West Fraser’s gang saws need to operate efficiently and effectively to maximize profits. However, saws generate excessive heat and sawdust, which makes maintaining efficiency difficult. Cooling water helps protect saws and guides, but can wash off vital lubricants, generating friction and heat.

At West Fraser’s Sundre location, over-heating was causing saw blades to snake through cuts, leading to reduced board quality and in the worst cases, lumber products that could not be used. Some saws were failing, leading to downtime, costing some $500 a minute. Some saws were rusting in as little as two hours when blades were waiting to be cleaned and serviced.

After discussing the challenges of excessive heat and sawdust with West Fraser’s head filer, the team at Petro-Canada Lubricants took on the challenge of developing a product to meet and exceed the expectations at the West Fraser, Sundre mill.

The result was PETROGLIDE ELV (Emulsifiable Low Viscosity), a bespoke solution designed to both protect blades and guides and improve efficiency.

The emulsifying element was key to West Fraser as it meant the lubricant could effectively mix with water, maintain a homogenous mixture and keep the saws cool and well lubricated.

Since introducing PETROGLIDE ELV, the Petro-Canada Lubricants technical services and sales teams have continued to work with West Fraser to improve and adapt the formula to their specific needs.

West Fraser, Sundre’s saws can now run with much thinner kerf (.010 to .012 thousands per side of saw compared to .015 to .020 in most other mills), meaning the sawmills’ cuts are now more precise. PETROGLIDE ELV has also reduced downtime for blade change-outs, with less rust and overheating.

$250,000 ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS OF PREVIOUSLY WASTED FIBER BY COOLER AND THINNER BLADES

RUST-FREE BLADES

FASTER CLEAN-UP THROUGH BLADES CHANGES 

A REDUCTION OF AS MUCH AS 50% IN SAW FAILURES

“I have recommended working with Petro-Canada Lubricants to other filers – the evidence of how well our equipment is working and that we are the number one West Fraser mill for cost and efficiency is a clear demonstration of the expertise of Petro-Canada Lubricants’ R&D and technical services ability” said Van Kerr, Head Filer at West Fraser in Sundre, Alberta.

Any saw filers operating gang saws or VDAs are likely to see improved blade and guide life, over a single shift and over the year, plus higher quality board output and much less labour and clean-up in the filer’s room.