Buckingham sorts out a new lumber sorter

The new lumber sorter was slowly eased into place on its foundation at the sawmill

Lumber sorters are highly automated equipment, often the size of a large building. These machines enhance productivity at sawmills and lumber mills by scanning and sorting dimensional lumber by grade and type for further processing. When a South Carolina, USA, sawmill scheduled replacement of its aging sorter, the manufacturer called on Buckingham Heavy Transport to assist in solving the most costly aspect of the project: minimizing installation time.

Generally, when a lumber sorter is replaced, the process requires a plant closure of three to four weeks. The new sorter is built in sections, then the sawmill halts operations while the old sorter is demolished and cleared away. The new sections are set in place by crane and assembly is completed on the pad, a time-consuming process during which the plant sits idle.

Buckingham Heavy Transport’s client contacted Buckingham because they wanted to try a new method of building the new sorter in its entirety while the old one was still operating. When construction was complete, they would demo and remove the old sorter, and Buckingham’s team would move the new one into place, eliminating the shutdown time of finishing assembly on the pad.

Buckingham project manager Mike Brovont led the operation. The new sorter measured 19 feet wide by 225 feet long and weighed approximately 1.2 million pounds. “We worked closely with the manufacturer to make minor engineering adjustments so steel beams could be set during the fabrication process,” Brovont said. “The new sorter was built 60 feet away from the operating one. When construction was finished, we mobilized to the site to install the support beams and 22 Buckingham dollies.”

The new lumber sorter was built onsite, about 60 feet (20 metres) from the old one

Precise positioning

With Buckingham’s plan, the old sorter ran right up to the moment when everything was in place and the new one was ready to move into position. After the old sorter was demolished and cleared from the site, Buckingham’s team used six unified jacking machines to extend the dolly cylinders, lifting the 600-ton sorter to the necessary height for transport. One section of the yard had a slight grade, so they leveled the terrain with ground mats. The unified jacking machines synchronized the dolly travel as they drove the lumber sorter over the move route and onto the concrete pad without any torquing or twisting. When it was in place, they precisely adjusted the sorter, lining it up perfectly with the footprint.

The move took only a few hours and was executed smoothly. Working during a holiday week to prevent labor loss, the Buckingham team and the lumber sorter manufacturer completed the replacement ahead of the projected schedule and with only a week of plant downtime.

Twenty-two dollies and six unified jacking machines were used to lift and move the assembled lumber sorter into place