Trucks get unloaded in double quick time while the front and rear stacks get higher and higher.
Port Hawkesbury, NS – Two years after purchasing one of SENNEBOGEN’s first trailer-pulling log handlers to re-open the Port Hawkesbury calendar mill, Port Hawkesbury Paper LP has added another one to their fleet, replacing two aging machines.
“This new machine is identical to the first: an 830 M-T, Tier III trailer puller,” Dennis Boulet reports. “That machine worked great for us: great pulling capabilities, handling, lots of power. It lifts high for our deck, which is 18 ft. (5.5 m) at the low end. It has almost 15,000 hours on it in two years. I never see it shut down – it runs 24 hours most days.”
High Lift + Trailer Pulling
PHP’s new 830 has taken over most of the yard’s trailer-pulling duties, loading and moving a 60-ton (132,000 lb) trailer to the mill’s infeed deck. Hauling two truckloads of wood at once through the paved yard is a tough duty, with a 40 ft. (12 m) rise from the lower mill area to the upper stock area. The drive system of the 830 M-T is custom-engineered for this kind of work. “We are using both SENNEBOGENs to do numerous tasks around the yard,” Boulet says, “but the biggest benefit of those machines is their towing capacity.”
High Lifts For Products
Meanwhile, the original 830 is reassigned to other tasks in various parts of the yard. It’s often at work restacking the biomass piles, where PHP stocks random-length wood to supply fuel chips to Nova Scotia Power. “We stock the wood and dry it for approximately a year.
We try to keep a 60-day supply of pulpwood in store to get us through the road-closure season. April to May are our major reclaim times for pulpwood,” says Boulet.
“What’s nice about its reach and power is, we can go where the truckers put a couple of piles down, pull up on the outside of the piles, then pick off the near tier and reach over it to stack higher on the tier behind. We’re stacking two tiers deep. The 830 is reaching in 30 ft. (9 m) and the pile is 26’ (8 m) high, so you can imagine the strain on the machine. But it doesn’t have any trouble – we’ve had very little downtime with these two machines.”
The strength and precision of the 830 M-T is also lending a hand to PHP’s management of the fuel wood. “We’re doing some tarping trials now, using the 830 to stretch tarps over the stockpile.”
Part of the SENNEBOGEN training facility is having a machine indoors and the use of customized training boards.
Ready, And On Time
To learn more about his two workhorse machines, Boulet recently took the opportunity with Strongco Equipment’s Terry Picard to visit SENNEBOGEN’s facilities near Charlotte, NC. According to Boulet, “I wondered what actually went on there; they always say that this is a great facility, but unless you see it, you can’t really appreciate it. And it was amazing to see what they actually have in place.”
Boulet was most impressed by the size and depth of the parts inventory maintained at the 100,000 sq.ft. (9,300 m2) facility. “You call for an axle,” he says, “and it’s on a flight shortly after. With some other logging equipment companies, you’d be waiting a couple of weeks. They have everything right down to new and rebuilt engines – they even have grapples right there.”
He especially appreciated the work done onsite at the SENNEBOGEN warehouse to prepare packaged kits of frequently used service parts including electrical components or O-ring packages. “You just buy one of these kits and you can save so much downtime looking for all this stuff. They really understand that downtime is a big expense to everyone. They do everything to have it ready and on time.”
Focus On Reducing Downtime
Reducing downtime is also behind SENNEBOGEN’s investment in a dedicated training facility, attached to the parts warehouse. Four of the technicians from the Port Hawkesbury mill have attended the no-charge week-long training sessions there. Boulet was pleased with their reports, too. “They had one machine in the shop set up with classrooms upstairs. They also have training boards made up with, for example, the electrical system laid out. You can trace where the wires go to connect with what solenoids, or with what valve. It’s all there in front of you. If you have something go wrong, you know where to look. It’s a good program, from the classroom to the machine. They even broke the class into groups so one would go down and mess up the machine, and the other would have to go in and figure it out.”
Pat Callahan, Manager of Parts and Service for Strongco’s Nova Scotia operation agrees with Boulet’s assessment. Strongco regularly sends technicians to the SENNEBOGEN school for advanced technical training, as well as sending service staff there for SENNEBOGEN’s parts training course.
“What really impressed me was the size and cleanliness of the operation, and the amount of parts on the shelves ready to go out is impressive,” says Picard. “They have a great supply down there, booms and everything. The booms warehouse is quite a sight.”
“And the whole shop is spotless,” Boulet concludes. “I’ve never seen one so clean. It just shows that they care about their machines and their customers, and how they work.”