Patents and Results
Over the years, Valutec's close cooperation with internationally leading researchers in Sweden and Finland has resulted in several pioneering innovations. The benefit of being able to work in a home market with perhaps the world's most demanding customers has given us a good foundation for the international success of recent years.
Patents
1972: Dynamical Drying Process
1989: OTC process
Optimized two-stage continuous dryer.
1991: Adaptive Control of a Simulator Controlled Batch Kiln
Implementation of a drying simulator in the control system.
1995: AdaptiveTDL-Control
By listening to the water evaporation from the wood and using the temperature drop aross the load it’s possible to generate real time drying schedules
1995: Heating with Saturated Steam
Commonly known as the “Relax method” with high power saturated steam.
1999: External Air Cooling of Fan Motors
2000: Expert System Integrated in The Control System.
A tool that automatically helps the operator to optimize the drying process based on the incoming material and desired end results. The expert system can optimize capacity, quality and energy consumption, at the same time. In other words the system optimizes the drying costs.
2002: Method for High Temperature or Heat Treatment of Wood
2003: Method for Heating of Wood
A special control method to optimize the heating which works best with preheated pressurised water spraying systems.
2004: Support Beams for Dryers
To prevent “flat bend” of the bottom layers in the package.
2006: Pulling Device for Continuous Dryers
Commonly known as the “hook”. The hook gives the benefit of having no chain, no motor or no sensor in the drying climate.
2008: A Method for Adapting the Requirement of Drying Air in Wood Driers
Comparing climate conditions with the TDL to determine the need of air velocity which minimizes electric consumption.
2008: Method for Dynamic Control of the Drying Period in a Continuous Dryer Measuring moisture content contactless and controlling the drying time on this feedback signal.
2009: Optical Shrinkage Measurement
In order to determine the wood’s moisture content.
2011: Door Machinery
A special solution for vertical doors.
2013: Drying Arrangement for High Energy Recovery
Drying at two different temperature levels, using the same energy twice to recover more energy than traditional solutions.
2014: Partial Use of the Circulating Air for Heat Recovery
Using the energy twice.
2015: Bypass of Circulation Air
Bypassing part of the air pass the heat coil to achieve less total pressure drop which lowers electric energy consumption.
Some examples of our R&D results
- 11 sek/m3 better results for Valutec’s control system Valmatics (in comparison with a competitor) at Sweden tra’s comparison over one year of 6600 m3 sawn timber.
- Proven higher quality with Valutec’s Valmatics:
In a control system comparison made by the Swedish Research Institute SP, Valutec’s control system Valmatics was superior in 19 of 23 comparing points compared to a competing brand. Valmatics had shorter drying time, lower MC standard deviation, less cracks, less tensions, better MC target hit and less difference in MC between the center and the edges of the batch. - TC (Transversal Circulation) is developed to be most flexible continuous dryer on the market with extremely fast drying and superior drying quality results. It can be used to dry all sideboards from a Sawmill in one single kiln and demands limited production planning.
- The OTC patent and its process is today running in more than 300 pcs of continuous dryers in the world.
- Every year more than 35 million cubic meters of softwood is being dried in Valutec kilns.