Saws
Chop saws are high production machines not being very expensive. When solid lumber comes into a factory it could possibly be in random lengths 16' or 20' long; this would have to be cut down to the required size as well as cutting out any knots in the wood. These chop saws, sometimes referred to as an undercut saw, will normally be foot pedal operated with a guard that protects the operator's hands from the blade which can cycle almost 60 times in a minute. The operator will push the piece of wood to a predetermined stop and hit the foot pedal; the saw blade will go up and cut the wood while the guard will come down protecting the blade. The operator then pushes the remaining wood to the next stop. These machines can be left or right-hand justified, depending on the operator or depending on the material flow within the plant. Longer machines will cut larger widths of material and with more horsepower.
Optimizing and defecting saws are a far more sophisticated version of the chop saw but work in a similar way. These are either fully automatic with CNC controls or have high speed feeding mechanisms. The optimizer as its name implies will optimize lengths of lumber from a random length or material that is fed into the machine. The computer has a list of the most common sizes and will automatically determine the best way to cut and optimize the random piece placed into the machine to get the best yield.
The Defecting Saw will remove defects such as knots etc. from the lumber. On the older or less expensive of these machines, the operator would mark the defect with a special chalk, a scanner would read these chalk marks and cut out the defect.
The more expensive machines today use scanners and vision, and will find the defect on their own without human intervention or a chalk line and will automatically cut out the defect.
MANUFACTURERS OF THESE MACHINES INCLUDE:
Activa, Atkinson, Delta, Dimter, Friulmac, General, Goodspeed, Invincible, J & P, Mereen Johnson, Newnes, Oliver, Paul, Powermatic, Rockwell, Scheer, Wadkin, Wintersteiger, Yates.
Copyright © MLS MACHINERY INC. 2008 All rights reserved.
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