News
Third TC continuous kiln in operation at Pleasant River
Valutec recently commissioned the third TC continuous kiln for the Pleasant River sawmill group in Maine, USA. The most recently installed continuous kiln, with a capacity of 80mmbf for Balsam Fir, was built in Enfield. The group previously had TC continuous kilns in operation in Dover and Jackman, also in the state of Maine.
“We enjoyed a truly great collaboration where we were able to work together with extremely capable employees on site,” says Andreas Lövgren, Production Manager at Valutec in charge of commissioning along with commissioning technician William Marklund.
Valutec’s process for building, commissioning and testing is virtually the same no matter where in the world a project is completed.
“Actually, there's no difference between commissioning a continuous kiln in Maine from one an hour away from our head office in the north of Sweden. We staff projects to provide the customer with the best solution possible and to make sure we deliver on everything we've agreed upon,” says Andreas.
In Enfield, Pleasant River engaged an assembly manager during the building process, while Valutec provided a supervisor.
“As long as we have capable, committed people to do the work, we achieve good results. And this was no exception to that rule.”
The differences that exist concern optimization issues and new opportunities created by Valutec’s drying process.
“Our TC model continuous kilns represent an entirely different product compared to the existing lumber kilns on the North American market,” explains Lövgren. “What's more, we also offer world-leading process control with our Valmatics 4.0 control system. It invites discussions on issues such as drying schedules for specific types of lumber, or managing situations where we need to optimize the energy load as other parts of the sawmill are also operating near capacity. Our powerful systems and facilities can handle this and then some, but as with anything new, it naturally calls for a thorough review and briefing.”
The sawmill in Enfield was only built a few years ago and specializes in small-dimension boards. The TC continuous kiln, which is split into five double zones, will be used to dry spruce down to a 15 percent final moisture content.
The TC model kiln that Pleasant River built in Moose River was the first in North America when it entered operation at the end of 2019.