Berneck: New Plant in Curitibanos
25 October 2016Berneck, headquartered in Araucária in the Brazilian state of Paraná, has 63,000ha of pine and teak forest producing 1.2 million m3 of wood based products annually. It has recently completed a new panel plant at Curitibanos, in Santa Caterina state, Brazil, claimed as a record installation
Berneck’s new plant, to be built in two phases, has been designed to reach 1200m3/day during the first phase and to double that capacity, for a total of 2400m3/day, when the second phase comes onstream.
The design process extended throughout the year 2014. Erection began during the second quarter of 2015 and start-up was in the first months of 2016.
Pal (a company of the Imal-Pal group) supplied equipment for storage of the incoming raw materials, in silos up to 25 metres diameter and 10,000m3 capacity, and for their extraction by the company’s ‘Hydromat’, ‘Extracon’ and ‘Extraplus’ systems, according to the type of wood.
This involves also protection against ferrous pollutants and iron powder contaminating both the wet and the dry process.
A roller screen on the green area divides the flow into fractions of differing particle size. Vyncke and Recalor supplied the energy plant and the drier. Drier metering with the ‘BBT-Driercom’ system optimises feeds by controlling moisture and weight; this gives an increase in efficiency and reduces the required thermal energy by up to 10%.
Fraction classification into core layer and surface layer is performed by ‘Windsifter’ and ‘Airgarder’ air sifters.
This kind of technology is key to achieving a product with a closed and compact core layer and a fine surface free from pores, so as to obtain a light and high-performing MDP product.
Accurate material metering and weighing, which lead to economic savings, are performed by using dosing bunkers of the BBPL type.
The resination system allows important reductions in resin consumption and achieves optimal resin distribution; plant automation includes the complete plant management from the woodyard through to the forming line. It includes comprehensive plant data collection, data history functions and the possibility of statistical analyses, control of quality, production costs and process trends.
The quality and quantity performance targets set by the contract were met within a few weeks of start-up. The investment in, and commissioning of, the plant is a showcase for yet another company which has confidence in the wood based panels industry in Latin America.
