Spruce? No, birch!

In 2024, USNR delivered a complete bandsaw mill to Krauss SIA in Cesvaine Parish/LV, which began trial operation in October 2024. USNR supplied all optimization and scanner units, the main bandsaw machines, the edge-trimmers, the resaw unit, and all the mechanization. “We received Europe’s most modern birch sawmill,” CEO Gatis Gulbis is convinced.

The Birch Pros

“Birch Professionals” one can read on the safety vest of plant manager Kaspars Ezernieks – a fitting expression, as the company has specialized in the cutting of birch wood since its establishment in 1999. Krauss SIA’s main customer is the furniture industry. High-quality log wood is purchased, and the fresh lumber is then sent to the processing facility around 100 km away.

The new production facility supplies the raw material. “The sawmill must achieve the highest yield both in terms of value and volume. Since we cut exclusively for in-house use, we can perfectly adapt the cutting patterns,” Ezernieks tells us. In some cases, the wane is deliberately left on the cut wood if this increases the overall yield.

Quality has top priority

Production is geared towards customers from the furniture industry in Europe and the USA. IKEA is a major customer, which is why only FSC-certified products are processed. In the log yard, enough material is available for two weeks – an annual cutting capacity of 100,000 m³ of log wood is the target.

The USNR line could also be used to cut softwood logs. “Scanner, chipper, the bandsaw for curvature-aligned cutting, the rotary feed, edge trimmer, and resaw unit,” Eckart Müller, USNR’s account manager for Central Europe, explains. In reality, however, birch is processed, which, at 0.62 to 0.65 g/cm³, has a density that is around 40 to 50% higher than that of spruce. Thus, the line has to be able to handle wood of higher strength and weight.

It is a flexible 5-meter-long line, but only 3-meter logs are used. The logs (18 to 50 cm) arrive from the forests within a just few days. The logs with larger diameters are particularly impressive. In the log yard, the logs are sorted according to quality and diameter, and are then reduced in size, and debarked before being fed to the line. “All cutting patterns are designed for maximum yield,” Ezernieks tells us.

Optimization results control sawing

The scanner results at the factory entrance control the chipper and the 1,600-mm “Sawmaster 1600” bandsaw. Units for sawing along the curvature of the log are installed. For the first time, the control motors were positioned outside the unit. Directly behind the bandsaw, it is examined whether the pre-processed logs fulfil the target specifications. In case of deviations, the feed and/or blade speed are adjusted.

Sideboards head towards the Catech LT 7 edge trimmer, and the pre-processed logs are then transported to the rotary feed or to the Eurosaw-FD resaw unit. The layout is similar to that of a high-tech softwood sawmill. The operator’s booth is located at the side, and one operator monitors the line. Per shift, a total of eight people work in inspection, sorting, and monitoring.

Bandsaw, logs, edge-trimmer, resawing

The production line offers over 50 sorting options, both visually and by scanner. Around nine months after its launch, the line is still being fine-tuned. “The feed speed is 60 m/min, the target being 80 m/min,” Ezernieks says. The bandsaw cuts up to five boards at a speed of 60 m/min. The five-axis resaw can cut ten boards at 30 m/min. “So, the speeds are different, and everything has to play together like an orchestra,” Müller adds.

The material flow is stable, and the production site is expected to be fully coordinated in about a year. The yield is 60%, comparable to that of a softwood sawmill. The company does not want to disclose further yield rates. “There are only a few suppliers that cut hardwood at such a speed and in this kind of quality. We wanted to drive a Mercedes – and when it comes to bandsaw technology, USNR is one of those worldwide,” Gulbis summarizes.