Sawmill owners are looking for solutions to maintaining a high productivity rate, while keeping overhead and maintenance expenses low.
With lumber prices showing positive growth, sawmill owners are looking for solutions to maintaining a high productivity rate, while keeping overhead and maintenance expenses low, in the highly competitive and volatile lumber industry. Wood-Mizer’s new WM4000 Industrial Headrig offers those solutions for both current mill owners and potential new entrants.
Wood-Mizer redefined sawmills by introducing thin-kerf blade technology, the industry standard, and the WM4000 seeks to create a new benchmark for industrial sawmill operations. “I think the [thin-kerf headrig] is definitely going to be a big part of the lumber industry in the future. It should be integrated into any operation. It’s not only the kerf; it’s your electric bill, it’s your parts bill, it all comes together at one big savings,” Ed Robbins, Ohio Valley Veneer.
The WM4000 starts where its predecessors (WM3000 and WM3500) finished by offering the same PLC setworks, Pantograph cable configuration, bi-directional chain turners, laser sight and material dragback that sawmill operators have become accustomed to for years. From there, Wood-Mizer offers all new technology with the standard additions of a fully-enclosed operator cab and programmable joysticks to control sawing, log handling, and hydraulic speed. Perhaps the biggest advancement on the WM4000 is the addition of the new, touchscreen, Human Machine Interface (HMI).
This standard feature puts more information than ever before at the operator’s fingertips. With the touch of a button, information regarding board and cant sizes, head height, feed position, and blade power is readily available. And then, there’s the Auto-Cut feature. This is where Wood- Mizer’s productivity advancements really show. With Auto-Cut, the WM4000 is capable of continuous cutting, through foot pedal control, and the ‘Return to Start’ feature will remember the beginning of the log for efficiency and precision. “The auto foot control is an excellent feature. When you get set up to run several boards in a row, it’s very fast. The foot pedals give your hands some relief, which makes the day easy,” Mike Gebhardt, Gebhardt Timber Management.
With the WM4000, Wood-Mizer added new technology, plus they advanced what already existed to give a completely upgraded experience. The 15HP hydraulic motor and 15GPM output is the fastest, most powerful of the entire Wood-Mizer Industrial line. The sawing head features a new servo motor for faster up/down speed and positioning precision, and the new, floor anchored clamp serves double duty by eliminating stress on the bed and functions as a quick turn mechanism. One more productivity upgrade, standard on the WM4000, is the built-in, hydraulically powered, conveyor belt to quickly move material off the back and further down the processing line.
Wood-Mizer’s WM4000 truly is the next generation in high tech sawing. “It’s an excellent machine for the commercial [lumber] industry. This machine is tough and fast, and will double the production of our LT70,” Mike Gebhardt. It is the ideal piece of equipment to expand your current lumber operation or begin a new one. “The cost of owning, maintaining, and running a Wood-Mizer is easily absorbed into any budget,” Brennan Sain, B.L. Sain Custom Sawing. To learn more about the WM4000, and all of Wood-Mizer’s equipment, visit www.woodmizer.com.
