi 6 CNC control calculates the distribution in a way so both lines are loaded equally.
Each cross-cut line is provided with one measuring station to read the crayon marks. The optimising software calculates the cross-cutting result and transfers the data to the C11 cross-cuts.
Cut workpieces are then sorted according to length and grade on two belt conveyors.
Updates to range
Aside from the working demonstrations, Paul’s sales director, Manfred Buck, also briefed delegates about updates to its range, with delegates able to see many of the machines in the showroom and factory.
One of these is a new scanning system called the Touch-Free Marking System, shown earlier this year at Xylexpo.
This cost-effective scanner bridges the price gap between manual marking of timber and automatic scanning technology.
Cameras take photos of timber and relay images to VDU screens, with the operator able to use a computer mouse to mark the timber on screen.
Advantages include a higher timber yield, faster marking, recording and marking of defects on all four workpiece faces, accurate dimensioning of defects and no dangerous handling of heavy hardwood timber for staff.
Another innovation on show was the K34G-OUR, a modified multi-rip saw specifically developed for ripping and profiling curved bed slats in a single pass.
Feed rollers have a curved alignment so boards run through the machine at a radius, with top and bottom saw shafts rotating against the feed. Multiple single slats can thus be produced from a wide sheet.
Meanwhile, the latest version KME3 circular edger/ripsaw is more powerful than its predecessor, now with a 90kW motor, and features a Linux-based CNC control system and networking via the Paul bus module, allowing the machine to be connected to the internet remotely.
Another feature picked out was the AB920 optimising rip saw’s skewing table to get more yield out of ‘banana’ boards.
The table moves boards to the optimal feed position, allowing both centre and side alignment along the waney edge. The machine can process up to 16 boards a minute on fully automatic running.
"The future will be to have these machines connected to scanning machines like Woodeye," said Mr Buck.
