Bersco Engineering Open Day

Bersco Engineering, based on the Lympne Industrial Estate near Hythe, is an engineering company specialising in diesel and hydraulic servicing for a range of vehicles, including agricultural and forestry equipment.

The latest addition to their portfolio of services is a new partnership with Fuelwood (Warwick) Ltd which acts as a national importer/distributor of specialised woodfuel processing equipment.

As a result of this new relationship there is now a local supplier of high quality equipment, including Heizohack (chippers), Japa and Sami (log processors), Woodline (log splitters), LucasMill (portable saw mills), MOWI (trailers and cranes) and Fuelwoods own range of British manufactured kindling and log machines (Transaw, Splitta and Kindlet).

I attended Bersco's recent open day and met with owner Robert who was pleased with the good turn out.  There was a good mix of existing customers as well as some seasoned woodsmen who paid close attention to the demonstrations led by Jeremy from Fuelwood Ltd.  The hog roast also helped proceedings, as did the umpteen cups of tea provided by Leanne's team!

Fuelwood's Jeremy discussing kindling during a tea break

The Sami log processor was certainly an impressive piece of kit.  The model being demonstrated, the S185-TEC440, is not cheap at almost £30,000, but it made short work of some fairly large pieces of timber.  What was most impressive was the automatic sensors that scan the timer dimensions as it enters the machine and alters the cutting length and height of the splitter blade automatically.  This means that timer with a variety of dimensions can be fed into the machine without the operator having to alter the set-up each time.  The hydraulic log lift was another feature that was new to me.

The Kindlet machine was more familiar to me but I was impressed again at the ease with which it produces a consistent product.  According to Jeremy the PTO version can process up to 100 bags an hour...not bad considering the average price of a bag of kindling these days!

The SAMI log processor (PTO or 3-phase)

Also good for leaning on

The NET result...ahem

The Kindlet - Made in Britain

The SAMI log conveyor