Family-owned sawmill invests in timber kilns
Family-owned sawmill Hilmer Andersson has invested in two batch kilns from Valutec. These will be constructed during the winter and be commissioned in late April.
“The rapid delivery is an advantage. Moreover, we will be able to improve the dry quality of our products and in particular the finest grades,” says Nils Andersson, Technical Manager at Hilmer Andersson.
The batch kilns have a combined capacity of up to 30,000 m3 annually. They will be used to dry centre cuts and larger boards and planks of pine and spruce. They are made from stainless steel and equipped with pressure frames and heat recovery systems.
The kilns will be a welcome addition at Hilmer Andersson, which currently achieves an output volume of around 150,000 m3 from its timber kilns. The long-term objective is to create scope for production output of 200,000 m3.
“To allow room for further capacity increases in the future, we are constructing the batch kilns back to back. It feels really great to have been able find a solution for them that will work well both immediately on commissioning and in the long term,” says Jon Lindberg, Sales Manager at Valutec.
The two new timber kilns at Hilmer Andersson will be the first Valutec equipment at the sawmill. However, a customer relationship already existed, as spare parts had previously been purchased for existing equipment.
“Their service has been excellent and we find their operation and maintenance to be both reliable and good value,” says Nils Andersson.
Hilmer Andersson, which is located in Lässerud in western Värmland, is a fourth-generation family-owned sawmill. In addition to Nils, several other family members are also involved in the company: father Per, who is MD of the sawmill, sister Kari, who deals with sales, and brother Karl, who runs the wholly-owned builders' merchant XL Bygg Hilmer.
“It’s a sawmill with a long history that has been doing an excellent job for an extremely long time. It’s a fantastic feeling that amidst tough competition we have been able to earn their trust,” says Jon Lindberg.
The delivery will also include the Valmatics control system and the integrated simulator ValuSim. These patented systems are the only ones on the market that allow the user to optimise the drying process based on the central parameters of quality, capacity and energy consumption.
For additional information, please contact
Jon Lindberg, Sales Manager, Valutec
tel. +46 (0)70-662 99 99
Nils Andersson, Technical Manager, Hilmer Andersson
tel. +46 (0)70-366 57 41
Valutec is Europe’s largest supplier of drying equipment for the sawmill industry. The Valutec Group includes Valutec AB, Skellefteå, Sweden, and Valutec Oy, Riihimäki, Finland. Collectively, the Group has a complete range of products based on Swedish and Finnish expertise in wood drying. Total sales amounted to approx. SEK 230 million in 2014. www.valutec.se
