Innovations & investments
Front runner in the sawmill industry
TIMO SORMUNEN, Photos: Metsä Fibre, Kristiina Hemminki / Studio Fotonokka & Seppo Samuli
Metsä Fibre is setting up a new continuous sawn timber production model together with its equipment suppliers, blazing a trail for the sawn timber industry.
Efficiency, quality, customer focus and a minimal carbon foot- print are recurring terms when Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen , Senior Vice President, Business Development of Metsä Fibre, describes the basis of the company’s sawmill technology concept. The Rauma sawmill investment is the cornerstone of the con- cept. It is playing a significant role in the introduction of new technology and production methods, as well as in their gradual deployment across the company’s other mills. “On the pulp business side, we have long experience of round- the-clock production, continuous improvement of quality and efficiency, and close cooperation with various technology sup- pliers. We are now bringing this same philosophy to our sawn timber production,” Pehu-Lehtonen says. New smart technology to replace manual work The concept of an entirely new Future Sawmill was put into ac- tion in 2016, when the sawmills owned by the parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative were transferred to Metsä Fibre. A vision soon developed of a sawmill where the production process is overseen from the control room and the work of pro- fessionals is largely similar to that in the process industry. Instead of traditional batch production, the mill will transition towards
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