Lumber drying is one of the most quality-critical processes in the sawmill production process. Valutec announces the launch of its Valmatics 4.0 control system, developed for industry 4.0, which will enable sawmills around the world to automate and optimize drying in all types of lumber kilns. The high quality of the process is ensured by simulators programmed with data from hundreds of thousands of measurements to enable the calculation of drying processes with unbeatable accuracy from beginning to end.

In the extensive work of creating Valmatics 4.0, an important task has been to ensure functionality over time.
"We want sawmills to switch to Valmatics 4.0 because they can see benefits that will help them develop - not that they are forced to because of hardware changes,” says John Karbin, Automation Manager at Valutec.

The development of many sawmills is moving towards sawing more dimensions and qualities, which places increased demands on reliable system support. It has made the in-built simulator an even more important component of Valmatics 4.0, which now has a full simulator support for all types of drying models.
"When the user sees that the right quality can be achieved by using the simulator, it will of course be easier to lean against it next time the conditions change. Poor quality lumber should never come out of a Valmatic kiln", says Thomas Wamming, Development Manager at Valutec.

The latest model of Valutec’s TC continuous kilns has been a worldwide success. Arguably, it is the first type of kiln other than the traditional batch kiln that suits the need of every market around the world.