Plum Creek is moving ahead with robotic veneer plugging lines after the recent installation and complete startup of a new seven-cell line at its Evergreen softwood plywood plant here, following the successful installation last year of a four-cell line just up the road at the company’s Columbia Falls plant.
In automating what has traditionally been a manual process, the application uses a visual grade scanning system and robotic arms to replace the plugging machine operator’s “eyes” and “hands” by accurately moving each sheet of veneer under an existing plugging machine.