Forest Product Manufacturer Upgrades Drying Process to Ramp Up Energy Efficiency and Productivity
COMPANY PROFILE
Forest product and paper manufacturer that manages timber lands, offers a variety of wood products for building projects and partners with climate solutions providers.
TECHNICAL SITUATION
The company planned to replace multiple batch kilns at one of its mills with a continuous drying kiln (CDK). This installation would make the drying process more efficient and ramp up production but required a new building and an extensive amount of power and controls.
BUSINESS SITUATION
The CDK would minimize energy waste at the mill, alleviate the bottleneck in production caused by the multiple batch kiln drying process, and improve the lumber grade/yield recovery. The company needed to purchase and house the switchgear, transformer, load break switch, motor control centers (MCC) and other hardware for powering and controlling the CDK.
SOLUTION
McNaughton-McKay proved to be a singular source for providing all the power distribution, controls and building equipment needed to get the new CDK up and running. Additionally, the McNaughton-McKay Solutions team handled all the logistics for the power distribution and controls installation, storing and readying the equipment while the E-house was being constructed at the Fibrebond manufacturing facility.
BENEFITS
Storing and building the equipment offsite until the mill was ready to receive the shipment increased the safety of this installation. There was a 70% reduction in potential exposure to recordable accidents for an onsite build of this magnitude. Additionally, with McNaughton-McKay’s ability to provide the variety of necessary equipment and handle the logistics, the installation of the CDK went very smoothly and is projected to improve the mill’s production by 10-15%. Due to the overall success of this project, an order for a duplicate construction has already been put through for one of the company’s other mill locations.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES USED
- Allen-Bradley Drive
- Allen-Bradley MCCs
- Allen-Bradley Control Logix
- Fibrebond E-House
- Siemens Switchgear, Transformer and Load Break Switch