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Dunkley Lumber Company is a Cariboo gem

Summary: BC's Dunkley Lumber prides itself on a "down home" operating style, but it also runs one of the most sophisticated sawmills in the country.

By Jim Stirling
Copyright 1996 Contact publisher for permission to use

Dunkley Lumber has a reputation as a sawmiller's sawmill. The family-owned sawmill/planer complex at Strathnaver, 80 kilometres south of Prince George in central British Columbia, goes quietly and efficiently about its business. Dunkley pays attention to details to position itself for a changing future. It's proved willing to embrace new thinking and technologies to enhance its competitive edge and product quality. And, perhaps most significantly, there seems a genuinely respectful relationship among the steadily employed workforce of 160 people.

Dunkley Lumber is a division of Novak Bros. Contracting Ltd; that's Tony, Joe and Henry. Blair Mayes, Dunkley's general manager, describes the company's approach this way: "We try to produce the best possible product we can and we do that in a fashion that's down-home. We're sawmill related and we focus on that without fanfare and put our energy into the nuts and bolts.

We're family-owned and we operate as a family would. This is the head office, the mid-office and the bottom office." Perhaps that's why recovery supervisor Rob Buxton has tongue only partly in cheek when he talks about separate catwalks to accommodate visitors. "People want to see our mill and we're pleased to show it to them. We're really proud of it and we do the best we can." Maybe that also explains why sawfiling charge hand Rick Brunt is pleased to be "personal secretary" to every saw blade monitored for vibration and deviation.

"We're getting more and more valuable information from the system," he notes. Or why an operator may take his old comfortable chair into the shiny new Chip 'N Saw booth. Attention to detail isn't always production oriented - for example, the matting placed on the catwalk in front of the planer's sort bins to make it easier on the feet.

These things contribute to Dunkley's enviable safety record. Parts of the mill have gone nine years without a time-loss accident. Staff claim no master plan; they just keep their ears open to needs and work together for safety solutions. 1995 marked another time- loss accident-free year. That's doubly commendable considering 1995 was the second of two busy years, with millions of dollars in new equipment transforming the front half of the mill.

Every capital investment decision reflects the driving forces of recovery and quality plus the realities of the mill's wood supply. Dunkley harvests an average 175,000 cubic metres annually from its TFL but goes to the open market for up to 450,000 cubic metres of wood a year in search for the highest quality logs. "We have to have an efficient sawmill. It's a fact of our life and we manage as well as we can," summarizes Mayes.

The bulk of the mill's 190 million board feet of production is SPF with some Douglas-fir. Dunkley ships more CLS SPF to overseas markets than any operation in the region ( 20 per cent and more of production ). Most goes to the quality-insistent Japanese market. Dunkley has earned its JAS certification, which should further expand its customer base there. An expanded product range includes 1x3s to 1x6s and 2x3s to 2x12s in six- to 20-foot lengths.

The company is also examining the nine- and 13-foot odd-length markets. Dunkley markets shipments throughout North America while overseas volumes are marketed through Interex Forest Products, co-owned by Dunkley. The company's mill improvements focus on simplicity. "We try to engineer things as simply as possible. If we do that, we can concentrate on the process rather than fight the system," explains Mayes. In the yard, the largest physical improvement moves majestically around a mill yard kept scrupulously clean for an industrial operation. The Wagner L160, first of its kind in the industry, unloads a rail car in a single motion. No load splitting results in less breakage and better decks.

"It's run without missing a beat since we started it up. It's just an excellent piece of equipment," enthuses Mayes. Mill improvements began with log decks and optimizing the bucking system. A Ross Thunderbird butt 'n top feeds both the large log and Chip 'N Saw lines. Stems are delivered tree length up to 130 feet on the large side and 75 feet on the small. The Thunderbird's 65-foot reach allows it to uncross stems on log decks. Logs are presented to a lineal X-Y Multimeg scanning system for dollar value and product optimizing. The large log side has 72'' cutoff saws.

One travels between eight and 20 feet. The other, a 'zero' saw, moves about 12''. The small log side has one cut-off saw. The system assesses the whole log profile through the scanning zone to make faster and better bucking decisions. Chip values can be recovered and waste minimized. Recovery super Buxton says the real time Multimeg system with its Windows is very user friendly.

"It's a continous optimizing process. After each decision it keeps on trying to get the best it can. We can run a balance and get the highest value with a slight push to wide and longs." The optimizer is also set up for log sorting with automated in, out and step feeds. Dunkley did the conceptual engineering in-house. Woodpro Engineering was prime engineer for the mechanical work and Del Schneider Hydraulics was responsible for the hydraulic design system. Allen-Bradley frequency drives are installed on both lines. Monitors in the Thuderbird butt'n top allow the operator to control log flow. Similarly, bucking system operator and 21-year employee Matt Korkowski can adjust his system with what's happening downstream. Two new Nicholson A5 debarkers were added to complement the 35'' Brunette.

The infeeds and electrical controls were rebuilt and a new debarker operator cab added. The 22'' model can be switched to a 17'' ring while the 17'' machine has a 12'' alternate ring. The alternate rings operate for better debarking and a higher quality chip when there's a diet of smaller stems available. The debarkers were installed in 1994; Nicholson people continue to update millwrights, operating crews and sawmill superintendent Randy Wilson on how to get the most from the upgraded equipment.

The Nicholson 72'' whole log chipper was added in 1994 and took advantage of 1995's chip shortage. Waste and log yard debris could be treated like a product and transporting snags from the TFL became feasible. Dunkley sells chips to Quesnel River Pulp's bleached chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp mill. In addition to BCTM pulp production, Quesnel River uses aspen chips from Dunkley's whole log chipper. Dunkley hopes that recently announced MDF and co-generation plants in Quesnel and Prince George will become markets for sawdust, shavings and bark. That will mark another step toward the elimination of beehive burners. Still with chips, during 1995 Dunkley installed a system of counter flow screens and conveyor belt feeds to bins and trucks.

Handling chips better means less damage and higher-quality chips. Back in the mill, a Multimeg scanning, auto-rotation and optimizing system masterminds the double length infeeds installed on the 30'' Kockums CanCar canter line and the 20'' Chip 'N Saw line. A true shape scanning system on both lines offers excellent accuracies. "We're seeing an ongoing lumber recovery and quality improvement and the piece count on the small side is up," reports Buxton.

The Multimeg system optimizes for rotation. It scans every 36 degrees, picks the best two solutions and optimizes again in two-degree increments, he explains. "It's new to the industry." Each log is held in place and the true shape is scanned once more in the centre of the double-length infeed. The small side operates at 380 ft./min. with speeds up to 250 ft./min. on the large side. Buxton says the system offers excellent graphics, production and simulation reports, as well as very good diagnostics. "It's simple to see that everything is on line," he adds. A modem allows Multimeg in Montreal to plug into the mill's network from the bucking system through the extended infeeds for troubleshooting.

A Lamsor moisture meter from MPB Technologies detects and sorts the wetter spruce and balsam boards. A computer directs them to bins for separate drying, shortening regular kiln cycles, thus improving drying efficiency and grade recovery. Simonds Saw Controls monitors the quad band saws, helping to keep them sharper longer and allowing better management of saw filing time. The six-foot re-saw has a unique powerfeed system. It monitor's the saw's deviation and vibration and varies the speed of each cant through the machine. It helps compensate for extra vibration in frozen wood, for example. It also helps maintain the mill's lumber size control program. It has a hydraulic feed system with PLCs controlling the speed. "It's a prototype but it's worked well from the start and we're really impressed with what we can do," affirms Alvin Johnson, filing supervisor. Dunkley's planer has been a consistently steady performer but this spring it should be improved with installation of a new grade reader and Newnes trimmer optimizer.

"Our lumber graders have had a hard time keeping up with the speed, staying on grade and making decisions on trimming so we tried to figure out how to help them," relates Eldon Wilson, planer superintendent who's been with Dunkley since 1972. The proposed answer is a scanner ahead of the trimmer that will accurately grade for wane and skip, leaving gradermen to assess the visual aspect of each board. "I think it should make about half their decisions," estimates Wilson. "They can concentrate on grade with less strain."

A typical Dunkley utilization feature is the little trim saw in the planer that recovers butts and ends from two-foot lengths down to eight inches for sale as finger-joint stock. The employees have added their own nice touches to the mill, like the logger carved from red cedar standing in the office foyer. It was a gift from the employees to Tony, Joe and Henry Novak. A sign reads: Thanks for providing us with a safe and healthy work environment. Now that's family.

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