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Biggest Swiss sawmill in Domat/Ems, Grisons [Swiss Timber Journal no. 20/2007-10-11]
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Biggest Swiss sawmill in Domat/Ems, Grisons [Swiss Timber Journal no. 20/2007-10-11]
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Processing of logs in Switzerland instead of abroad adds new jobs.
The biggest Swiss sawmill started operation in Domat/Ems in Grisons in May 2007 after a construction period of one year only. The new sawmill can process about 600.000 m³ round logs per year in one shift and shall now give the Swiss Forest- and Timber Industry new impetus. Since 6th of August 2007, the sawmill of Stallinger Swiss Timber AG in Domat/Ems Grisons is even operating in a two-shift operation.
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Who is looking over the 21 hectar wide area of the sawmill in the region of Vial near Domat/Ems Grisons, is impressed. On the open air ground as well as inside the individual buildings, round logs are continuously processed. Up to 600.000 m³ round logs per annum can be processed in a one shift operation. And since 6th of August 2007, the large mill is already operating in two shifts. About 300 m³ logs are being processed per hour. The main part of the logs shall be purchased from Grisons forests, the remaining quantity from the Eastern part of Switzerland and from the Zurich area.
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Two shift operation since August 2007:
the new big sawmill of Stallinger Swiss Timber AG
in Domat/Ems Grisons
Photo: Peter Rahm
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About 95 % of the lumber produced is envisaged to be sold abroad. In summer 2007 fully loaded trucks nearly continuously transported logs to the Stallinger site for unloading. At the same time two to three wagon trains per day of the Rhaetian railway and the Swiss Federal Railway supplied the logs to the mill site.
by Peter Rahm, Gossau ZH
The logs are fed to the debarking station, debarked and then sorted according to size and quality. Next to the 250 m long sorting station, the debarked logs are stored for further processing. After processing and drying, the lumber can be planed according to orders.
Editorial adaptation:
Werner Peyer (SHZ)
Builder and owner of the new sawmill in Domat/Ems Grisons is the Austrian Stallinger Group. The sawmill project was realised within a one year construction period with an investment of about 80 Million Swiss francs. The railway siding to the route network of the Rhaetian railway and the Swiss Federal Railway required additional 20 Million Swiss francs. The official ground-breaking took place on 28th of April 2006.
After the short construction period which could be also met by the good weather conditions in winter 2006/2007, the first log passed the sawline mid of April 2007 already. Since May 2005 all parts of the sawmill are in operation.
During one-shift operation already 70-80 persons were employed. Meanwhile the number of employees increased to more than 100 persons which so guarantees a smooth two-shift operation.
The path to building the new sawmill...
The Stallinger Group already owns two sawmills in Austria and for some time was looking for a location to build a third one. In July 2004 the representatives of the company also visited two possible locations in the Grisons canton. After numerous meetings, a letter of intent was signed in 2005 between Stallinger and the canton of Grisons. At this point the media was informed about the project for the first time.
The publication created very different reactions: Especially the smaller sawmills in the canton of Grisons feared for their existence. But the new big Stallinger mill intends to process and further process those round log quantities which up to date are exported to the adjoining countries for this purpose.
After Stallinger finally decided for the location in Domat / Ems, another letter of intent was signed in August 2005 between the canton of Grisons, the political community and the citizens of Domat/Ems and Stallinger.
The realisation of the project on the planned site in the area of Vial, however, required the consent of the community Domat/Ems for a zone plan modification and the approval for the legal construction contracts. The positive voting of the citizens in October and November 2005 built the legal basis for realising the project. A negative decree would have been the end of this project.
In addition the canton Grisons gave its consent for a investment amount of 7.5 Million Swiss Francs, granted a loan of a total of 10 Million Swiss Francs and promised tax relieves for the next ten years. These admissions as well led to lively discussions in the public. Markus J. Haltiner from the Office of Economy and Tourism in Grisons however recently explained that the critical voices are more and more fading out. The various positive market effects led to a shot-up of the price for the local raw material wood by nearly 50 percent within a year!
In 2006, the Stallinger Swiss Timber AG with registered office in Domat/Ems Grisons was founded.
Before cutting the first sod on the 28th of April 2006, the builders were busy with negotiating the contracts for the site and track development as well as with planning technical details for the building of the biggest and most efficient Swiss sawmill. |
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The logs supplied by truck or railroad are loaded onto the debarking- and
sorting station.
Photo: Peter Rahm, Gossau ZH/z.V.g.
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Prior to being processed, logs are debarked which is done via loading conveyor and a debarking machine
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Wheel loaders transport the length- and diameter sorted
saw logs to a buffer storage
until they are further processed.
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Concept of the various sawmill parts...
Logs are delivered on trucks from the western side with access roads from the highway and the cantonal road. For log supply by railway, the existing cantonal road was underpassed by a new 68 m long subway and the tracks were extended until the log yard. The new track layout is 5900 m long and connected with 28 switches. The connecting track layout comprises standard gauge tracks including a third track for narrow gauge which is called a mixed-gauge track. This arrangement allows to handle waggons of the Rhaetian railway and the Swiss Federal Railway.
A mobile excavator on the huge log yard takes care of unloading the logs and then loads the latter onto the debarking and sorting plant.
Electronic scanning systems determine the log volume and handle the accounting for the deliverer directly via computer. The 250 m long sorting belt is installed in length direction of the log yard and fully-automatically sorts out the logs according to their size and quality. They are dropped into one of the 85 concrete sorting bins right at the predetermined location. An excavator with log grable empties those bins once in a while and takes the sorted saw logs to a buffer storage on a lateral storage area. The generous space conditions allow to store up to 100.000 m³ of round logs.
The saw logs remain in the buffer storage until they are transported to the sawline for further processing. This large volume building includes the sawline, the planer machine, the lumber sorting and packaging line as well as the lumber storage. Softwood logs from 12 to 65 cm diameter and 3,00 to 5,00 m length are being processed in the sawline. The 120 m long Linck line is operating with computer-controlled chipper canter technology guaranteeing a high sawing accuracy. It is equipped with automatic log orientation and sideboard optimisation. With maximum feed speed, 130 linear metres of saw logs can be processed per minute. The computer optimally determines the cutting pattern for each log. Eight most modern Mühlböck drying kilns with each 300 m³ capacity are available on the Northern part of the premises and for lumber drying. During the drying time of up to four days, the lumber is dehumidified to keep its shape and quality. After drying, the lumber is processed in the planer mill or stored on the lumber yard. By the way the planer machine in the new sawmill at Domat/Ems Grisons is the biggest one of this kind worldwide and can handle about 600 linear metres of lumber per minute.
Record construction period realised...
Only nine months after the first contact between the builder and the community of Domat/Ems Grisons, all required conditions could be met to realise the project. After having started the construction work in May 2006, the builder set himself the goal to take the sawmill into operation in the first quarter of 2007 – an ambitious goal considering the size of the project and the complex requirements to the technical equipment of the plant. The optimum terrain matching of the new level for the whole plant in coordination with the length slope and the railroad connection required a lowering of the grounds by up to 9 m on the West side. About 600.000 m³ rocky excavated material had to be removed. A large quantity of this material could be transported to the nearby gravel plant in Reichenau. During excavation also big rockfall blocks were exposed which had to be blowed-up. An important part of the whole construction was the installation of a cable duct running across the area replacing the existing high-voltage line. Delays in the supply of the new high-voltage cable led to a one month postponed start of construction of the sawmill building and the planer mill. From summer 2006 till end of 2006 all persons involved worked with full commitment on the new buildings for the log yard, the sawline with the planer mill, the drying kilns and from November 2006 even on the railroad connection. After having completed the steel concrete- and steel work, the imposing supporting structure for the roofage was then built-up. More than 1000 m³ gluelam support beams were produced for this purpose in Austria and assembled locally. Thanks to the soft winter, the road work on the assembly site and the access road could be completed until spring 2007. End of February 2007 already the first logs were supplied which allowed to take the plant in full operation in May 2007. According to the builder, more than 90 percent of the possible orders could be placed with local enterprises. Only the orders for constructional steelwork, the trapezoidal sheet metal, the roof cladding and roof insulation were placed with out-of-town enterprises as the prices submitted by the area providers were 12 % higher. More than 450 applications were received for the more than 100 newly offered jobs, mainly from the canton Grisons. The Eastern part of the terrain offers spare capacity of additional 5 hectares to allow a probably required extension of the sawmill in the future.
Possible extensions could be e.g. a bricket- and a pellet producing plant as well as a gluelam and a three-layer plywood production (formwork panels).
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View of the control cabin of the computer-controlled
profiling line
Photos: Peter Rahm, Gossau
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Change of sawblades
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Arrangement of sawblades for the recut of cants
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Apropos environment and sustainability...
Besides processing the raw material wood of which more is growing than harvested, Stallinger also looked into sustainability of the plant. The bark coming from the debarking machine is further into bark mulch used in the landscape preservation. Or it is taken to the nearby Tegra Holz und Energie AG where it is burned and the produced heat is fed back for drying the lumber in the drying kilns.
Sawdust and chips are taken to Swiss particle board production plants by railway or by truck.
New impulses for the forestry
According to the national forest inventory, the Grisons forests dispose of about 50 Million cubic metres of logs with a growth of about 1 Million cubic metres per year. Today about 330.000 m³ are annually harvested, whereof 220.000 m³ for the sawmill industry. About 140.000 m³ of logs are exported while approx. 35.000 m³ are processed in the rest of Switzerland and 45.000 m³ in the canton Grisons. |
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Eight Mühlböck drying kilns with each - 300 m³ capacity are available for optimum lumber drying. Photo: Construction phase of the new drying kilns.
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According to orders, the lumber is planed after drying
with the WACO planing machine (Weinig-Group).
The new planer machine (photo: construction phase)
is the worldwide biggestof this kind and can handle
600 lineal metres of lumber per minute.
Photos: Peter Rahm, Gossau ZH
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Truck loading of sawdust
for furtheruse.
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Logs are supplied by truck or railway (photo), stored on the log yards or directly loaded onto the debarking- and sorting plant.
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The generous space conditions allow the intermediate storage of up to 100.000 m³ of debarked and sorted logs.
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Ready-sawn lumber on the storage area.
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Annual harvesting of approx. 500.000 m³ round logs?
According to the Grisons cantonal ranger Andrea Florin, the forest should be used more to achieve an optimum care. Andrea Florin further states that an annual processing of about 500.000 m³ round logs should be envisaged. With the realisation of the new big sawmill in Domat/Ems, Grisons, the optimum utilisation of the forest shall now be aimed and new impulses given to the Grisons forestry: an increased utilisation of the forest and the processing in Switzerland instead of abroad. This would generate new jobs and the value added to the own national economy.
Infoline: Tel. 081 632 40 03
Internet: www.stallinger-swisstimber.ch
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