Valutec TC Kilns See North American Success

As a leading developer and world leader in continuous dry kilns Valutec has delivered more than 2,000 continuous kilns to sawmills around the world. In 2020, the company commissioned North America’s first TC continuous kiln at Pleasant River’s Moose River Lumber in Jackman, Me. Now, another eight kilns are up and running, or being installed in North America.

Valutec is the only company offering TC kilns, which feature low energy consumption, are highly flexible and have superior capacity. This kiln gives the operator the possibility to create the ultimate drying process with unlimited freedom to mix dimensions, minimal moisture content variation and reduced risk of checking.

Annual capacity can reach 150MMBF with target moisture content down to around 12-18%. 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. The TC kilns are equipped with Valutec’s Valmatics 4.0 control system, which has an integrated simulator that enables simultaneous optimization of capacity, quality, and energy consumption.

J.D. Irving, Grand Lake Timber, Chipman, New Brunswick

Ingo Wallocha, Managing Director, Valutec Wood Dryers Inc., says, “Today, we’re selling TC continuous kilns in markets all over the world. It’s the result of thousands of development hours during which we studied, evaluated, tested and reinvented every part of a type of lumber kiln which, in its original design, was first used back in 1927.”

A year ago, J.D. Irving’s Grand Lake Timber in Chipman, New Brunswick became the first TC kiln to start up in Canada, as a 12 zone kiln with an annual capacity of 125MMBF. Mario Desjardins, J.D. Irving General Manager says in the summertime the facility gets about 35% energy savings comparted to other kilns. In the winter, the energy savings jump to 50%.

Around the same time as the Chipman start-up, Hampton Lumber Co.’s Warrenton sawmill started up the first TC kiln on the West Coast.