At the new Bois Factory 70 in Demangevelle, France, the Poujoulat Group is now using a Mühlböck progressive kiln with fully automated feed system for drying its firewood.

Machinery

Poujoulat Group puts into operation new progressive kiln at Demangevelle mill in France

Poujoulat Group puts into operation new progressive kiln at Demangevelle mill in France

At the new Bois Factory 70 in Demangevelle, France, the Poujoulat Group is now using a Mühlböck progressive kiln with fully automated feed system for drying its firewood.

Besides its two production facilities for high-quality firewood in Indre and Loire, the Poujoulat Group has recently taken into operation its newest plant in Demangevelle in the North of the Departement Haut-Saône. Built on the premises of a former spinning plant, the new factory is responsible for producing high-quality beech firewood using state-of-the-art and mostly fully automated technology from renowned equipment manufactures. In the mid-term the plant is supposed to process up to 150,000 m3 of round timber from the surrounding region annually.

In order to maximally automate the entire production process, a progressive kiln FLOW was adapted to the drying of firewood together with Austrian drying specialist Mühlböck.

While the firewood used to be placed in the drying systems with forklifts, dried and retrieved, the entire feed and drying process is now fully automated and continuous. The firewood is transported through the drying system on a rail system in specially developed lattice boxes and optimally dried to the target moisture content of approx. 18% in individually controlled drying zones.

“The project’s challenges lay in the special drying requirements of firewood and the high air resistance created by the logs of wood stacked in the boxes. Separating the system into smaller drying zones and the possibility of individually equipping every zone with a matching ventilation and heating power creates an efficient and energy-optimised drying process,” reported Mühlböck’s drying experts.