Mount Maunganui, New Zealand–For over 34 years, Automation & Electronics has been serving the wood products industry worldwide with Optimization, Controls, Automation, and specialized Software solutions to fit our industry’s needs. Upon its founding in 1986, Brian Smith and Tony Cable established Automation & Electronics with the intent of harnessing PLC technology to replace the common “black box” solutions and provide sawmills with a supportable, and upgradable automation solution. Fast forward to 2020, and the shop has grown to have a worldwide presence and an expanded product line to match. The addition of a Software department in the 1990s eventually led to the inevitable addition of an Optimization suite to help their customer base in Australasia with a locally supported package. In 2006, they set their sights to North American shores and opened up an office based in the Southeastern USA.
Throughout this time, A&E has worked hard with multiple vendors and partners over the years to offer Optimization and Controls with reputable companies such as AE Gibson & Sons, Windsor Engineering, Autolog, Cooper Machine, and TS Manufacturing. Their ability to provide controls for items like End Doggers, Carriages, Edgers, Resaws, Trimmers, Sorters and Stackers, as well as working tightly with Windsor Engineering on providing Kiln, CDK and Steamer controls has led to a diverse experience and skills overlap that enables a “total wood lifecycle” approach to their conversations with customers.
When Tony Cable needed to retire, Brian Smith saw it as an opportunity to strengthen their North American operations and approached TS Manufacturing to invest in A&E and create a global network for Controls, Optimization and Software support with people stationed in three time zones. TS Manufacturing’s Riley Smith said, “We’ve worked with many controls and optimization vendors over the years, and the only ones that stuck with us on every project to the end was Automation & Electronics. We have an internal Controls and Software team, but growing that team natively takes time to do it right. Our customers have come to expect a certain level of modern approaches to our controls, and Automation & Electronics was a natural fit given our shared company ethos of getting the job done right – every time.”
A&E is committed to providing industry leading controls and optimization. Pictured above is an example of this, where a site is using AE EdgerView™ which is a virtual operator interface that provides a live video image on screen combined with movable sawlines to interface directly with the Setworks PLC. 
Customers can rest assured that A&E maintains their commitment to support and supply worldwide with industry leading PLC controls, such as those operated by panels like the one pictured.
As a direct result of this, TS Manufacturing has taken an 80 percent shareholding in Automation & Electronics but instead of being a “corporate takeover” it’s more of a partnership, enabling and supporting Automation & Electronics’ independence and relationship with their OEM customers, and direct customers; but with added resources for Optimization, Controls and R&D.
The end result is that Automation & Electronics now has personnel stationed in New Zealand; British Columbia, Canada; Ontario, Canada; and its USA headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. Joe Korac, president of Automation & Electronics USA, said, “Our customers enjoy working with us because we’re small enough to be approachable but have been big enough to have support. If you have a customer that breaks down while you’re doing another startup you can’t tell someone they’re going to have to ‘wait’ to get running; and we’ve always been able to accommodate that with our USA and New Zealand staff, with the growth that this partnership has brought us, now we have software guys in three time zones, and they all work together. So, if you have a problem at 6 a.m. in Georgia, you don’t have to wait until 9 or 10 for someone on the West Coast. We have people local to your time zone ready to help.”
As part of this partnership growth, Allen Larsen has joined the team and brings over 20 years of product development experience in Optimization. Riley Smith said, “When we were finalizing the deal with A&E, it was our goal to make sure that we reinforced A&E’s core strengths of approachability and support, but couple it with a strong R&D focus. One aspect of that was consulting with and hiring Allen Larsen to lead the Optimization Development team to ensure our offering delivered true optimization with long term supportability.”
As a result of Allen’s leadership A&E has made some dramatic improvements to its Optimization and Software platforms, leveraging the latest Scanner Heads from Joe Scan, and LMI, as well as making the software ‘Web Friendly’, so Windows compatibility/upgrade issues are a thing of the past, since from the user’s perspective – the software runs on a web browser. This enables mill managers to monitor, get reports, and make changes from their current desktop for any Optimizer or Tally system in the mill. Allen Larsen stressed, “Software has come a long way since the invention of the internet, yet sawmill systems seem stuck in the past. We are excited to be able to take advantage of these technologies to provide systems that work the way people have come to expect software to work. The interfaces run in web-browsers so you can access them from anywhere using any device, meaning that Windows updates are no longer an excuse to sell customers an upgrade. We’re also playing with the ability to use the cloud for backing up and monitoring the health of our customers’ systems and to allow them to access large amounts of historical data without requiring expensive servers.”
This mentality extends to more than just the computer, it applies to the Scanning Technology as well, with new systems going in with JoeScan JS-50’s, JoeScan JS-25’s, LMI Gocator’s, LMI Chromascans, and Scanmeg CV12 scanner heads, the new platforms are clearly designed to be versatile and offer cost effective upgrade paths as well as leading technology for new installations. Joe Korac added, “A large project that demonstrates the flexibility of this platform is being installed in Alabama. On this site A&E will have a 3D Merchandiser, 3D Primary Breakdown with Resaw and Gang optimization, 2-3D Lineal Board Edgers at 40 ppm; and 2-3D Trimmer Optimizers running up to 160 lpm. The entire system will use a single scanner technology for log, flitch and lumber, allowing the mill to save money on spares and training.”
Meanwhile, Automation & Electronics globally has not forgotten the customers that have gotten them to this point. A&E continues to provide and develop solutions alongside its existing Direct and OEM partners, ensuring they are supported by the head office in New Zealand as well as the worldwide locations. Customers can rest assured that A&E maintains their commitment to support and supply worldwide with industry leading PLC Controls, and software in addition to the Optimization. As part of this partnership A&E and TS have created a controls group to support customers worldwide; the result is over 15 controls and HMI technicians that have an overlapping “normal shift” of 98 hours a week, meaning that the 24/7 support often means you are reaching someone at their desk. Historically many Controls and Optimization companies have been purchased, bought out, and then in-housed by large manufacturers resulting in unwanted changes for their customers. Riley Smith assures this is not the case, stating, “The directive with the A&E partnership is that as a team we will improve our abilities, but A&E needs to maintain its independent nature. If A&E or TS can help each other deliver a better product we will, regardless of who the customer is; but they are two separate companies with separate sales teams and separate management– TS doesn’t know what A&E is quoting, and it will stay that way forever.”
Learn more at www.automationelecusa.com.
