To say that the pallet business is undergoing a significant shift is an understatement. The industry has been rocked by COVID-19, the rise of ecommerce, shortages, labor shortfalls, consolidation and much more. At the same time, lumber shortages and high wood prices are requiring pallet companies to increasingly turn to recovered pallet material for both repair and remanufacturing. How fast those cores can be converted to usable material is also part of the cost equation.
For these reasons, the future for optimized trim saw lines seems bright. “We believe that soon, manually operated, traditional trim saw processes will be the exception and not the rule for medium-sized or larger operations,” Jeff Williams, president of PRS Group, told Pallet Enterprise last October.
Optimized trim saw lines listed further below in this article vary by degree, but generally offer the ability to descramble or singulate incoming recovered components and then scan them for thickness, width and length. Automated trim saws can be programmed to recover the highest valued piece, or pieces to a particular length needed for custom orders. Trimmed boards are then conveyed and sorted into the appropriate bin.
Providers of these systems rely on deep experience within the pallet industry as well as learning from other manufacturing applications to help reduce labor requirements and automate difficult tasks. “We are using lessons learned from other industries that are more highly automated to help the pallet industry advance,” Doug Wenninger, president of Alliance Automation, stated in a 2021 Pallet Enterprise article.
Let’s dive into some of the reasons that are making optimized trim saw lines so compelling for pallet businesses:
Increased throughput
Automated lines can trim and sort boards into bins at a rate of as many as 3,000 to 3,500 boards per hour. Increased throughput helps generate needed lumber much more quickly, both for standard sizes as well as custom sizes, requiring less lead time and helping to reduce the double handling of inbound cores as well as the need for core storage.
Higher productivity
Automated trim saw systems help you do more with less, requiring less labor or at least less physical exertion to operate than less sophisticated systems. Bo’s Pallets, for example, installed two Robotic Dismantlers from Alliance Automation as well as Alliance’s Urban Sawmill. While the company did not reduce staff, it did make their jobs easier, increased production and revenue is up 60%. More wood is going into higher uses, and the jobs on the line are easier to do and easier for the company to fill. Many of the jobs on the new Alliance line can be done by either men or women, as well as big or small workers.
Improved safety
Less demanding jobs with improved ergonomics mean that workers are less likely to be injured or to quit in search of less physically demanding jobs.
Improved recovery and less waste
By scanning, optimizing, and cutting each board to its highest value and to meet the needs of a particular custom order, waste is nearly eliminated. By accurately cutting only the amount of components needed on a certain side, the problem of handling and storing leftover inventory is eliminated. “For instance,” Williams noted, “just the ability to set a maximum quantity for a particular board length or width that may be for a particular pallet order; there is no waste in material being cut and sorted to that spec, beyond what is needed.”
Revenue generation from excess component sales
For Bo’s Pallets, now part of 48forty Solutions, one of the benefits of installing the Robotic Dismantlers and the Urban Sawmill from Alliance Automation is that it now generates a surplus of material to sell. “The payback, for me, is in increased business,” Greg Bowen told Pallet Enterprise last year. “We are tracking to do $300,000 in wood sales this year. For a recycler that never sold wood, that’s $300,000 in new revenue.”
Optimized Trim Saw Vendors
Vendors of automated trim saw lines are listed below in alphabetical order:
Alliance Automation: The Urban Sawmill
According to Wenninger, early adopters of the Alliance Robotic Dismantler quickly discovered that the next step in labor reduction would be to automate the board prepping process to keep pace with the increased generation of recovered material. “We’ve seen companies reduce headcount by as many as 20 by introducing our systems. The labor savings is really what drove the innovation behind the Urban Sawmill,” he stated.
The Urban Sawmill system will scan random deck and bottom boards for length, width and thickness, then optimize and trim to the desired finished length. Individual sort bins capture the reclassified lumber of predetermined dimensions. At Bo’s Pallets, there are 12 bin locations. For more information, visit https://allianceautomation.com/the-urban-sawmill/.
PRS Group: Auto-Max
Based on the latest technologies and produced through two years of extensive research and development, the Auto-Max provides solutions to the most central issues of pallet lumber reclaim – optimizing of lumber and labor. With only 1–2 operators, the Auto-Max can feed, scan, optimize, prioritize output end products, cut and sort multiple lengths/ widths/thickness categories – accurately and consistently at 3,000 boards per hour.
According to Williams, the unique features of the Auto-Max include a proprietary unscrambler design, scrap removal systems, nearly hands-free operator requirements, and automated lumber sorting with automated material handling integrated that minimizes labor. For more information, visit https://www.prsgroupinc.com/products/automax-super-saw/300/product-detail.
Smart Products Lumber Recovery System
Smart Products has been a leading designer and manufacturer of pallet repair and recycling equipment since 1993. Ken Hess, president of the company, has continued his mission of developing solutions that move the industry forward, including the Smart Products Lumber Recovery System, or Smart LRS. The fully automated system allows users to classify, measure, trim to size and sort recoverable lumber into desired parameters.
The Smart LRS starts with a conveyor that accumulates and transfers recoverable material, typically from specially designed Smart single-operator bandsaws. The recoverable lumber (whether deck boards or stringers) is singulated by the Smart Unscrambler, spaced at one component per foot for measurement. Component width, thickness and length are identified, allowing for automated cuts to the desired length. Moving along the conveyor, when lumber arrives at the correct bin location, the automated bin drops open, allowing lumber to fall into the designated bin location. The Smart LRS is “easily scalable” and can be outfitted with sorter bins with casters, allowing for faster changeout of full bins.
For more information, contact Smart Products at 765-284-9545 or visit http://smartproductsinc.com/.
In summary, current pressures facing the pallet industry in areas such as lumber pricing, labor availability and other considerations listed above are increasingly informing the decision-making process of pallet operators looking to keep pace with change. Optimized trim saw lines are an increasingly attractive option for medium and large-sized pallet recycling operations.
