What are the elements of modern veneer production?

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You may ask; Why all this fuzz about veneer? Peeling and drying have been there for 100 years or more!

The answer is very simple. The world around us is changing, and so are the requirements for different veneer-based wood products.

There is tremendous cost pressure pushing us all to find more efficient ways to produce veneer, not only from raw material perspective but also from energy and labor consumption perspectives. Not to mention the increasing focus on sustainability, traceability, automation, digitalization, and so on. In our Raute Expert Talks today, we are focusing on some key challenges and solutions, which are related to these topics.

A good quality veneer is the foundation of efficient plywood and LVL production. If the veneer is crap after peeling and drying, it is virtually impossible to fix it anymore in the later phases of your production process. Automated material handling in different production phases requires also a good and stable quality of veneer.

The energy efficiency, as well as compliance with ever-tightening regulations related to our working environment, are setting new targets for veneer production. Digitalization, data analytics, and connectivity have also entered into the veneer production technology, offering totally new kinds of benefits, some of these benefits we do not even yet recognize. The core message in today’s Raute Expert Talks is, that there are still unlimited possibilities to develop and improve the veneer production process to be even more safe, sustainable, operator friendly, and cost-efficient than today. Some of these development opportunities are driven by the changes in the business environment around us and some are depending only on our courage, imagination, and capability to utilize and take full advantage of the new technologies which are available today.

It all starts from the raw material, logs of wood. The availability of good quality raw materials for peeling is getting more and more challenging. We have to face the fact, that the log diameter is getting smaller, and the straightness of the logs may not be at the level it used to be, there are new wood species being introduced to compensate for the availability bottlenecks of the more traditional ones. The costs of wood and logistics are also getting higher, increasing the need to continuously improve the recovery in the production process. Since the cost and quality pressure are there, also the peeling machinery needs to get better. So, we need to find ways to save energy and improve the recovery and overall production efficiency as well as the quality of the veneer. All this pushes us to develop continuously improvements to our peeling solutions. Mikko Vesterinen, technology manager for green veneer at Raute, will update you with our latest innovations related to peeling in his Expert Talk session.

Data availability as well as developed capabilities to analyze data bring a completely new approach to the optimization of the performance of production machinery in general. Through data-based optimization, we can significantly improve production quality as well as efficiency. Today we can get more data from our machines than ever before and Antti Komulainen, the Data Analytics Specialist at Raute shares a few very interesting practical examples of how you can benefit from the utilization of real-time data and advanced data analytics in veneer peeling.

Raute’s analyzer technology helps you also with the grading of your veneer sheets in different phases of your production process. Since the grading of the veneer is so essential for all production phases, Harri Lyytinen, the global Sales Manager for the analyzer products at Raute will talk you through the benefits of grading with Raute’s latest analyzer technology in detail in his Expert Talk.

We also want to focus on drying of the veneer as one key topic of today’s Expert Talks. The drying process is the most energy-dependent phase in the production of veneer and due to this fact, all savings in the energy consumption of the dryer are very important. Another key point in the drying process is the emissions and how to control and eliminate any harmful gases and vapors during the process needs to be considered. Jarkko Kaislaoja, technology manager for dry veneer at Raute will cover this essential part of the process in his Expert Talks.

To conclude the introduction to modern veneer production we want to highlight that Raute does offer our complete product portfolio R3, R5, and R7-Series for all veneer production phases to cover your production needs. We can also improve your existing machinery by offering modernization solutions, being the original manufacturer of your machines Raute or one of our competitors. Modernizing your existing machinery is a great way to take the benefits from our modern technology integrated with your existing equipment, with a good return on investment.