Mill Engineering

Mill engineering has played a significant role in the evolution of industrial progress for over the last 100 years. Focusing on plant efficiencies, production of raw materials and custom wood or metal products… for construction, this type of engineering has been the engine behind industrial progress. Whether you are in the United States, Europe, South America or the South Pole, you will see the evidence that mill engineering was there. Plant efficiency is a key component of a successful manufacturing plant. It’s the variance between profit and loss.

Mill engineering is an engineering discipline that includes designing machinery and raw materials for projects ranging from small dry sheds for a farm to enormous, elaborate casinos in Las Vegas. Mill Engineering allows the construction of large projects to run more efficiently. For example, if you were building a theme park with roller coasters, hotel rooms, eateries and various facilities, wouldn’t it make more sense to create some of the raw materials on site such as the cement for the millions of cubic yards of concrete? This strategy allows the use of elaborate equipment such as cranes, cement manufacturing machines, enormous wood saws, concrete saws, steel mills, and various other machineries on the construction site so the materials are more readily available. Profit or loss can be realized by the design of the project mentioned above.

Mill engineering also includes permanent mills or factories that produce raw materials with industrial machinery. For example, a sawmill is a type of mill engineering plant. Sawmills are typically located near heavily forested areas and incorporate large saws and wood product machinery that cut, bend, shred and fabricate various wood products. Examples of wood products would be plywood, particle board, shake, 2×4 studs, paper, and large construction beams. Many products we use every day started out in a sawmill- kitchen tables, the molding in our homes, cabinets and the paper we write on.

There are many mill engineering plants across the world. BEP Engineering Services is one firm that is well known for their successful projects in plant design, plant modernization and plant redesign. BEP Engineering Services not only operates as a mill engineering firm, but also has over 27 years experience upgrading and re-designing existing plants and firms. Upgrades can include redesigning the process of how a material such as plywood is developed. This change in the flow process of how a product is manufactured can increase overall efficiencies.

Successful mill engineering can help a firm become more competitive in the free market. The less expensive it is to manufacture a raw material, the more aggressive the retailer or distributor can be with pricing to the consumer. Mill engineering can also be a service by providing clients flow plans and equipment layouts, redesign and equipment modification for existing equipment, field measurements and drafting of existing plants, creative design and product mix optimization. This can really make the difference in a projects bottom line. From the conception of a large project such as building a manufacturing plant, engineering is working behind the scenes to insure proper use of space, materials, building processes and overall efficiencies.