Page 54 - Hub-4 Magazine ISsue 64
P. 54

  Recycling
No trouble at mill
A Liebherr wheeled loader is the critical link at the back end of a timber processing operation feeding the hungry biomass market .....
As the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels dwindles, wind, solar and nuclear power generation have stepped into the breach. More recently those alternatives have been joined by biomass, the use of organic material to generate energy. Much of the UK-sourced
product destined for the smaller power generators is in the form of sawmill residues.
A&J Scott is one of the UK’s largest sawmillers and needs more than 1,000 tonnes of raw material a day to enter its mill at Alnwick in Northumberland. The company supplies sawn softwood timber for a variety of uses, mainly outdoor and garden products, fencing, landscaping, DIY and pallets and packaging. It is also one of the country’s leading hardwood merchants, providing logs of all species and qualities.
The latest addition to the materials handling fleet at the Wooperton Sawmill is a new Liebherr L 556 XPower wheeled loader brought in to deal with the increasing amounts of sawmill residue leaving the plant each day. Scott has a long relationship with Liebherr equipment, including pick and carry machines for the incoming side of the business, and its latest acquisition replaces a five-year-old L 550 loader that had given excellent service.
Unlike the pick and carry machines that handle the large volumes of round timber entering the production line each day, the job of the L 556 XPower is to deal with the residue coming off the multiple lines and manufacturing stations around the mill. Site Manager Robert ‘Fritz’ Frater has the task of ensuring things go to plan. “We have up to 25 bulkers per day leaving the site with a variety of residue. We need the Liebherr to be able to load the trucks quickly and safely and also to move material from various parts of the mill back to the central loading area as and when required.
“Reliability is key to the operation running successfully. We need to ensure timber goes in at one end, but just as importantly, we need the residues moving quickly so that they don’t block up the plant.”
The 20-tonne loader is fitted with Liebherr’s industrial arm package which, at 2.9m long, allows for a
3.9m load-over height. The industrial linkage
is said to give far greater control and
performance over a parallel arm or Z-Bar linkage in this type of application. The machine is also equipped with Scott’s Viby high-tip bucket that was used on their outgoing machine. With a
capacity of 7m3, that attachment is well within the capabilities of the newcomer and is joined to the loader via a Liebherr industrial quick coupler.
“We don’t use the loader for
anything other than handling residue
at the moment,” Fritz explained. “This
may change in the future as the mill is constantly expanding and increasing its capacity. We like to think
we have the loader somewhat future-proofed with this set- up.”
   The procurement process involved a number of leading suppliers and while a few showed interest, Scott’s Procurement Manager Adana Black believes others were less enthusiastic in competing for a single machine transaction. “We are always looking for the best over-all deal for the company and wanted to try as many manufacturers as we possibly could,” said Adana. “Some manufacturers didn’t even respond to our request for demonstration machines. We think this was because they were very swift in placing people on furlough as it was at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown period.”
Liebherr, however, responded swiftly to deliver an L 556 XPower complete with toe tip bucket which proved to be the perfect specification for AJ Scott.
 ‘Some manufacturers didn’t even respond to our
request for demonstration machines’
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www.hub-4.com Sept/October 2020 - Issue 64
    









































































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