Treatment Plant Management:

The Vudlande Sawmill is proud to announce the installation of Lonza's "Auto-Treater" system at its treatment facility. As of late November 2017 both the Tanalith-E and Vacsol Aqua treatment plants have been running on this new technology. This new investment was made in an effort to not only maximize the efficiency of the treatment plant itself, but to give buyers peace of mind that the treated timber they buy from Vudlande is treated correctly both in terms of chemical penetration into the wood, but also that the chemical used in the process has been mixed to the correct concentration.

"Auto-Treater" is not only software that is designed to control treatment plants, but also involves the installation of new hardware such as computer control units (PLC's), pressure sensors, fluid flow meters and automated chemical mixing systems that precisely measure not only the timber treatment process, but also the chemical mixing process itself. From a programming standpoint, the treatment process programs have been written so that the correct amount of chemical (kg/m3) is pushed into each peace of timber based on it's size, not on a timed cycle as was the case in years passed. The size of the timber in each pack to be treated is entered into the system before treatment so that the system can calculate the precise amount of chemical to be pushed into each charge. Once the treatment cycle is finished, the system calculates exactly how much chemical remained in the timber, and records this data for issuing of treatment certificates as well as third party monitoring purposes. This system is connected to Lonza's office in the UK for process and chemical retention monitoring, as well as remote support purposes. All of these features combined help to not only give transparency to our treatment processes, but also peace of mind to our buyers that each and ever cubic meter of treated timber they buy from Vudlande is treated per the chemical manufacture's requirements.