Pulp mills are loosing wood up to 4 % every year
In global wood processing, the level of optimization has been low until now. WoodSmart™ control system, created by Finnish Teknosavo, is developed for automated control of pulp wood debarking.
Instead of continuous manual control, the nature of work shifts to monitoring in debarking plants. WoodSmart™ is innovative optimizing system, equipped with patented online measurement devices, in order to maximize the whole process capacity from gate to digester. In Finland, 80% of the raw wood debarking processes are optimized with Teknosavo’s devices. On a yearly level in Finnish circumstances, 25 million cubic metres of timber go through the system.
Annual wood loss is currently 1-4 % per pulp mill. For a single debarking line this can mean close to 1 million euros profit decrease. With the most modern laser and camera technology the WoodSmart™ system can create significant savings by diminishing the loss.
The WoodSmart’s wood processing
The WoodSmart™ system measures the whole process, starting from the filling degree of the drum where it stabilises the wood flow and calculates the best control values for debarking. Regardless of the wood specie, it is debarked precisely to the optimum level of required cleaning. The optimization equipment measures bark content on logs, as well as wood content in the bark material on bark conveyor. Correct cleaning degree not only decreases raw material loss but also guarantees and improves the high quality of the end product. Measurement of multiple process variables in real-time enables the optimization of the entire debarking process. For example in de-icing control WoodSmart™ calculates the energy required to de-ice the wood. Furthermore, the system alarms in case stones are detected at the chipper infeed conveyor.
High utilization rate minimizes maintenance costs and idle time created by malfunctions. The WoodSmart™ technology can be installed to new and existing wood processing lines as well as all debarking systems with specific automation levels. When in use, results show WoodSmart™ system pays itself back in less than a year.
