Good cooperation: Steve Williams (EWD UK), Shane O’Callaghan, EWD Managing Director Herbert Oppenborn, Gerard O’Callaghan, Niall Grainger (from left)
At GP Wood in Lissarda, the logs are transferred online on three decks to the new EWD sawmill
Rebuilt in record time After a fire at the Lissarda/IE site in 2018, GP Wood immediately decided to rebuild the sawmill. The choice of supplier was made quickly: For those in charge, there was no other option than EWD, due to their previous good cooperation on the profiling line project in Enniskeane
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n 2014, the Irish company GP Wood launched an extensive investment programme for its two sawmill sites in Enniskeane and Lissarda. One of the first steps was the replacement of the saw line in Enniskeane with EWD, Altötting/ DE. The five-year plan included investments in Lissarda at a later date – but everything turned out differently. On Friday the 13th of July 2018, a fire broke out at Lissarda. The sawing line and parts of the sorting system were completely destroyed. “But it was immediately clear to us that we
were going to rebuild,” says Niall Grainger, one of the managing directors of GP Wood.
Focus on flexibility The investment package in Lissarda had to be put on the front burner immediately. Due to their very good cooperation in Enniskeane, the choice of supplier once again fell on EWD. “EWD listened to our wishes and designed a very flexible and robust saw line for us. The competence – even in our first 20 International Forest Industries | JUNE / JULY 2021
project – as well as the technology won us over,” Grainger explains. “Thomas Lang from EWD spared no effort. The entire installation was planned and designed by EWD in 3D, which contributed significantly to the rapid assembly.” With regard to the technology, Grainger and GP Wood project manager Shane O’Callaghan had
not decided – in the end, they opted for a reducer band saw line with three Quadro band saws and two Optidrive Edger optimizer installations. “We looked at many sawmills throughout Europe, and time and again the band saw stood out. With this equipment, we can respond very flexibly to customer wishes,” clarifies the GP Wood managing director. About half of the production concerns construction timber for building, the other 50 % is divided between garden timber and packaging timber.” Grainger puts the cutting volume in Lissarda at 300,000 fm/y in an extended shift. This
makes the site slightly larger than Enniskeane. However, “larger” is not to be taken literally with regard to the area – there are only 3.5 ha available in Lissarda. “Making the best possible use of this space was a big challenge - especially since the new hall was
not allowed to be bigger than the previous one,” says EWD project manager, Rolf Rigoni. The new concept was already in place in Lissarda at the end of 2018, and production has been up and running again in January 2020. “As in Enniskeane, the schedule was very ambitious this time but we were once again able to implement it as planned,” says Grainger.
Online sawmill GP Wood does not operate a classic log yard in Lissarda, but feeds the logs – in comparison to Central European sawmills – virtually unsorted at the sawing line. “It’s not as efficient, but it saves us space and costs,” Grainger reasons. One works on the principle of “scan and set”, similar to the American sawmill principle. The logs are fed in
