Debarking small logs at high-speed in a sawmill

VIDA AB, Alvesta, Sweden

VIDA AB is Sweden’s largest sawmill group with 23 production plants, 12 of which are sawmills. Since 2019, the Canadian forest industry group CANFOR has owned the majority of VIDA AB. The plant in Alvesta is one of the sawmills and in 2021 the company started a big investment project to re-build their existing saw line with a new sawmill intake. There was also a need for a new debarking machine to handle small logs at high speed. “In an early stage we decided that we want to have a debarker from Valon Kone,” says Technical Manager Jonas Axelsson from VIDA AB.

The sawmill in Alvesta produces sawn timber out of spruce and pine logs, log lengths being 2.7 m – 3.0 m. “The reason to purchase a new debarker was our need for high capacity,” says Jonas Axelsson. The sawmill produces annually about 200,000 m³ of sawn timber out of logs with average volume of 70 liters. This means a high number of logs to be processed in one shift. VIDA Alvesta delivers the products globally, the main markets are the UK, the United States, Japan, and Australia covering about 70% of the production. The investment will increase production capacity by 50,000 m³.

VIDA decided to purchase a VK debarker with two 44 cm debarking rotors from the VK5000HD series. “We had experience of a similar machine in VIDA’s sawmill in Nössemark,” Jonas says. “Valon Kone’s Combi machines are excellent choices when high feed speeds and clean chips are needed,” states Valon Kone’s Sales Director Teemu Tynkkynen. “The VK5000HD series debarker with two high-rpm Air Seal debarking rotors (dia 44 cm) is the fastest ring debarker on the market today,” Teemu adds.

Besides the VK debarker, other sawmill equipment is also from Scandinavian suppliers. The existing saw line is from Ari Vislanda and the new timber intake with three decks for log feeding was purchased from Ingenjörsfirma Gösta Hedlund AB.

“We're just getting started but things are looking good so far with Valon Kone,” Jonas says about the start up.

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