Wintersteiger launches the six lamella concept

The Austrian company Wintersteiger (www.wintersteiger.com) has sold more than 1,500 thin-cutting frame saws around the globe and is the only supplier worldwide at present with kerfs starting at 0.7 mm.
There has been remarkable progress since Wintersteiger presented the thin-cutting frame saw with ultra-thin stellite saws at the Ligna 2007. The saw was originally able to generate a yield of five lamellas from a pre-planed, standard 24.5 mm “S4S” woodblock. The kerf was set at 0.9 mm and additional waste through the machining procedure was 0.5 mm. This processing resulted in five lamellas of 3.98 mm thickness each. The general yield from one cubic metre of woodblock raw material (frieze) amounted to 204 square meters of wooden flooring top layer.
Now there is even more to be gained. Wintersteiger promises a 20 percent higher yield. Five cuts provide six lamellas instead of just five. Based on a 0.7 mm kerf and a slightly reduced lamella thickness of 3.33 mm, one cubic metre of wood material is transformed into 245 sqm of flooring lamella surface. According to Wintersteiger, this could save a wooden flooring producer up to 700,000 euro a year.
Prices for wood raw material have increased and meanwhile make up 25 percent to 30 percent of general production costs. Consequently there is potential for economisation. If a conventional circular saw is used for processing 3-ply, wooden flooring top lamellas, about 30 percent of an “S4S” woodblock end up as wood chips.
Thin-cutting is the solution. Kerf reduction from 0.9 to 0.7 mm alone provides a wood cut saving of almost one third. The precise cutting ability of the Wintersteiger system finally offers the revolutionary six lamellas output. 
Any top lamella producer using this technology will requires less raw material. Based on an annual capacity of one million sqm, demand will be reduced from 5,000 to only 4,080 cubic metres of raw material. The saving potential per sqm of top lamellas amounts to 0.65 European cents, maintain the Austrians.