The Shropshire sawmiller has invested in the machinery, developed by Tweddle Engineering in association with Lonza Wood Protection, for integration into its production process for sawn, ground contact posts.
"While our standard Use Class 4 treatments using Tanalith E preservative are already producing high performance fencing timbers, we have been looking to introduce incising to provide an even more assured treated product for our customers," said Hales managing director Julian Parton.
"Incising will also be an important consideration to help achieve the new BS 8417 30-year desired service life ground contact specification, that is likely to come in to effect from January 1, 2014, to achieve the required lateral preservative penetration into the heartwood of any species."
Mr Parton said the machinery’s compact footprint and hydraulically adjusted digital measuring system were reasons for specifying Excalibur.
The machine allows processing on all four faces of a post in a single pass, full or part post incising and management of size changes.
Hales recently announced it would go ahead with a £3.5m new site development at Market Drayton after securing council permission for unrestricted operating hours on the premises.
