Efficient material flow is essential to a productive wood processing operation. From moving logs and lumber through the mill to handling bark, chips, sawdust and other residual materials, every stage depends on equipment designed around the product, process and production requirements.
BID Canada designs and manufactures custom material handling systems and equipment for sawmills and wood products facilities. Our team combines engineering, fabrication and practical industry experience to develop equipment for new installations, mill upgrades and existing production lines.
As part of McDonough Manufacturing, BID also brings together material handling and sawmill equipment expertise, providing customers with access to a broader range of solutions for wood processing operations across North America.
A sawmill includes multiple processes that need to work together. Material handling equipment provides the connections between those processes.
BID works with sawmills, wood products manufacturers, engineering firms and project partners to develop equipment around production requirements, mill layout and the material being handled.
Our capabilities for forest and wood products facilities include:
Whether the project involves one piece of equipment or multiple components within a larger system, our focus is on creating reliable connections throughout the operation.
Conveyors play an important role throughout sawmill and wood products facilities, moving material between processing equipment, storage areas and other stages of production.
BID designs and manufactures custom conveyor systems based on the requirements of each application. Material type, volume, speed, conveyor length, elevation changes, loading conditions and available space are considered as part of the design process.
Systems can be developed for greenfield projects or engineered to integrate with existing mill equipment and infrastructure.
BID’s connection with McDonough Manufacturing brings more than material handling capability to forest products projects.
McDonough manufactures sawmill machinery for lumber producers throughout North America and around the world. This experience provides our teams with an understanding of both the processing equipment and the material handling systems surrounding it.
Together, BID and McDonough can support projects involving equipment such as band mills, resaws, edgers and related material handling systems.
For customers planning mill upgrades or larger projects, having sawmill machinery and material handling expertise within the same organization can help create better connections between individual pieces of equipment and the overall production process.
Moving wood products presents different challenges depending on where the material is within the production process.
Logs, cants, boards and finished lumber have different dimensions, orientations and handling requirements. Equipment needs to maintain reliable material flow while integrating with upstream and downstream machinery.
BID develops custom handling equipment around the needs of the operation, whether material needs to be conveyed continuously, transferred between processes, accumulated or redirected to another production line.
Our engineering team can also work within existing mill layouts where space, equipment locations and established production flows create additional design considerations.
Producing lumber and other wood products also produces bark, chips, sawdust and other residual materials that need to be moved throughout the facility.
These materials can become valuable inputs for other processes and products, including pulp, wood pellets, composite products and energy generation.
BID can develop conveyors, chutes, bins, hoppers and other material handling equipment for moving and managing wood residuals within the operation.
The system is designed around the characteristics of the material, required capacity, destination and surrounding equipment.
Chutes, bins and hoppers provide important transition and storage points within a wood products material handling system.
BID designs and fabricates custom components around the material being handled and the requirements of the facility. Designs can account for material flow, volume, discharge requirements, surrounding equipment, access and maintenance.
These components can be incorporated into new systems or designed to replace and improve equipment within an existing operation.
Improving a sawmill does not always mean replacing an entire production line.
BID works with customers to modify, rebuild and replace material handling equipment within existing facilities. This can include new conveyors and transfer equipment, structural modifications, replacement components, guarding and changes required to accommodate new processing equipment.
For retrofit projects, our team works around the realities of the existing operation, including available space, surrounding machinery, production requirements and installation constraints.
The goal is to develop equipment that works with the mill you have while supporting where you want the operation to go.
BID combines engineering and fabrication at our facility in Woodstock, New Brunswick.
Having these capabilities together allows our engineering and manufacturing teams to collaborate throughout a project, considering how equipment will operate, how it will be fabricated and how it will integrate with the surrounding facility.
Our capabilities include custom fabrication, machining and assembly as well as engineering support for individual components and larger material handling projects.
Equipment can also be preassembled where practical before shipment, helping identify potential issues before components reach the mill and reducing work required during installation.
Forestry and wood products remain an important part of Canada’s industrial economy and many rural communities.
Canada is a major global producer and exporter of products including softwood lumber, structural panels, pulp and other forest products. At the same time, the industry continues to evolve through investment in mill modernization, advanced wood products, biomass and new uses for wood fibre.
Reliable processing and material handling infrastructure will continue to be an important part of that evolution.
[Learn More About Canada’s Forest Industry]
Every successful wood processing operation depends on material moving efficiently between processes. BID’s role is to help create those connections.
Whether you are replacing an individual conveyor, adding new processing equipment, improving the handling of wood residuals or planning a larger mill modernization project, our engineering and manufacturing teams can work with you to develop equipment around your operation.
Planning an equipment upgrade, expansion or new wood processing facility? Talk to BID about your material, production requirements, existing equipment and mill layout.
