Production at GELO
The path from the trunk to the finished board
Thanks to state-of-the-art production facilities and the integration of many finishing methods, we at GELO can fulfill many of our customers' special requests: from the smallest board to the longest beam. And everything in the well-known, exceptional GELO quality!
Follow the path from the trunk to the finished board with us and get to know our production facilities!
1st station: GELO roundwood yard
All incoming wood deliveries are sorted at the GELO log yard. Here, the delivered trees are placed directly on a conveyor unit, separated, root-reduced and debarked.
Then a automatic measurement of the trunk: What is the curvature of the tree, what is its length, what is its diameter? A cut also shows whether the wood is healthy.
A qualified employee, the "separator", determines the type of wood and decides, based on the values and the current sawn timber orders, which specific order this log should be assigned to. This round wood is then sorted into boxes according to the order along a 222 m long sorting line.
2ND STATION: GELO CRANES
Our two cranes form the interface between the log yard and the chipping line.
8 metres high, the crane performs between 35 and 40 transport movements per hour, with a peak load of up to 10 tonnes per lift. In this way, 16 tonnes of wood can be handled during an operating time of 4000 hours a day.
The logs or round wood sections can be placed directly in front of the chipping line from the crane – there are no intermediate steps or storage between the order box at the round wood yard and the processing operation in the chipping line.
3rd station: GELO Spanerlinie
The customer and order-oriented production that characterizes GELO can of course only be guaranteed with a flexible and adaptable processing system. This is exactly what our LINCK chipper line is for.
This makes it possible to process logs one after the other, regardless of their dimensions. The speed of the machines can be adjusted from tree trunk to tree trunk, with all speeds between 30 meters and 120 meters per minute being possible. At the highest speed, up to 25 trees can be processed per minute.
4th station: trimming and sorting
The sideboard cut off in the chipping line usually still has a small, bark-like layer on the edges (the so-called “wake edge”). This is cut off during the trimming process.
To do this, the boards pass through an infrared scanner, which carries out a light-dark comparison on each board. A computer uses this to determine the largest possible usable (i.e. "light") rectangular area and then cuts the boards using 11 circular saws, first to length and then to the calculated width.
In the sorting plant, which is directly connected to the edging plant, only the side boards are sorted fully automatically according to the criteria of length, thickness, width, type of wood and quality. The boards are sorted into separate boxes, the contents of which are then automatically combined into standard packages with inserted intermediate boards. Up to 8 layers of side boards can be stacked on top of each other in one minute, so that a finished package can leave the sorting plant every 5 minutes.
5th Station: Drying
One of the best ways to refine raw sawn timber is to dry it.
The wood is dried in certified fresh air and exhaust air chambers to a final moisture content of 15 percent +/- 3%.
Of course, drying can also be carried out to any other final moisture content desired by the customer.
Impregnation of the wood
“Refining” primarily means the impregnation of our raw material. Impregnation makes the wood more durable and resistant to external influences (e.g. weather or pests).
For this purpose, the wood is dip-impregnated in a harmless, aqueous solution called “IMPRALIT TSK 10” from Rütgers Organics.
IPPC heat treatment
We are one of the first sawmills to be IPPC certified, a recently introduced standard that replaced the former Australian SIREX standard.
Such treatment is particularly desired in the production of export packaging and packaging materials. GELO implemented the new regulations on the use of core internal temperature sensors back in 2005 and is currently able to deliver up to 20 loads of IPPC-certified packaging wood per week.
6th Station: Finishing
a) as structural solid timber
Solid structural timber (KVH) goes through a variety of production processes.
On June 1, 2006, a new KVH plant for the production of high-quality solid structural timber was put into operation at GELO.
This includes cutting on a high-performance system, stacking and technical drying. This is followed by calibration, cutting and picking. Quality control is carried out between each individual production step. This is how we ensure that only high-quality solid structural timber leaves the GELO factory.
6th Station: Finishing
B) Planing
GELO operates two planing mills in order to be able to respond perfectly to our customers' requirements.
Special processing steps, such as milling tongue and groove in profiled wood, can be carried out here. The production speed is 160 m/min.
The planing system is extremely flexible and can be changed from round edge profiles to rough planking in just a few minutes, for example. The line also includes cutting saws for slat production. This means we can produce "4 out of 1" slats that are also planed.
After quality control, the products are bundled and labeled fully automatically in the planing mill.
7th Station:
Quality
Despite a completely machine-based production process, the quality of our goods is our top priority.
That's why none of our wood leaves our premises without being manually checked by trained experts. Here, each package is inspected again, checked for completeness and quality, and given a handwritten approval with a name abbreviation on the package.
