Band Sawing

In India one can find band saws with manual trolleys and 2 to 3 mm Kerf. The feed speed of such saws is uneven as it is manual/pushed feed and the resultant surface of the saw planks is quite rough and needs about 2 mm to uniformly plain the entire surface. This leads to the loss of quite a good amount of timber at every stage. However, it is possible to save 50% wastage if proper care is taken regarding: 

• Selection of equipment

• Thin Kerf blades

• Uniform feed speed

• Accurate positioning for thickness and elimination of over sizing of timber

• Proper sharpening of the blades and its maintenance

The equipment should be properly engineered and the machine should work vibrations free and should consume optimum electric power. Also the machine should have accurate carriage so as to assure least tolerance and the carriage should be hardened & stress relieved to guarantee long life performance. Besides, reducing the Kerf of the saw blade there can be drastic recovery of lumber. Such technology assures 70 to 80% recovery in lumber. Therefore, by ensuring the accuracy of the Kerf and the feed speed smoother surface of the saw timbers can be achieved and thereby resulting in lesser material removal for planning. Also proper care should be taken while sharpening the blades and setting the Kerf process.

Hence, with proper care and precaution one can achieve the optimum efficiency of band sawing and improve timber yield and reduce the wastage of precious timber and natural resources.

Planers & Moulders

Planers and moulders can enhance product quality of plantation timber. A planer is used for surface planing (i.e. the surface of the sawn timber is normally planed in a simple planer with a single cutter head) or thickness planing, where the thickness of the work piece is reduced to standard dimension. Four side planing is an extension of single side surface planing where the planing machine is equipped with four cutter heads to permit surface planing of all four sides of the work piece during a single pass through the machine.

On the other hand, moulding of timber is defined as the process of producing a profile (it can be of various designs and uniform along the complete length of the timber) along the length. The simplest form of moulding machine is the single vertical moulder or the spindle shaper. Straight moulding, rebating, grooving, bevelling and chamfering, edge moulding, tenoning, shaping etc. can be carried out using a single spindle moulder. The multiple spindle moulder comes with four, five, six or more cutter heads facilitating simultaneous moulding and planing of the timber section or work piece at a single pass through the machine. Mouldings, beadings, picture frames, staircase railings, flooring, panelling, door and window frame sections etc. can be made on the multi spindle moulders and timber can also be machined through the multi spindle moulder.