Incising of timber posts has been a growing reality in the UK wood products market as sawmills, manufacturers, merchants and contractors look for extra peace of mind regarding the long-term performance of their products.
Surface incising of timber prior to highpressure preservative treatment is nothing new. The concept, which is in widespread use in North America, allows a deeper and more consistent penetration of the wood preservative, usually into ground contact fencing and landscaping timbers, to help achieve a more effective long-term protection. But until recently it was not on the radar for the UK and much of Europe.
Many UK homegrown species destined for ground contact applications are either naturally difficult to penetrate with preservative or have significant hard-topenetrate heartwood sections. The industry standard for preservative treatment BS 8417 now identifies surface incising as a method of achieving effective heartwood penetration to achieve service lives in certain markets.
Arch Timber Protection approached us at Tweddle Engineering to work in partnership in developing an effective incising technology for square and round timbers. Customers of Arch Timber Protection were looking for adaptable, effective and reliable incising options that would allow them to produce preservative treated ground contact timbers that they and their customers could have real confidence in.
We set out to modernise and revolutionise the process by developing new cutting edge innovative technologies. The development process led to several solutions, the latest of which was the award-winning EXCALIBUR R – a solution for both machined round and peeled posts.
The technology has been designed to solve problems that the incising technology sector found dif_ cult to address.
The EXCALIBUR R machine is the only incising technology in the world to handle peeled posts and will still deliver effective and consistent results regardless of the post being bent, twisted, tapered or uneven.
It intelligently recognises timber sizes, automatically setting itself to the correct specification to deliver depth penetration up to 12mm, exactly where it is needed on each post. A part incising option delivers an average of 65% preservative saving over full incising yet still creates a superior loading of preservative exactly where it is needed at ground level.
The built-in hydraulic power pack allows for a small footprint and EXCALIBUR R has been designed so it can be installed as either a stand-alone, hand feed option or an in-line, continuous feed system.
The intelligent technology knows where the post is within the machine, allowing a consistent incising band. The machine moves between different diameter timbers – from 65mm up to 200mm – using nine individually driven heads which are fully sequenced to each other. It’s this technology that makes it possible to produce a consistent and aesthetically pleasing all round incising result.
Customer feedback received by Tweddle includes appreciation for the easy-to-use HMI control display which simplifies the changing between post sizes, with switches between 70mm and 190mm diameter posts described as almost instantaneous by one customer. Several have commented on the security they get by seeing that the preservative has penetrated deep into the timber. One customer told us that the agricultural post industry will never look back now it has warmed to the possibilities offered by incising technology for round posts.
We have manufactured and installed 7 EXCALIBUR R machines within eight months of its launch. Since winning the TTJ Award we have received several new orders and we have also demonstrated our new incising technologies in key mainland Europe markets.
EXCALIBUR developments will continue in response to market needs.
