Vida la Vida in Sweden

In May, John Collins and Andrew Mitchell, both designers at Donaldson Timber Engineering, made their way to Sweden. The trip was a prize, courtesy of VIDA Wood, for being the highest scorers in the TRA’s online learning course.

They began with a trip to the forest with Peter Rosen of VIDA Wood. As they sat in the cab of a logging machine, Stefan, a champion lumberjack, explained the harvesting process. John and Andrew saw trees being felled and watched how data collection on the wood is transferred in real time via satellite to the mill.

They also visited the Borgstena mill and received a full VIP tour from Frederik Andersson of VIDA Wood. John and Andrew saw first-hand the efforts of ensuring there’s no wastage and watched as three 47×147 TR26 timbers and four 22×100 braces were cut from a log that was only 236mm in diameter.

In addition, John and Andrew visited a special mill used mostly for smaller timbers and watched CLS timber being milled and kiln dried for the UK market.

The level of automation in the factories amazed Andrew, and while he’d done some research beforehand, he admitted it didn’t compare to seeing it in person. For John, the trip to the forest was the highlight (although sadly he didn’t see a moose).

Thanks to VIDA Wood for such a great prize, and for its continued support of the TRA’s training programme.