ethel, Vt- nothing in the forest industry has increased in cost the last few years as much as logs. Many sawmillers thoughout North America struggle with the cost of doing business just to make a profit or with some, break even. At Silvatech Corp., providing equipment which improves volume and grade yield along with increased worker productivity and therefore increased profit is the main priority.

"Our basic principle is that if we expect you to invest money on our systems we better put more money in your pocket than we took out," said Bill Rousseau, president and co-founder of the corporation. "There are a lot of sawmillers out there who have told us they've been really surprised at how much our systems have increased their incomes." 

The original system for set shaft carriages, now called the Silvatech Universal Set Controller, was developed to enable a sawyer to produce more accurately sized lumber of better grade and to do it faster, and with less effort than was previously possible.  Rousseau, along with co-founder Mike Hughes, started Silvatech in the spring of 1984, after the two had developed a computerized setworks control to improve the performance of Rousseau's mill in Vermont. "I did most of my own sawing at my family's mill. When you have signed a check for a log, you can get pretty fussy about what you get out of it," Rousseau said. "In 1983, I decided I needed a better setworks and I had used computers in college just enough to know what sort of things you can do with them. I asked Mike, who was a consulting electronics engineer and who also had a small handset mill, if he'd help build an electronic controlled setworks for my carriage, as a consulting project. We included a lot of features which turned out to be very helpful to a sawyer, and other mill owners started coming around to look at it and wanting the same thing for their mills.  "The rest, as the old saying goes, is history". The two began putting the system on existing carriages, as well as supplying them to carriage manufacturers. Later they developed their linear position carriage controller, and from there they went to the scanning system. All these products are applicable to the Hardwood and softwood industry. "Typically the sawyer will use the system a little differently depending on whether he's sawing Hardwood or pine boards," Rousseau said. 

Today, the company has grown to over 20 employees and has installed around 1,300 systems throughout North America, as well as a few overseas. All the systems can be upgraded with minimal, if any, down time. The mill owner's perspective is evident in Silvatech's service procedures.  "More often than not, we can fix most problems over the phone. The diagnostics on the screen tell what is wrong with the system or where to look. If we are doing an upgrade or a repair that can't be accomplished over the phone, we will overnight them a loaner to use, while we get theirs back here to upgrade or fix," Rousseau said. "This really helps both us and the customer." 

"Price is always a concern when considering new equipment upgrades. However, the more expensive logs get, the cheaper equipment becomes if it will increase volume yield and grade" he said. A Universal Set Controller added to a set shaft carriage will cost around $15,000 installed and will typically increase yield by around 4 percent. That's 40,000 extra feet of lumber from the first million feet of logs to repay the investment. A Linear carriage conversion and scanner will typically increase yield by 8 percent. Even for a mill sawing 3 million board feet per year that's 240,000 board feet of extra lumber from the same logs. "That is the reason we developed the thing in the first place. I thought it was awful to have to pay $250 a thousand for good Hard Maple logs - compare that with today's prices." Rousseau said. 

There are four service representatives, who take service calls or can go to the site to fix problems or install the new systems. They include: Dave Otis, Bob Collins, Dave Gregg and Chad Dexter. Joe Hughes, a private contractor from Rome, Ga., also does a lot of Silvatech installations and service work. 

The systems are not only for both Hardwood and softwood mills, but also large and small operations. "We do have systems in some of the biggest forest products companies, but the vast majority of them are in the smaller companies," Rousseau explained. "We don't just cater to the big mills. We have customers that are sawing 3 million to 4 million board feet a year running linear carriages with scanners and think it's the smartest investment they ever made." 

Customers have often questioned Rousseau about needing a linear positioner carriage or scanner if they do most of their sawing on a resaw. "The simple answer is that the scanner gives you an opening face and sets the tapers for you"  Rousseau explained. "The actual results of properly setting the tapers and opening face will be increased volume and grade yield whether you finish sawing the log on the carriage or on a resaw.  All the resaw operator can do is deal with what he was sent from the headrig and the scanner will let the sawyer send him cants with more symmetrical faces and in which the heart defects can be concentrated in a smaller cant. Once the sawyer puts two faces 90 degrees from each other on a log, he's typically determined the alignment for all the sawlines in the log. If he doesn't get them just right, the owner pays the price at the resaw."

Silvatech also manufactures automated tally systems, which can include grading station and sorter controls. These systems automatically measure and display length, width and thickness; and, with an operator input for grade, either mark the board for manual sorting or control an automatic sorter. A patent pending grading station configuration lets the grader also operate the trimmer. 

"Our latest project is an edger-optimizer," he said. "We are developing a new three dimensional scanning system, as well as a simple and compact in-feed system for this project. We plan to make this technology affordable for a great many mills who can see the advantages, in terms of increased profits, but feel that currently available systems are too expensive, complicated and take up too much room." 

Key employees include: John Seifert, who works out of Chillicothe, Ohio, and is a sales engineer; Marge Turner handles bookkeeping; and Jean Wilbur is in charge of invoicing and order processing. 

"We understand both the process of sawing logs and how to make money at it and to make a living," Rousseau said. "Our equipment is designed to simplify the process of sawing a log in a profitable way." 

Silvatech Corp. has over the last 15 years, provided many mills with productive technology, which has enabled operators to work with less stress and fatigue, while improving volume and grade yield, production and ultimately, profit. With today's computer advancements, Silvatech's future certainly looks promising.

 
This Silvatech linear positioner controller and scanner is installed at Cercosimo Lumber Co's sawmill in Brattleboro, Vt.