How Edgers and Multirips Add Value to a Sawmill

Edgers and multirips are designed to edge sideboards, slabs, and flitches with wane and rip cants and blocks into boards consistently and efficiently over time within very tight tolerances. Any sawmill that wants to expand its output, cutting accuracy, and recovery rates to get higher yields, can use an edger or multirip to achieve these goals.

There is a lot of overlap between the design, function, and benefits that Wood-Mizer edgers and multirips offer.
 
Both machining platforms have robustly designed frames that give the torsional rigidity needed to support the arbours and circular blades that cut accurately sized timber consistently at high speed and volumes over time.
 
Both are used during the secondary breakdown phase of the sawmilling process to further break or cut the components that exit the primary breakdown stage down .
 
The difference in the functions is that edgers edge, trim, square sideboards, slabs, and flitches wane from the primary breakdown phase into a uniform-size product. At the same time, multirips rip cants and blocks exiting the primary breakdown phase into boards.
 

The cutting patterns produced by edgers and multirips

Benefits of using the Wood-Mizer edgers and multirips
 
Beyond the triple benefits – BETTER PRODUCTION, ACCURACY, AND RECOVERY – there are several other benefits that sawmillers also get when they choose an edger or multirip from Wood-Mizer.
 
INCREASED EFFICIENCY
Edging helps sawmillers process lumber quickly and efficiently. By trimming and squaring unedged boards, the machine creates straighter, more uniform boards to process more efficiently. Sideboards that formerly went to waste are now sawn into boards with less waste.
 
Adding a multirip to a sawmill's line-up boosts efficiency by simplifying the log breakdown process. The speed and accuracy of a band sawmill that breaks logs into cants improves further with the strength, simplicity, and accuracy of a multirip that saws these cants or blocks into finished boards.  
 
A multirip also has fewer moving parts to maintain than a multi-head band resaw, which does a similar job. Fewer stoppages and less maintenance are money in the pocket, increasing efficiency and boosting productivity.
 

IMPROVED QUALITY
The Wood-Mizer edger delivers consistent sizing that improves the quality of the sawn products. 
 
A multirip's accuracy reduces the wet target size of a sawmill with less waste and higher yields from each board. It's simple: boards must be the right size; otherwise, they will not sell. Well-set-up multirips are always cutting straight. Straight boards sell well and increase the sawmiller's profit. 
 
REDUCED WASTE
Using an edger to trim and square unedged boards reduces waste and increases yield. An edger can easily produce sawn products from sideboards or slabs that are often left as waste. More sawn products and less waste build profits. 

The accuracy that a multirip provides slashes the within-board size variation with less waste and higher yields, growing profits. 

VERSATILITY
Using an edger and multirip allows sawmillers to produce more lumber sizes and timber products faster. More sawn product made more quickly from various log shapes builds sales. 
 
INCREASED SAFETY AND REDUCED LABOUR COSTS
Using a board edger can help to improve safety by reducing the need for manual trimming and squaring of boards. This can help to reduce the risk of accidents and injuries and makes the sawmill workshop a safer place to work in.
 
Introducing a multirip can reduce labor costs with fewer workers needed to operate fewer machines and handle a more straightforward material flow through the mill. 
 

LESS RESHARPENING
An edger and multirip can work across shifts without blade changes. Although circular sawblades cost more than bandsaw blades, they require less resharpening and fewer delays to change blades, with the reduced time needed for resharpening blades and more uptime in a shift producing more boards. 
 

REDUCE MAINTENANCE COSTS
Using edgers and multirips simplifies the operation with fewer machines that must be maintained, slashing running costs. 
 
IMPROVED MATERIAL AND WASTE HANDLING
The more straightforward material flow that an edger and multirip offer streamlines material handling and waste removal processes to boost efficiency and slash costs. 

Wood-Mizer's Edger Multirip range

The Wood-Mizer range offers a full line-up of entry-level, light, and heavy industrial single or double arbour edger and multirip solutions that can work as standalone units or slot into existing lines.
 
The focus of the range is to make affordable, scalable, and modular edging and multirip solutions available to sawmillers that can fit into the budgets and production targets of sawmills irrespective of their size.
 
This gives both start-up and industrial producers equal access to one range that includes entry-level and high-production capacity machines with the ability to either add standalone units to existing lines or design and build new lines with edging and multirip solutions from Wood-Mizer.
 
Investing in a product range supported globally by a professional after-sales service network for a sawmill's lifespan makes partnering with Wood-Mizer an even bigger win for sawmillers. 
 
Wood-Mizer’s edger multirip range includes the following machines:
 

EG100 Twin-Blade Manual Board Edger
The EG100 is an inexpensive entry-level twin-blade edger with one circular blade fixed and the other adjustable. The machine is compact and easy to transport.
 

EG250 Dependable Twin-Blade Board Edger
The EG250 is a straightforward twin-blade edger designed to be affordable and reliable with simple edging functions for those woodworking shops that do not require industrial-grade productivity features.
 

EG300 Multirip Board Edger
Wood-Mizer's EG300 is an affordable and highly productive multirip edger combination that maximizes recovery from each board and boosts sawmill productivity. As an edger, the EG300 uses two circular blades, one fixed and the other adjustable, while as a multirip, it has up to five circular blades.
 

EG800 Manual Board Edger
The versatile EG800 is designed to offer a twofold solution to small and medium-sized sawmills. This robust machine edges material up to 40mm thick at high speeds, and it can also be run at slower feed speeds to rip material up to 107mm thick. 

MR200 Double Arbour Multirip
The MR200 Multirip can be equipped with as many as 12 circular saws on each arbor, significantly speeding up the cant-ripping operation. Adjustable arbours (up/down) allow for higher feed speed while retaining effective and clean cutting. The maximum cant thickness for the MR200 is 200mm at a width of 450mm (standard) or 540mm (wide).

MR3000 Multirip Gangsaw

The MR3000 is designed for high-volume sawmilling operations. Optical sensors detect the presence of material, activating pneumatically assisted driven hold-downs to apply pressure down onto the cant and guiding the timber accurately through the cut. The high accuracy of board thickness and the excellent cutting finish achieved by these circular saws result in improved recovery savings further down the line in the dry-milling/ finishing process.

MR6000 Multirip Gangsaw
The MR6000 Multirip / Gangsaw is Wood-Mizer's flagship multirip. Built for the most demanding industrial applications, it offers various feed options linked to the latest scanning and optimizing systems to provide industry-leading yield results. 

EA1000 Optimizing Edger
The EA1000 Automated Edger uses optical scanning technology to achieve high precision and low waste edging of boards. The entire edging process is automated. First, each board is scanned. The profile of each board is then analyzed by a computer, which decides on the best product to maximize recovery. Decisions are based on both volume recovery and product value. After scanning, the boards pass through an alignment station and then are sawn.

EA3000 Optimizing Edger
With up to 4 moveable blades and a picker finger outfeed system, the EA3000 optimizing edger uses optical scanning technology to achieve high-precision edging results that minimize waste and provide the yields sawmills needed to generate industry-leading returns. 

EA6000 optimizing edger

Fluidly integrated in and outfeed systems combined with vision-enabled ability to read the board for the best value and volume returns before the scalable sawing zone executes the cut according to scanned parameters. High feed speeds and board production rates matched to flexible min/max thickness and width values make Wood-Mizer’s EA6000 a game changer that builds bottom lines beyond the exceptional.

Manufacturing quality 

The goal that shapes Wood-Mizer's edger multirip range is to produce machines that deliver the cutting accuracy and size tolerances timber producers need.  
 
Properly aligning the feed rollers and arbours is critical in achieving the required cut tolerances. If the necessary alignment standards are not met, it can cause many problems other than not cutting straight. Bearings will fail faster, and blades will become blunt sooner because they do not run true in the cut. With more strain on all the parts, breakdowns and upkeep will increase. 
 
To overcome this, some companies use costly equipment to get the alignment needed resulting in an excellent end-product but at a very high price. 
 
Others cut costs by fabricating machine frames from tube steel and using cheap bearings. Such frames don't have the strength to withstand the forces experienced by these machines, so the system's alignment degrades over time. 
 
Some systems integrate re-alignment tools into the bearing seats. While this may allow very skilled artisans to align a machine properly, it can be done wrong by an inexperienced technician. 
 
The result of improper alignment is that the machine will struggle to feed, blades will dish, power consumption will go up, and bearing life will suffer. 
 
Wood-Mizer uses a strong, rigid frame for its edger and multirip range made from thick plates. The components are pre-cut on CNC systems and then webbed and welded together for a rigid structure with exceptional alignment. 
 
Bearings for both rollers and arbours are bolted into position with no need for further alignment procedures, and this eliminates any guesswork when replacing components in the field.  
 
The result is CONSISTENT ACCURACY WITHOUT FAIL. 
 
Contact your local Wood-Mizer representative to learn more about Wood-Mizer’s edger multirip range. 
 

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