Best wood Schneider announced that it will build a new sawmill at Messkirch in Germany. According to a press release by the company, Schneider intends to increase the automation significantly and is relying on a mix of German, Finnish and Swedish manufacturers for the machines.
Best wood Schneider announced that it will build a new sawmill at Messkirch in Germany. Image credit: Schneider
Schneider plans to build a new production plant for about EUR80-million, which will increase the production of sawn timber to 200 000m3 (85,000 MBF) and of plank plywood to 100 000m3 per year.
Schneider ordered the log yard mechanisation from Holtec. The concept does not provide an independent log yard. The logs are fed separately according to small and large diameters on two independent feeding conveyors. The line for small diameters is designed that small cutting sets are pre-sorted according to diameter ranges over several sorting decks and are transferred online to the sawline.
The line for large diameters operates online without pre-sorting. In the infeed area a butt end reducer will be placed. All lumber drying will be performed in four OTC model continuous kilns from Sweden’s Valutec.
“We were looking for a kiln supplier who could provide high-capacity lumber kilns that required minimal maintenance, and Valutec was able to offer the best solution. They also have extensive experience of continuous kilns and excellent references here in Germany. It’s why we chose them,” says Andreas Schilling, MBA, project manager, Technical Systems Planning at best wood Schneider.
The sawmill in Messkirch is a greenfield project, and it will be one of Europe’s most modern sawmills once completed. For example, forklifts will be replaced by gantries between the lumber feed and the trimmers.
The kilns are built in stainless steel and equipped with Valutec’s latest Valmatics 4.0 control system. It is the only system on the market to use built-in simulator technology to optimise drying processes for all types of lumber kilns.
OTC kiln assembly will begin in the summer of 2021, and commissioning is scheduled for the following winter. The sawn timber produced and dried at the location is used exclusively in the course of own further processing.
