In the next part of our occasional series on the timber and forest products industry – from seedlings to final products, we follow cut logs to one of West Virginia’s most sophisticated sawmills. Independent producer Jean Snedegar spent some time at Allegheny Wood Products’ Kingwood Sawmill and Pellet Mill, with plant manager, Mark Wilson.
“It takes about 35 truckloads of logs per day just to sustain our inventory. Everything in each log is utilized – either here at Kingwood or at another facility. All of our bark, which comes off at the debarker, is reground and used as the fuel for the dryer system for the pellet mill operation next door,” Wilson said. “The chips and dust are used as the primary material for the pellet mill operation. So our goal here at Kingwood is for nothing to leave here that’s not had some kind of added value.”
After the logs come off the trucks, a log-scaler grades them and sorts them according to species. To make sure this sawmill gets the most lumber out of each log, computer technology and sophisticated machinery helps the 135 employees extract every millimeter of useable wood. It’s called “optimization”, and it starts at the ring debarker.
“The ring debarker is very good at taking just the bark off and leaving a smooth surface. So the debarker is an integral part of our optimizing system,” Wilson said. “We want a true reading of what that log is – we don’t want to waste any wood.”
Only one species of wood goes through the mill each day. From the debarker, the logs go to the bandmills – the first saws that cut through the log. Inside an enclosed cab, the operator uses computer technology to show him exactly where to cut the log.
Read more on this from West Virginia Public Broadcasting at https://wvpublic.org/post/wva-timber-tree-boards-less-hour#stream/0.