Scott Brown is sales manager at DiPrizio Pine Sales, located in Middleton, N.H., where the company recently upgraded equipment.
DIPRIZIO’S New Equipment, Increases Production By Terry Miller
Middleton, N.H. – DiPrizio Pine Sales continues to make improvements and add equipment to its Middleton sawmill. The additions have enabled DiPrizio to increase its production while at the same time moving from a six-day workweek down to a four and a half day week.
Sales manager Scott Brown said the improvements had done more than just increase production, but also increased the quality of the product. The company recently added a 120-foot in-feed table that allows the planer to continue production flow without having to stop. The company also put in a new tilt hoist and rebuilt the planer themselves. Brown said the number of knife heads on the planer was doubled, producing a smoother and more consistent finish on the lumber.
After the lumber goes through the planer, it rides out the backside on a conveyor belt that takes it to the company’s new double-end trimmer. There, Brown said, the lumber rolls off on belts and comes onto the deck where it is graded and stacked. As a result, DiPrizio has increased its sorts on the out-feed from six to 14.
DiPrizio recently installed a new double-end trimmer.
“So now we can sort single length, pull finish, pull special grades, have more flexibility to meet our customer’s needs, so that’s made a big difference,” Brown said.
Even with fewer hours in the workweek, DiPrizio is able to offer its customers more products that are more tailored to the customer’s needs with its new equipment. Customers can get a larger quantity of lumber in a variety of lengths.
“If somebody wants a hundred 10s, a hundred 12s or 50 14s, we have the cog space to provide it where we didn’t before,” Brown said. “We couldn’t even think about offering that before.”
In addition, Brown said, the company is able to get the product to its customers much faster than it had previously. He said a majority of the time he gets the product to his customers quicker than what he tells them on the front end
DiPrizio also recently upgraded its planer in order to provide customers with lumber that has a smoother surface.
.
The products DiPrizio currently offers include 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4, but the company specializes in patterns with its Weinig moulder. Brown said that six- and eight-inch patterns comprise 50 to 60 percent of what the company sells. DiPrizio also makes four grades – Select, Finish, Premium and Common – and with as many sorts as the company has, it can offer different size packs as well.
“We can offer mixed loads with 500-foot units of this, a thousand-foot units of that, whatever anybody wants,” Brown said.
Brown said offering the mixed loads is something that is hard for a lot of mills to do. He said 60 to 70 percent of the company’s business is mixed loads geared toward distribution centers or retail dealers. He said in one load there could be a combination of four or five different patterns, seven or eight different grades and of 500-foot units to 2,000-foot units, which the company may already have. Brown said waiting for the loads to accumulate takes time, which is why production is a three or four week process.
Earl Perrino, who handles shipping and receiving at DiPrizio, loads an outbound truck.
In addition to lumber, DiPrizio also markets bevel siding and v-joint decking, 8x10 timbers, but hope to be able to do up to 12x12 timbers in the future. Brown said the company is looking into getting a clamp crane that will make working with such large logs much easier and safer. He said the company also does heat-treating and can custom mill now that it has both a planer and a moulder. And with all the new equipment, Brown said the facility is exceeding his expectations regarding both quality and production.
“They’re doing better than we ever expected,” he said. “They have been hitting a hundred thousand feet a shift regularly.”
DiPrizio Pine Sales produces kiln-dried Eastern White Pine in 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4 thicknesses in S4S and patterns. The firm markets approximately 21 million board feet annually and has a drying capacity of nearly 300,000 board feet a week. Brown said the company is thinking of adding another dryer in the next year or two. DiPrizio employs 70 people at its Middleton facility. Larry Huot is the company president and general manager.
The company is a member of the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Assoc. and the North American Whol
David Mansfield, sawmill supervisor, watches over the lumber as it is fed into the double-end trimmer.
esale Lumber Assoc. All of DiPrizio’s products are marketed through wholesalers and wholesale distributors.
