A TRARALGON based company has developed a sawmilling technology that has the potential to revolutionise the timber industry in Australia and overseas.
Radial Corporation is about to set up a demonstration mill in China, in a bid to sell the technology worldwide.
``Different sorts of logs come into China from all over the world and we can process them there and show people the qualiity of timber they can get out of a log and how good our sawing technology is,'' Radial Corporation founder Andrew Knörr said.
Mr Knörr said radial sawing technology produced better quality timber highlighting the natural grain. It creates more sawn timber from each log, reducing wastage.
The radial sawing method can be applied to harvested forest, regeneration and plantation timbers.
Mr Knörr has been developing the technology for 20 years and currently operates from an office in Hotham Street, Traralgon.
He has made recent advancements in radial backsawing and quartersawing.
Radial Corporation secured a Federal Government grant, which was used to fund an independent assessment of the technology.
It found backsawing increased the volume and value of sawn timber by 20 per cent.
Mr Knörr is confident there are similar advantages available from radial quartersawing and the technology will have big benefits for the Victorian and Tasmanian timber industries.
Radial sawing has already been used successfully in weatherboards produced at a Yarram sawmill, previously owned by Mr Knörr.
The wedge shaped weatherboards with a distinctive wavy appearance have been used in projects around Australia.
Mr Knörr's radial sawing technology was applied recently to timber decking used in celebrity gardener Jamie Durie's gold medal winning exhibition at the Chelsea Garden show in England.
Radial Corporation recently signed an agreement with a government organisation in China for a demonstration mill in the capital, Beijing.
It is hoped a radial machine will be made in the Latrobe Valley and shipped to China for testing.
``China is a big manufacturing hub for furniture and a big domestic construction industry with lots of logs coming into China from all over the world,'' Mr Knörr said.
China was also chosen for its 1.5 million hectares of plantation eucalyptus.
Radial Corporation has registered patents on the technology in many countries and is sure its intellectual property is safe.
The company's strategy is to obtain royalties off the patents and make money from supplying and distributing the radial machines to sawmills around the world.
``We are also interested in developing the Australian opportunity with our new quartersawing technology,'' Mr Knörr said.
That would mean forming a break-away independent company to focus on the Australian market.
Radial Corporaton is seeking investors for the demonstration plant in China and the development of an Australian arm.
Mr Knörr said he had been frustrated about the time taken for the industry to adapt and embrace the new technology but was now excited about what the future would hold.
``The more I work on this technology the more I am convinced that it will take its place in the world in time,'' Mr Knörr said.
``It's my interest to make sure that happens as soon as possible and really it should in the interests of the environment.''
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