When Should You Modernize Your Veneer Peeling Line?

Veneer, plywood and LVL manufacturers today face problems with raw material variability and shortages on high-quality logs. These problems disrupt production and can amount to significant losses in yield and profit – losses that could be avoided with modernizations of your existing peeling line.

Modernizing your peeling line helps you peel more quality and quantity: you can maximize recovery from surface to the smallest core even when your production relies on varying raw material qualities and log diameters.

Modernize your peeling line, when you want to improve mill-level process performance

Typically, modernizations are considered when the peeling line machinery reaches end-of-life stage, and the lifetime of the investment is continued by When Should You Modernize Your Veneer Peeling Line? upgrading outdated components. Modernizations are also a traditional way to improve the yield, uptime and reliability of an older line.

However, peeling line modernizations are also a cost-efficient way to reach important goals in your production before your technology becomes outdated. By modernizing, you can for example:

• increase production capacity up to 10–15% 
• improve end-product quality in veneer, LVL and plywood production
• improve raw material recovery rates of the whole mill
• increase full and face sheet recovery 
• improve cost and energy efficiency as well as operator safety in peeling
• improve stacking quality
• improve drying capacity and energy efficiency

Line modernizations can typically be carried out during routine summer stoppages, significantly faster than complete line renewals. You can start upgrading your peeling line little by little instead of upgrading all machinery at once.

Considering modernizations for your whole mill? Read about the top 6 reasons to modernize your veneer production machinery.

Tailored peeling line modernizations from Raute

Every modernization project at Raute starts by mapping and documenting the technology and condition of your existing peeling line. It is important to understand how the machinery’s performance has changed since its original installation, to determine the underlying problems modernization can fix.

During the modernization process it is important to audit the line’s maintenance needs and complete them before or during the modernization project to ensure the best possible end-result.

Raute technology can be used to modernize both old Raute’s and other manufacturers’ peeling lines. What you should modernize first depends on your production challenges and goals – the following chapters help you evaluate your current situation and options.

Read the customer story of Wotan Forest, who increased their quality and volume in veneer production with a performancebased service agreement.

Block charger modernization improves raw material recovery and face veneer production

The most modernized part in a peeling line is typically the block charger, because its upgrade has the biggest impact in improving raw material recovery.

The improvement in recovery depends on the technology you are currently using and the raw material quality available to you. For example, by upgrading an old mechanical block centering solution with a modern Raute block centering analyzer, you can increase veneer recovery up to 15% with the same amount of raw material. Accurate block centering also produces up to 20% more face veneer.

Modernizing old single-point laser technology in a block charger with modern laser scanning technology can increase recovery 3-5%. Laser scanning determines the optimal peeling position for each block, so you can peel the most sheets with the highest quality. Auto-calibration ensures that block centering is constantly optimized based on the peeling results.

Read about our customer Garnica, who upgraded their block centering analyzer to improve centering performance and veneer recovery.

Lathe modernization improves sheet quality and line safety

With Raute, lathe modernizations are always based on a development plan tailored for your process’ needs. You can modernize your whole lathe or its modules to improve capacity, veneer quality and yield.

For example, you can upgrade the carriage feed to improve peeling accuracy and quality, or upgrade the spindles and back-up rolls to improve your yield and reach the smallest possible core diameter.

Another reason for modernizing is that a conventional lathe doesn’t adjust pressure optimally in the knife gap against the block, causing vibrations that result in cracks and waviness in the veneer sheets.

When you upgrade your lathe to Raute’s solutions, their optimal peeling geometry provides consistently accurate veneer thickness and strength by keeping the pressure constant throughout peeling: knife angle and nose bar are automatically adjusted as the block gets smaller to prevent cracks and ensure constant quality throughout the veneer ribbon.

Read about our customer Latvijas Finieris, who were able to advance sustainability, efficiency and maximum raw material yield with the Raute Veneer Peeling Line R7 - Hybrid.

Knife-change robots improve peeling line safety and effectiveness

Manual knife change routines are the most typical disruptor of peeling line effectiveness, taking up around 5% of the line’s running time. Manual handling of knives is also the most common cause for occupational accidents in a peeling line.

Peeling line performance can be improved with an automated knife-change robot that takes care of the unsafe and slow routine. Automation can halve the time that is needed for regular knife changes, allowing you to shorten the stoppage times at the peeling line, optimize knife change intervals for high veneer quality, and make line use significantly safer.

Knife change robots can be installed to all Raute lathes. See how the robot takes care of this important task in Raute's Youtube.

Clipper modernization improves raw material recovery

The more accurate your clipping is, the better you can utilize your raw material. Modernizing your clipper with an electric servo motor solution you can improve your clipping accuracy through faster clipping speeds. Servo motors also save energy and are easier to maintain compared to hydraulic solutions.

When you modernize your rotary clipper or renew it completely, you can halve sheet width deviation and improve your raw material recovery. Faster clipping speeds also improve your line capacity.

Modernizing the line with analyzers improves drying capacity and stack quality

If your mill has a shortage of face quality sheets or over-drying of the sheets causes splits and waviness, you can upgrade your process with Raute visual and moisture analyzers for the peeling line.

By modernising the peeling line with a visual analyzer, you can increase the amount of full sheets and face quality sheets up to 10%. You can utilize patching and composing simulations to optimize the whole plywood production process. If the capacity in your drying line is not sufficient, you can optimize dryer capacity with improved moisture grading.

If the capacity in your drying line is not sufficient, you can optimize dryer capacity with improved moisture grading. The Raute moisture analyzer grades the sheets by moisture class, allowing you to optimize the dryer conditions for each moisture grade and improve end-product quality by avoiding over-drying.

Using the built-in simulators in the peeling line, you can utilize the visual, moisture and strength analysis information to simulate the dryer conditions and optimize the processing of each sheet individually.

When you have the capability to grade sheets better, you can later invest in stacking solutions to further improve your process efficiency.

Read about our customer Stora Enso, who tackle raw material challenges with Raute analyzers that combine visual quality, moisture, density and drying shrinkage simulations to maximize recovery and veneer quality.

Improving peeling line safety and performance with a control system upgrade

The safety level of old peeling lines is typically lower than today’s standard. The lines’ control systems can act as a bottleneck for improvements, because old systems cannot utilize the safety features of modern peeling technology.

The modernization of a control system can therefore enable you to upgrade the safety level of your old peeling line to the required level. Improved data collection in modern control systems also helps you make data-driven decisions on modernizing the rest of your production.

Modern control systems allow the utilization of your process data in a Management Information System like Raute MillSIGHTS. Better data helps you understand what to adjust and improve to reach your important process goals.

Let’s create a roadmap for modernizing your peeling line

Together, we estimate the process improvements of your peeling line and determine the steps necessary to improve your whole production. Raute experts are available to help you adjust the processes in the whole mill, to ensure that the benefits from peeling line modernizations are also utilized in later process phases.

Peel more quality and quantity with us – contact Raute experts today!