Technical information

Country: Sweden
Model: TC Continuous kiln
Capacity: 90,000 m³/year (38.14 MMBF/year)
Commissioning: 2018

Norra is a growing forestry company owned by 16,000 private forest owners, with a combined forest holding of just over one million hectares (≈2.5 million acres) of woodland in northern Sweden. Norra operates two sawmills, two planing mills, and a pole factory. Together, these facilities produce just under 500,000 m³ (≈212 MMBF) of sawn timber annually.

TC Continuous Kiln and Valmatics 4.0 – a boost for Norra

In 2019, Norra Skogsägarna in Kåge became one of the first sawmills to implement Valmatics 4.0 in their production. For Norra, the system – together with the investment in a TC continuous kiln – has resulted in halved drying times for boards and a far more flexible drying process.

“Now we’re keeping up much better, and the kiln is no longer a bottleneck in the production chain,” says Urban Holm, Drying Manager.

At Norra Skogsägarna in Kåge, just north of Skellefteå, around 100 people are employed, and last year’s production reached nearly 240,000 m³ (≈102 MMBF). The TC kiln from Valutec was commissioned in early 2019, replacing eight older batch kilns. The new kiln is mainly used for drying boards.

“We had issues on the board side, which had been a bottleneck, and we had to act. With the TC kiln, we’ve cut drying times for boards in half, which is fantastic. It also consumes less energy per cubic meter compared to a batch kiln,” says Urban.

Portrait of Urban Holm from Norra Timber.

Norra Skogsägarna, Kåge

– We are now keeping up much better, and the kiln is no longer a bottleneck in the production chain.

Urban Holm, Kiln Supervisor

“More Flexible”

Urban notes that getting to know the new TC kiln and the Valmatics 4.0 control system has gone better than expected.

“As always when changing systems, you expect some complications in the beginning, but we’ve had a positive experience. We have two other continuous kilns – one for boards and one for planks. With the TC kiln, we are more flexible since it’s easier to mix different types of lumber in it.”

Valmatics 4.0 is fully developed for the TC continuous kiln, which includes complete simulator support. Drying operators only need to know the incoming and outgoing moisture content – the system takes care of the scheduling and process. This opens up major opportunities for automation and optimization.

“We’ve started working towards that, but we’re not quite there yet. The TC kiln is fast and consumes more lumber than we expected, so we’re still figuring out how much and what we should feed it with. The simulation in Valmatics 4.0 detects when it’s time to speed up or adjust the climate in the kiln. It’s going to be really good once we’ve found the right levels.”