Field trips or sessional tours of the study curriculum expose students to factual and
practical areas of related course material while enabling them to gain an
appreciation of how that material relates to real-world applications.
Being students of Forestry and Wood Technology, we participated in a sessional
tour to Chittagong on 14 March 2023, which redoubled our enthusiasm for
studying and executing our course; Sawmilling, Saw Doctoring, and Wood
Working.
This sessional tour was established by the Forestry and Wood Technology
Discipline, Khulna University, under the oversight of our highly respected
teachers.
A Brief Introduction to Sawmilling Industries in Bangladesh
Sawmill is a place where logs of wood are transformed into different sizes and
different pieces of wood by different kinds of machinery. Besides big machinery
sometimes hand saws are also used by the laborers for some small work or
finishing a product. It can be a permanent sawmill or a portable sawmill.
Sawmilling industries play a vital role in the development of wood-based
industries in Bangladesh. There are about 4,800 numbers of sawmills as well as
wood-based industries in Bangladesh because of the increasing demand for wood
and wood products.
It is evident that timbers processed in sawmills are directly used for making
furniture and many other housing materials which are extracted from the forest and
also from the homesteads.
The wastage of round wood is produced as sawdust, off-cuts, and trimmings
(portions of logs with bark, shavings, etc). It is observed that sawdust is used in
poultry farms, and ice factories on small scale and mostly as fuel for cooking.
Moreover, the residue of crude oil mixed with sawdust is used in some brick fields
to increase the calorie of heat if sawdust is available in sawmilling.
Tour Destination
We, the students of Forestry and Wood Technology discipline visited Bangladesh
Forest Research Institute (BFRI), Chittagong on 14 March 2023 for our
Sawmilling, Saw Doctoring, and Wood Working Sessional.
We visited there in the sawmill. Not only that, but we gained some practical
knowledge over this course.
Tour Objective
The prime objectives of our sessional tour were:
● To know the tools and equipment for sawmill operations
● To be familiar with timber conversion techniques with necessary tools and
types of machinery
● To acquire practical knowledge about sawmilling
● To be familiar with timber conservation technique
The Department of sawmilling at BFRI :
There are 4 dedicated departments in BFRI for specialized works, these include:
1. Saw doctoring training and service center
2. Wood technology and engineering department
3. Wood planning department
4. Timber conservation department
The Equipment of Sawmilling :
At BFRI we have seen many types of sawmilling tools and equipment such as-
1. Circular saw
2. Crosscut saw
3. Band saw
4. Electric soldering machine
5. Drill machine
6. Wood turning lathe
7. Jointer machine
8. Mortise machine
9. Straight roller
10. Thickness planer
11. Hammer
The working method of the equipment :
Circular saw :
A circular saw is a type of saw that uses a circular blade to cut through various
materials, including wood, metal, and plastic. In sawmilling, circular saws are commonly
used for processing logs into the timber.
Fig: Circular saw
Cross-cut saw:
A cross-cut saw is a type of saw that is used to make cuts perpendicular to the
grain of the wood. In sawmilling, crosscut saws are commonly used to cut logs into
shorter sections before they are processed further.
Fig: Crosscut saw
Band saw:
Band saw is a type of saw that uses a continuous band of toothed metal or steel to
cut through various materials, including wood, metal, and plastic. In sawmilling,
band saws are commonly used for processing logs into lumber.
Fig; Band saw
Straight roller:
A straightening machine is equipment for straightening metal profiles, bars, pipes,
wires, etc. Roll straightening is the correction of a shape defect caused by repeated
bending of the rolled material as it passes between two rows of staggered rollers.
After the product is bitten by the roller, it continuously makes a straight line or
rotating motion, so that the product bears various aspects of compression, bending,
flattening and other deformation and finally achieves the purpose of straightening.
Electric soldering machine:
An electric soldering machine is a device that is used to join two pieces of metal
together by melting a filler metal or solder, that is applied to the joint.
Fig: Electric soldering machine
Mortise machine:
A mortising machine, also known as a mortiser, is a woodworking machine that is
used to cut square or rectangular holes, or mortises, into the wood. Mortising
machines are commonly used in furniture making, cabinet making, and other
woodworking applications that require precision joinery.
End Remarks
We are extremely grateful to Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, the Life Science
School, and Khulna University for offering us this excellent chance at a university
sessional tour. We are equally appreciative that our distinguished teachers have
coordinated the matter so expertly.
