SWAN RIVER, Canada — Spruce Product Limited (SPL), a manufacturer of lumber and wood products for the construction industry and the integrated wood products industry, recently loaded their first lumber packages into a new kiln from Swedish Valutec. SPL has been supplying products for Canadian and International markets since 1942.

“Actually, there's no difference between commissioning a kiln in Canada from one an hour away from our head office in the north of Sweden,” Andreas Lövgren, Production Manager at Valutec, said in a press release. “We prioritize all projects to provide the customer with the best solution possible and to make sure we deliver on everything we've agreed upon.” 

This kind of kiln provides full freedom to create the ultimate drying process with the virtually unlimited freedom to mix dimensions, minimal moisture content variation and reduced risk of checking. Annual capacity can reach 170,000 m3 (75 mmbf), with target moisture contents down to around 12–18%.

TC stands for “cross circulation”. The principle is based on the timber package being fed length-wise through zones in which the air circulates laterally across the drying channel. This enables the separate regulation of the climate in different zones according to a schedule that comes very close to the ideal schedule of a batch kiln.

Since introduced Valutec's TC continuous kiln has achieved success on the world’s sawmilling markets. It is a kiln type that comes with distinguishing features such as low energy consumption, high flexibility, and superior capacity. 

The installation of the dryer was led by Valutec’s assembly manager Mattias Henriksson together with a Canadian assembly team.

“Delivering to other countries and working with local assembly teams is part of our everyday lives. We have built up a great deal of experience in projects in other countries and know what it takes, from design to planning of logistics and on-site work. As long as we have capable, committed people to do the work, we achieve good results. And this was no exception to that rule,” says Mattias.

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 Mattias.  “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.”

The TC kiln is probably the market’s most sustainable timber kiln. Constructed in stainless steel, resistant to thermal expansion and fatigue, the kiln has superior longevity and requires minimal maintenance. Studies shows that Valutec’s stainless steel TC continuous kiln emits 23 tons less CO2 per year than the correspondent kiln built in aluminum. 23 tons of CO2 is about as much as three hectares of coniferous forest absorb in a year.