Introducing Comact’s Hybrid Sawline: Speed, flexibility, and innovation for green mills

In the fast-evolving sawmilling industry, efficiency and adaptability are critical for success. Mills must tackle the challenges of achieving higher productivity, reducing costs, and maximising yield — all while managing an increasingly variable and unpredictable log supply.

Comact’s Hybrid Sawline is a groundbreaking system that combines circular saws and bandsaws in the primary breakdown process. This next-generation solution seamlessly integrates speed, flexibility, and high performance to handle a wide range of log diameters.

Circular and Bandsaw Integration for Maximum Throughput

At the core of the hybrid sawline is its ability to transition seamlessly between circular saws and bandsaws. Circular saws, ideal for high-speed production, efficiently process logs up to 50 cm in diameter. For larger logs, the integrated bandsaws take over, ensuring no yield opportunities are missed, regardless of size.

This hybrid configuration maximises throughput and efficiency without increasing maintenance requirements — making it especially valuable with diverse log supply.

Versatility to Meet Evolving Market Demands

The hybrid sawline supports multiple cutting modes, including double profiling, quadruple circular cutting, and sideboard splitting. Mills can produce a wide range of products — from standard sizes to custom wide cuts — all on a single line.

This versatility enables green mills to diversify their offering without investing in additional specialised equipment. By consolidating production into one flexible system, mills reduce capital and operating costs while increasing responsiveness to market changes.

Streamlined Operations, Reduced Waste

The hybrid sawline simplifies production by minimising remanufacturing, cutting down operational complexity, and reducing material waste. These improvements result in measurable cost savings and enhanced profitability.

Circular saw components are quick to replace and require minimal maintenance, ensuring steady uptime. A modular design supports easy upgrades and scalability, allowing mills to grow and adapt alongside shifting fibre supply or technology advancements.

Intelligent Optimization for Consistent Flow

The system includes Comact’s Smart Vision, which analyses each log’s shape and dimensions in real time to optimise log feeding. It dynamically adjusts spacing between logs to maintain continuous flow, eliminate bottlenecks, and keep the line operating at peak performance.

Advanced bin management also helps regulate log supply to the line, avoiding overfeeding or underutilisation and ensuring operational consistency — even with irregular-sized timber.

Quality Control Through Closed Loop Technology

Comact’s Primary Breakdown Closed Loop Smart Tool further enhances value by automating quality control. Using data from downstream scanners, the system makes real-time adjustments to cutting patterns, improving yield and dimensional accuracy.

With a best-in-class reaction time and integrated alerts, the closed-loop tool helps operators maintain consistency while reducing sawing variation, downtime, and overcutting.

Built for Sustainable Growth

The Hybrid Sawline is designed to help mills meet today’s production targets while building toward tomorrow’s goals. By increasing fibre utilisation, reducing equipment needs, and enabling smoother operations, it supports more sustainable, cost-effective production.

Its modularity and flexibility make it a long-term investment — one that can evolve as the demands of the sawing industry continue to shift.

Local Support Through Lakeland Steel

To support customers in Australia and New Zealand, Comact has partnered with Lakeland Steel, a well-established engineering firm based in Rotorua, New Zealand. Lakeland Steel provides local sales, installation, fabrication, and technical support for Comact technologies throughout the region.

This partnership ensures that mills across the region have faster access to Comact equipment, reliable local service, and a trusted partner to support the success of every project — from design to commissioning and beyond.

The future of sawmilling is here, and it’s powered by the Comact Hybrid Sawline.

For more information, contact us at info@comact.com or visit our website.