The currently still small cross-laminated timber market in Australia and New Zealand is undergoing massive growth. Amongst domestic companies, this is first and foremost thanks to construction enterprise Lendlease and CLT producer XLam. Both companies have been doing important work raising awareness for and providing information on CLT and built flagship projects that made the new construction material widely accepted.
Due to the limited capacities on the New Zealand market and the large potential in Australia, XLam decided in 2016 to build a second location in the Australian city of Wodonga which brought a capacity expansion of 10,000 m³/yr to a total of 70,000 m³/yr.
Tried-and-tested system components
On the lay-up unit, longitudinal and cross layers are stacked in turns – and the lay-up table passes through in-between during adhesive application © Ledinek
In the matter of machine selection, the Australian CLT producer invited and reviewed several offers but it didn't take long for plant manufacturer Ledinek to win the race. Together with Oest, the Slovenian specialist offered the entire machine complex from the feed-in of raw lamellas up to the finished joined panels. "Technically and in terms of price, this was by far the most attractive offer," XLam CEO Gary Caulfield remembers.
"As the only genuine full-range supplier for CLT production, we were advancing the project in huge steps," Ledinek Head of Sales Robert Mlinaric reports. It took just under six months from the first inquiry to the contract placing; a lot of different project variants were simulated in order to find the optimal concept for the plant.
We are the only true full-range supplier for CLT production.
Reliable technology
The X-Cut cross-cut saw brings lamellas to the correct length © Ledinek
When selecting the individual machines, Ledinek exclusively used tried-and-tested components. "No experiments or prototypes! With a distance of 15,000 km, operational reliability is even more important than usually," as Mlinaric puts it.
After the conventional package feed-in for two to three qualities, a vacuum de-stacking follows. Since the raw material is already accurately trimmed, the line does not need a scanner. The Kontizink 20 outputs around 2500 running meters per hour or, depending on the cross-section, 100 to 150 m³ per shift. A five-level curing tray storage grants the PU glue enough time to cure.
A Multiplan planer with six spindles and a feed rate of 200 m/min was equipped with additional horizontal spindles upon the customer's request in order to create perfect surfaces without the need for jointers. "Designing the machine like that generates better surfaces for surface gluing," Mlinaric explains.
After planing and cutting with an X-Cut cross-cut saw for cross-layer cutting, the lamellas are brought into the storage with a capacity of up to ten cross layers. The buffer for longitudinal layers can contain up to 15 layers and is already dimensioned for an expansion by another six layers. "Here, we already have taken into account a potential second press for the upcoming years," Mlinaric informs.
Flexible gluing
The easy-to-service glue application head with servo-powered dosing technology is provided by Oest © Oest
The vacuum lay-up unit has two lay-up tables and can stack up to 16 panels per shift. The surface gluing system is provided by Oest. Thanks to its dosing system Kontitop with servo-powered dosing technology, the application head Facetac and an additional water spray mechanism it is ideal for surface application.
The maximum gluing width of the easy-to-service application head is 1750 mm which is half the width of the largest CLT elements to be produced. The head has 35 glue material valves which can be switched in a grid of 50 mm – adjustment of the gluing width is done automatically via the SPS system. If necessary, individual application segments can be replaced in a grid of 50 mm in a few easy steps, Oest distribution engineer Rainer Köster informs. Glue application is run from standstill and is started at the same time as the lay-up table moves forward within the component's edgeds. Following the "all in use" principle, the application head is adjusted for every gluing pass to cover half of the gluing width either from the left or from the right. The feed rate is 120 m/min, and the application volume reaches around 140 g/m². The finger-joint glue application is also from Oest.
16 m press
The X-Press press is a third generation model and can handle elements up to 16 by 3.6 m © Ledinek
The X-Press press is a third generation model and can produce elements of up to 16 by 3.6 m. The surface pressure reaches up to 0.8 N/mm², according to Ledinek. After glue curing the panel is automatically conveyed from the press and makes room for the second press table. This allows for fast feeding of a new element and the pushing device has enough time to push off the panel longitudinally where enough buffer conveyors are installed (upstream of the joining system) to ensure seamless production. Furthermore, the planners already allowed for potential additional CNC processing centers.
The system is controlled by means of the Ledinek X-Lam management system. The Slovenians developed the user-friendly control specifically for touch screens which allows for mobile control on tablets.
"Depending on the requirements, we can exactly tailor the flexible system to our customers. Furthermore, the integration into existing business processes enables optimal automation and effective logistics processes," Mlinaric informs.
"A step in the right direction"
The official launch was on the 5th of May 2018. A few weeks later, Caulfield sees a bright future ahead: "The cross-laminated timber market in Australia and New Zealand is still in its infancy. Sustainable market growth is only possible if we establish integrated procurement and design solutions. Our new factory is most definitely a step into the right direction for this purpose."
