Sawmill Announced Successful Completion of Kiln Upgrade Project

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): OneFortyOne Jubilee sawmill announced that it has completed $16 million capital investment kiln upgrade project at the Mount Gambier site. Consequently, the mill’s second Continuous Drying Kiln (CDK) is now online. The project was part of a greater Jubilee-wide modernisation program.

According to Paul Hartung, General Manager, Jubilee Sawmill, the kilns are working well. The upgrade project has boosted the site capacity and has resulted in improved quality of the timber dried. The kilns are powered by own sawdust and wood waste offcuts. The much more efficient design processes more timber using less energy, in comparison with its old batch kilns, Hartung added.

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With the old batch kiln, the company used to put in 150 cubic metres of timber at a time. It used high temperatures of up to 160 degrees to dry it to a moisture level of around 12%. However, such high temperatures could stress the timber. The new kiln allows moving the timber through the drying process. The new kilns have a maximum temperature of 130 degrees, which results in less stress on the timber.

OneFortyOne noted that two of the four older batch kilns will be reconditioned, so as to provide backup when the CDKs are offline for maintenance.