Located in Oregon, Freres Engineered Wood produces Mass Ply Panel, a lumber-based structural panel used as an alternative for concrete and steel in multi-story construction projects. This sustainable building material has been used in Europe for decades and is now growing in popularity in the US.
Freres wanted to boost production efficiency and improve the quality of their panels via better joints—key to the panels’ strength. Since both ends of the panel were being cut independently by different heads at the same time, matching the cut to both ends of the panel was extremely difficult. Additionally, panels were often bowed or cupped, which adversely affected the profile of the scarf joint. Finally, panel vibration could not be adequately controlled potentially causing the cutting heads to remove extra wood from the panel edge, which subsequently compromised joint performance.
By adding FANUC R-2000iC/210L robots integrated by FANUC Authorized System Integrator PRE-TEC, each end of the panel is now positioned by the robot to the same cutting edge to ensure both joints are balanced. This has significantly improved the quality of the panels’ joints, which boosts their strength and performance. Moreover, the automated cutting system has doubled production capacity because two robots now continually feed the same cutting head. This helps optimize the manpower and floor equipment to support growth in future demand.