By Malene Frits Bou Zeid

When it comes to manufacturing prowess, mastering the art of streamlined, efficient pallet and bin production is a top priority at Tumu Timbers. Tumu Timber’s latest investment in an optimizing Opti-Kap 3003 cross cut line featuring a MiCROTEC GE301 scanner helps secure increased production capacity and saves Tumu Timbers the hassle of manual crayon-marking.

They’ve carried your fruits and vegetables, your wines and spirits, your pelts and hides. Almost every product on the consumer or industrial market has spent time sitting on a pallet or in a bin. These humble pallets and bins allow easy forklift access to goods and expedite the loading and unloading of freight worldwide.
In 2016, Tumu expanded its facilities to meet increasing demand and boost production capacity. As a result, Tumu turned to System TM for new pallet production machinery. Together with System TM’s Australian dealer, Southern Cross Engineering, System TM has repeatedly equipped Tumu with machinery for more than 6 years as a result of a high-trust relationship. ‘‘Trust is very important, especially when you’re dealing with two companies on opposite ends of the world. Despite the physical distance between us, we always manage to create excellent results by collaborating closely on production line layouts, says Per Jensen, Area Sales Manager at System TM.

A closer look at Tumu Timbers
Tumu Timbers has been processing and supplying timber packaging products since the 1980’s. Located in Hastings, New Zealand, some of Tumu’s products include standard and custom designed timber bins and pallets for the domestic and export markets. Particularly, Tumu has experience with the apple and kiwifruit industries, produce growers, food processors, packaging companies, meat processors and the wine industry.

How Tumu excelled at boosting production
Tumu has been equipped with System TM automated stackers and cross-cut lines since 2012. In the days before automated manufacturing, Tumu used to mark workpieces manually – a highly time-consuming process. Ever since Tumu started automating manufacturing processes, workpieces have been processed with much better wood utilization due to the optimizing software program incorporated in System TM’s cross-cut lines. In addition, automation has liberated Tumu’s production line operators from repetitive and tedious work, as well as decreased the need for production line operators.
In 2016, Tumu underwent facility expansions and an increasing need for production capacity – a perfect time for Tumu to upgrade production machinery and invest in a new Opti-Kap 3003 cross-cut line.

‘‘We continue to work with System TM due to their commitment to building solutions that overcome our production challenges. They stand behind what they sell and ensure that our expectations are exceeded.’’

– Andrew Cranswick, Operations Manager at Tumu Timbers

An effective method for maximizing wood utilization
The first stage in the optimizing Opti-Kap 3003 cross-cut line is represented by package feeding. Freshly cut wood is transported by chain conveyors into an automated vacuum feeding machine, Opti-Feed 6000 Vack, which arranges workpieces on conveyor chains before they enter a MiCROTEC GE301 scanner. Then, scan results are passed on to an optimizing software program that calculates optimal cutting positions and instructs the Opti-Kap 3003 cross-cut saw to cut workpieces with maximum wood utilization. An air sweeper sweeps short lengths. Two automatic sweepers transport workpieces onto two band re-saws for splitting. Finally, workpieces are stacked using an automated stacker, Opti-Stack 3000.

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