How to accelerate industrial production and export business in China

Raute has delivered modern, high technology veneer production lines with high-quality analyzers to Guoxu Spring Woodbased Panel Co., Ltd in South China.

Globally, China is a major veneer producer, and these solutions enable more professional production and reaching the demanded standard levels for export.  

“China is the biggest plywood manufacturing country in the whole world, yet the most under-developed, and we have been working hard to get into this market. The modern dryer and machine vision and moisture measurement systems tackle the core of the plywood industry’s quality challenges in China. The new Guoxu factory is indeed the most modern one in China”, says Mr. Tapani Kiiski, President and CEO of Raute Corporation.

The veneer production increases in China and at the same time, this brings development needs in raw material usage and in the production itself. The production needs to match the standards and especially the needs of national and international clients.  

“The manual work needs to decrease to comply to all the quality and capacity requirements which inevitably leads to mechanization and increase of automation”, underlines Mr. Kiiski. 

Raute’s new machinery boosts the transition towards industrial production in China 

The Guoxu Spring Woodbased Panel Co., Ltd uses Eucalyptus wood as its raw material to produce veneer for various applications of its customers in this brand-new factory. To the new production site, Raute delivered four Plywood Lay-up Line R3’s, two Veneer Patching R3’s, and one Veneer Drying Line R3. The veneer drying line is completed with four Veneer Visual and Moisture Analyzer R5’s. The total capacity of this design enables the annual production of 100,000 m3 of 9-25mm plywood especially for floor manufacturing material and high-end furniture. 

Plywood lay-up line R3

The new lay-up line saves up to 25% of glue which makes this line the most environmentally friendly on the market. The drying line with analyzers enables the optimization of veneers to the next process stages. This improves the recovery, to get the most value out of every single block. Veneer patching improves veneer quality by enabling the defects to be patched with solid wood instead of synthetic materials. The solid wood butterfly patches ensure that the plywood you produce is more eco-friendly and adapts, for example, to temperature changes more consistently. 

The Raute R3-series dryer and the R5-series analyzers are designed just for this market as industrial drying of veneer production is still uncommon. Transitioning towards more industrialized and automated production enables higher-quality and more efficient overall production. 

Raute R5 series analyzer

“The new analyzer model was tailored to the customer. It detects the brightest, darkest, and largest points of the dried veneer. This results in moderate commissioning and manufacturing costs and allows a pleasant payback time without sacrificing accuracy and efficiency”, says Mr. Markus Sirviö, General Manager of Raute. 

The analyzers complete the production and enable persistent production quality and use of the right grade veneer. All the defects and smallest of breakings can be detected through visual analyzers which are more precise than the human eye. 

The new dryer enables various grade sheets to be dried because different drying parameters can be set to the dryer. This means that the drying is optimized for sheets with different moisture contents, not anymore “one setting for everything”. 

“The major improvement is that the end-product is of higher quality, and it reaches the highest standards required”, Mr. Sirviö highlights the solution. 

The technology enables also opening the export market globally 

“Although China is the largest veneer producer in the world, the price of the raw material in China is still higher compared internationally. Therefore, Chinese manufacturers need to find ways to get the best profit margin for their products. With Raute’s solutions, the producers can meet the quality standards and the end-products can be sold at a higher price”, says Mr. Jukka Siiriäinen, the Group Vice President. 

For veneer producers, this is breakthrough news as with the new technology the export markets open globally. 

Guoxu has internationally operating customers that require the products to be according to the ISPM-15 standard. The standard states that the veneer needs to be dried at a high temperature to avoid insects to stay alive in the raw material and no insects travel out of the country. Now due to these improvements, Guoxu is able to sell the products outside China. 

“The result obtained with the new dryer is a controlled process that takes a lot less time than the traditional way of drying the sheets. It’s also a controlled process where the quality stays consistently on a high-level”, Mr. Siiriäinen continues and explains the significance of this solution in Guoxu’s production and in the Chinese veneer and plywood production in general.  

With Raute’s machinery, the Guoxu factory produces high-quality, standard-matching veneer every day, every shift. The new machinery optimizes the factory’s production capacity with more comprehensively utilized raw material. With this investment, Guoxu meets the Industry 4.0 requirements for automized modern plywood production.  

The solution to a growing need 

As China is the world's major plywood production and consumption country, the local plywood enterprises are looking for a smart way to improve production capacity, optimize the production process, and meet consumer needs for high-end products. The entire Chinese plywood industry has come to the key point of industrial upgrading. 

Mr. Vankie Fan, sales manager of Raute China, explains the reasons and needs behind this important improvement. "Guoxu is located in Baise, Guangxi Province, where the most abundant forest resources are in China. As a large state-owned enterprise, they need to undertake the major responsibility of leading the industry transformation.” 

Raute’s solutions are stable, reliable, and highly automatic, which helps Guoxu achieve high-efficiency production and management.”

Vankie Fan, Sales Manager of Raute China

After three years of research and comparison, Raute was finally chosen to deliver the production lines for Guoxu because Raute could meet their needs for capacity and process optimization. “Raute’s solutions are stable, reliable, and highly automatic which helps Guoxu achieve high-efficiency production and management,” Mr. Fan continues. 

The powerful cooperation between the two top companies of their own profession promotes the wood-based panel industry for wide audiences. And we all know, this is just the beginning.