GP Takes Patchwork To Another Level

Article by David Abbott, Senior Editor, Panel World

MADISON, Georgia – This June, Georgia-Pacific’s Madison plywood plant started up two new Raute automated poly patch lines, part of an ongoing shift towards automation company-wide. Since 2016, G-P has invested well over $65 million in capital projects at Madison, much of it in automating formerly manual positions.

Previously, the mill repaired small defects manually, with up to three people on each line per shift doing that repetitive job, according to Madison Plant Manager Tony Brown (who was promoted three months ago to a regional manager position, meaning he now overseas not only Madison but also G-P’s plywood facility in Gurdon, Arkansas.).

Most plywood mills patch unsawn panels, but G-P opts to patch sawn panels. It’s a more efficient approach, Brown believes. “It allows us to grade that panel visually at the panel saw so we come to the patch line with just the panels we know fit a certain grade and can be fixed.” This method, he says, prevents a lot of wasted time kicking out panels with too many defects to be patched or panels that don’t need to be patched.

Another benefit: greater precision and less error. With a manual operation, employees visually determine if defects fall within grade rule size parameters for patching. “So I am depending on a human to make that judgment call,” Brown says. “A computer can do that a lot better than a human eye can. With imaging software, it knows exactly within a millimeter what diameter that knot is, the length of that split, and it knows whether it meets grade rules or not, in a fraction of a second.”