Sawmill shows off its paces

Project Fortress - TDC Sawmills' huge new automated sawmill in Whangarei - was shown off in all its roaring, clanking glory to a large crowd of contractors and suppliers yesterday afternoon.
Owner Tony Davies-Colley said the commissioning process had started back at Christmas but the level of automation had meant "a slow ramping up". The tour and the social event that followed was to thank everyone who had worked on the mill and for the high level of commitment to the project, he said.
The project began in 2003 when TDC Sawmills bought 58ha known as "the Port Hills" and a fleet of earthmoving machinery to flatten the top of the site for the new mill. Engineering and construction teams started the 5200sq m building which now houses the Fortress mill in early 2005. The mill's state of the art technology, featuring machinery from Finland, Canada, and the United States, puts TDC Sawmills ahead of any similar-sized operation in New Zealand. Only one operator is required to take the wood through the debarking and sawing process.
Currently serviced by 80 truck and trailer loads of logs a week, the mill will eventually process 200 loads a shift. Some of the product goes to clients green, the rest to the main plant below for kiln-drying and machining. At full capacity the company will produce 400,000 cubic metres of sawn timber annually.