Wood Manufacturing Technology

Wood strength and stiffness testers 

This new machine will allow students to test timber for bending stiffness and strength.  Our STFE™ Timber Testing Machines are designed to test boards for bending stiffness and strength in a four point bending configuration.  Their main use is for quality assurance testing as required by standards for monitoring compliance of structural timber grades. The STFE5 has been designed with ease of use and accuracy in mind and has a proven history within the NZ timber industry.

A mechanical force is applied to boards to deflect (bend) them. The force is recorded by a load cell and deflection is generally measured by a dial gauge. This information is combined to determine stiffness or Modulus of Elasticity (MoE). To determine strength a load is either applied until the board breaks (Modulus of Rupture, MoR) or 'proof loaded' to a strength rating for the specific grade.

See here for more information - http://www.calibre-equipment.com/wood-testing.html

Dimeter Opticut S50

At any time a manual trim cut, a defect or lengths can be individually cut in between the production. The OptiCut also offers the opportunity to cut lengths from a cutting list after the workpiece has been automatically measured – of course with the lowest waste.

An upgrading of the wood quality for higher value added and more can be achieved via the function “Cutting out the defects automatically”. Afterwards the timber can be glued together again on a finger-jointing line to have a "defect-free" timber quality for further production.

Full optimizing is also possible: The OptiCut cuts off lengths from a cutting list between marked defects. The OptiCom software always calculates the best combination of lengths to reduce the waste and to upgrade the qualities. On the OptiCut S-series up to four qualities can be taken into consideration.  You can find more information here - http://www.weinigusa.com/products/crosscut/push_feed/s50/ 

Weinig Powermat 500

Waiariki Institute of Technology's School of Forestry and Primary Industries proudly uses a Weinig timber moulding machine at its Waipa campus just outside Rotorua. Weinig Australia, in association with W&R Jack Ltd, a New Zealand timber processing equipment supplier, generously supplied the school a new $400,000 WEINIG Powermat 500. W&R Jack has a long-standing history of supporting Waiariki's forestry school, recognising the quality of training being provided and the real need for more timber machinists in an industry where there is a nationwide shortage of employees.

There are about eight of these machines operating in New Zealand. The installation of the machine has been made available to Waiariki at a nominal fee.

The computer that operates the Powermat 500 stores thousands of pattern profiles, considerably reducing the downtime a machinist experiences each time a mould pattern must be changed (previously by hand), thus allowing a much higher production rate. The computer also sets and double-checks each profile, a task the machinist used to do, and it won't operate until safety checks are completed. This technology not only allows higher production rates, and safer operation, but wastes less timber as it cuts more accurately than a hand-set machine.

You can find more infortmation here - http://www.weinigusa.com/products/moulders/powermat/p500/