SAWLINES
Leading Swedish wood company - Norra Timber - can soon track a log’s “Fingerprint” Norra Timber improves traceability in all its sawmills
Sweden’s Norra Timber has announced it is investing heavily in new technology that will make it possible to read a log’s unique ‘fingerprint’ and track it throughout the entire sawing process.
“We are taking a technological leap into the future and a massive step in taking the best possible care of the fantastic raw material we have here in northern Sweden. With this new technology we will be able to price products from each log individually, which will lead to better profitability for both us and our customers”, explains Henrik Jönsson, industry Manager at Norra Timber.
Every log is unique Until now it has not been possible to trace what happens in the sawing process at the individual log level. Instead sawmills have been forced to get information about logs and planks in bigger batches. Thanks to this new technology investment, information about every decision on each individual plank will now be available to view. “Our investment means that we will get completely new information about the production process, where the logs and planks themselves become information carriers. This will enable us to become more flexible and customer-adaptive in our processes, as well as lead to higher quality, better efficiencies and other improvements. All in all, it will enable us to get the maximum
22 International Forest Industries | DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022
Henrik Jönsson Head of industry site henrik.jonsson@norrskog.se
Fredrik Samuelsson Head of Sawmill, Sävar fredrik.samuelsson@norra.se
Joakim Larsson Head of Sawmill, Kåge joakim.larsson@norra.se
Lars Grundqvist Head of Sawmill, Hissmofors lars.grundqvist@norrskog.se
out of our valuable resources and increase profitability”, says Jönsson.
Three sawmills to adopt new technology Norra Timber processes slowgrown timber from northern Sweden in its three modern, high-capacity sawmills. The new technology investments will be adapted to existing machinery in each sawmill and comply with established goals for traceability and measurement. Thanks to this investment, Norra Timber will take a huge technological step forward, enabling it to produce individually tailored products on an industrial scale - something which has never been possible before. “Our Kåge sawmill will be the first to introduce the new technology, where a CT-log will be installed in a newly-constructed timber sorting facility in 20222023. At our Hissmofors sawmill new X-ray technology will be installed in the timber sorting facility during the first half of 2022. Finally we will build on existing technology in the CT-log at our Sävar sawmill. After that we will have traceability throughout our entire production process,” states Jönsson Norra Timber is a wood processing company that focuses on production and delivery to
markets that have high demands on quality, supply and delivery precision. Our sawn and processed wood products come from unique mature raw material that has been grown in the forests of northern Sweden for almost 100 years by our 27,000 members. Norra Timber creates winning collaborations.
CTLog Microtec
