An agreement among Arizona Forest Restoration Products (AFRP), the Center for Biological Diversity and Grand Canyon Trust will make it easier for a major forest restoration and small-diameter wood utilization project to go forward on U.S. Forest Service land in northern Arizona. Both environmental groups agree on the need for large-scale commercial thinning in the Mogollon Rim area to restore healthy forests while reducing wildfire hazards.

When Langdale Forest Products rebuilt its sawmill in 1998, the company decided to go with a double length infeed feeding a canter/quad. “Everyone was doing DLIs then and we thought it was a good idea,” according to Vice President and General Manager Jim Langdale. “We were not as excited about its effectiveness as we thought we would be. It served its purpose but we never thought we made as good a cant as we should.”

During the past decade, Simpson Lumber Co.’s—formerly Caffall Brothers—sawmill here has made a transition from long-time major cedar fencing manufacturer to producer of high-quality “Gold Label™” studs. Caffall Brothers had completed the stud mill transition by early ’05, and the mill was sold to Simpson in December ‘06.

Metal Detectors, Inc. has the advantage in this tough economy: American made and family run since 1965. What that means for its customers is a guarantee that MDI will be around to continue to sell and service its equipment even during the toughest times. Its customers need not worry about buying a product that may not be serviceable in 20 years, 10 years or even one year from now.

The decision to integrate LEAN Manufacturing concepts and techniques into a business signifies a substantial commitment to the future direction of the organization. In order for LEAN to be effective it must become an integral part of every aspect of daily operations. When incorporated as part of an overall business strategy and used properly as a tool for change it can transform employees into high performing groups committed to continuous improvement.

This year marks Cone Machinery’s 25th year of serving the sawmill industry and on the occasion Cone is introducing a line of Blue Diamond Log Shavers that produce high volumes of shavings (more than 8 tons or 100 cubic yards of green shavings per hour) for poultry operations and equine bedding. The Cone log shavers are simple in design and inexpensive to operate, typically they can be run by one man, and utilize low-cost 8 ft. pulpwood logs.

Comact reports it has sold and his in operation 32 GradExpert vision systems without any grader in softwood and hardwoods mill. GradExpert is a virtually plug-and-play classification solution that encompasses chains, scanners and analysis software all in one unit.