At the Westas sawmill in southern Finland, the long production process is all about conveyor technology. Different pieces are transported; in the beginning of the process, they're heavy logs and then as different smaller pieces. For the process to flow smoothly, the conveyors use variable speed drives for flexible and accurate speed and torque control.
Pekka Kopra, the Managing Director of Westas Group explains the process: “First we move round pieces, which then are transformed into cants of various shapes and sizes and sorted to different locations on the production line. We have products in various dimensions, hundreds of them. It means that when we have products on a conveyor the speed and feeding has to be adapted to the dimensions of the goods, and this requires different conveyor speeds which can be achieved using high-quality variable speed drives.”
The production process for lumber is long; from the forest to the customers the process takes about 3 to 4 weeks. It includes several stages, of which drying and preserving the quality of the final product are the most demanding ones. All production by Westas Group is based on customer orders which steer the whole production process.