OKAW TRUS - ARTHUR, ILLINOIS

Material Flow Challenge:

Client moving to new facility to meet increased demand for product. Is familiar with conventional in-feed conveyor, the carousel concept for feeding saws, and is interested in developing his concept of feeding an automatic saw from an in-feed chain conveyor to a de-scrambling machine that feeds boards to his saws in-feed dogs. The proposed material flow system needs to handle job packages large and small, with improved throughput and reduced labor overhead.

Equipment Solution:

Using a design concept recommended by this client, PCS developed a two-section heavy utilization chain conveyor. The two-section design accommodates field conditions involving height and width, and also addresses the need to operate the chain advance for front and rear conveyor segments separately. The rear section can be manipulated to accept additional job packages and not effect the position of chains near the descrambler and saw. By command, lumber packages, on the front segment, advance toward the saw, and fall into the descrabler. Each job package is then moved, by machine motion, as individual pieces of lumber that advance on the dogs of the descrambler unit to the saw.

System Benefit:

Similar to more conventional in-feed chain conveyor designs, individual job packages advance to the saw. But this system design also has the potential of actually MACHINE-FEEDING a combination saw. Lumber positioned on the chain conveyor, advanced through the descrambler, and deposited on the in-feed system of a saw, such as the AutoOmni, one board at a time, offers the potential for greatly reduced manual handling and consistent, increased throughput.