When I acquired the former Ryland Homes component plant, I bought automated saws but couldn’t find an automated way to feed all three of them. Like most component manufacturers, I needed to pick small numbers of boards for my linear saws’ orders and large numbers of boards for my component saw’s orders. So, I looked outside the component industry to find a way to feed multiple saws.
A New Type of Gantry
Of the many automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) available, the best solution appeared to be Sage Automation’s gantry system. Sage’s systems are built in Texas and have been deployed to more than 500 plants in a wide variety of applications. They work like an automated version of a roof truss gantry and, most importantly, Sage was willing to work closely with me and my team to develop tools to pick up sticks of wood, especially crooked Southern Pine lumber.
The Sage gantry could fit in a space of any length, and its width could be varied too. I chose to extend the line nearly all the way across my 200 ft. wide building. That way, I could store a large number of bunks of lumber behind it, against the back wall of the building, and lessen the distance from their storage location to their ultimate slot beneath the gantry. For the width, I wanted the JAX gantry to span to accommodate 20 ft. lumber lengths. Then, I turned my attention to the tool that would pick up boards.
Designing the Pick-up Tool
As attested by plywood, OSB, and LVL mills, vacuum pick-up technology is best suited for this general task, but its execution is crucial. I was adamant that this system accommodate any board that could be used in a truss, from a bowed 2x4x20 ft. board to a cupped 1.5x16x20 ft. LVL chord. After much testing, it was determined that at least four picking heads would be needed along the length of boards, and several more across the width of wider members. So with those parameters established, the final design depended on the number of boards that would need to be picked up at one time.
Keeping up with three voracious saws necessitated picking up a full layer of a bunk of lumber, or 13 2x4s. But, of course, the system would also be required to pick up any lesser number of boards. That capability became the most difficult to achieve, because it necessitated picking up boards from two layers of a bunk. To do so required additional clamping to secure less than a full layer of material, but this dramatically increased the flexibility and productivity of the picking process.
To optimize the placement of the Sage gantry, I looked to successful plants inside the component industry, like Shelter Systems, and modified our building so we could have all of our lumber inside. That considerably shrank the distance between the storage location of a given SKU and its ultimate position beneath the gantry. Moreover, I was also able to fit 33 SKUs within the gantry system, minimizing the time needed to swap out lumber grades and sizes.
The solution: JAX
JAX, The Wood Retriever, is the solution we devised to solve the problems with feeding multiple saws. JAX has a patented end-of-arm-tool, which has been servicing three saws successfully for a full year at Rafters & Walls in Shelby, NC.
JAX has built-in flexibility, as large quantities of boards can be power-conveyed directly to saws while small quantities are fetched by JAX. Furthermore, JAX has separate light-curtailed safety zones that enable restocking of one zone without interrupting JAX fetching boards from other zones.
To operate the systems, JAX Universal Compiler (JAX-UC) software generates a common picklist from diverse saws and displays the cutting list information side-by-side. JAX-UC tells JAX where to pick up and deliver lumber, where secondary bunks are located, and when primary bunks run out. JAX-UC can also automatically upgrade lumber when lower grades run out.
Our logo is a Labrador retriever because, just like that faithful and persistent dog, JAX loves playing fetch by grabbing the lumber we need to keep our saws humming. When you want to learn more about this great new system, please reach out to me.