Rousseau,Hughes and their computerized sawmill

  It can give a guy a head-ache. Bill Rousseau and Mike Hughes both know from experience. Rousseau and Hughes are the founders of Silvatech Corporation. Together they developed the Silvatech Universal Set Controller , a computer-driven device that makes a sawyer's job a lot easier - and more profitable. 

  Rousseau grew up in the lumber business. After getting his degree in forestry from the University of Vermont, he took over the Bethel sawmill his father had operated for 30 years. He was looking for a way to improve its inaccurate machinery and boost efficiency when , in April 1983, a friend introduced him to Mike Hughes.

  Hughes is an electronics engineer with expertise in computer graphics and instrumentation, as well as a zest for tinkering. He had once "retired" from engineering to build and run his own hand-operated sawmill at his home in Sharon. Rousseau's problems interested him.  Bill Rousseau's sawmill was typical of most small or medium-sized mills in New England. The sawyer - Rousseau himself -eyeballed each log as it lay on a carriage and, before each cut, made a number of calculations in his head. He watched a large dial as he pressed electronic buttons to change the log's position. Finally he started the log in motion and sat idle while the saw did its work. Then he repeated the process for the next cut.

  A computer, he thought, would speed up the work and make calculations and log positioning easier and more accurate. It would reduce waste and thus save money, and it would save time. But the only computerized equipment available was much too expensive for any but the largest sawmills.

  Rousseau and Hughes knew that, by far, most lumber mills are small or mid- sized, and they saw a market. Using a standard microcomputer and simple programs they built a prototype electronic controller and tried it out a few months later. By February 1984 they had a "real working model" that cut logs more accurately and efficiently than most hand- run sawmills. 

  By May, Rousseau and Hughes had formed Silvatech, taking the name from silva, the Latin word for forest. And they had made the decision to manufacture the computerized controller as their own product rather than supplying it to a single sawmill equipment manufacturer.

  That summer and fall the company installed three experimental models. Hughes built the electronic components in a workshop above his garage. Each one took two weeks. In November they hired their first paid employee, an electronics specialist who had also worked as a sawyer.

  In January 1985 Hughes and Rousseau offered buyers the first Silvatech Universal Set Controller. Customer demand was never a problem; the difficulty was keeping up. By the end of 1985 thirty of the devices were in use. By saving time and making the most of each log, the new equipment brought a 3 percent to 6 percent increase in production, and the sawyers were enthusiastic.

  In the early stages, Rousseau and Hughes planned to produce 50 of the units a year, or one a week. Now, four years later, they've more than doubled that figure. They employ 10 people, and the company has installed Silvatech controls in 30 states and six Canadian provinces. Almost two-thirds of those have been retrofits on existing carriages;  the rest are built onto new equipment.

  A big factor in Silvatech's success has been that it is perceived in the industry not as just another electronics company, but as one run by “sawrnill people.” And their product is appreciated. 

"When a guy calls back and says, 'Boy, this thing is terrific! I'm glad I did it!' "   says Rousseau, “well, you get a kick out of that.”  

 - Julia Welch