Sawmill automation is progressing jerkily

Raimo Seppänen, Chairman of the Board of Pronor Control Oy, which provides automation and electrification design for the sawmill industry, has extensive experience of sawmills and their functionalities.

“A few new sawmills have been built in Finland in recent years. However, most of our projects are modernisations.”

Pronor Control offers automation and control systems for the sawn timber industry, from software and user interfaces to complete control solutions and project deliveries. In addition to the automation and user interface part, almost all deliveries have included electrical design, component selection and procurement, frequency converter parameterisation, installation monitoring, commissioning and training as an important part.

The company’s references include Westas, Versowood, Stora Enso and UPM.

“Our work starts after the logs have been sawn. For example,we are responsible for controlling the sorting lines and packaging equipment.”

Investments lagging behind

According to Seppänen, the automation of sawmills has progressed rapidly.

“Automation is the future of sawmills. In the past, it was common to have operators in certain places of the sawmill line, but now we are heading towards centralised control rooms where operators monitor operations run by artificial intelligence.”

Nevertheless, there are challenges in automation development.

“One of the most significant challenges for the customer is probably that investments have been lagging behind for a long time. Even today, there are still systems in use that date back to the 1990s and are up to 30 years old.”

Old systems are not directly compatible with automation systems.

When renovating older sawmills, the question usually arises as to whether the entire plant and its structure are to be replaced or only its automation.

“If we decide to replace the plant’s entire mechanics, the price of the investment will become quite high.”

Karelia became inaccessible

Pronor Control also has some operations in Sweden. And some projects have been started in the Baltic countries.

“However, Russia’s war has a greater impact there, which has put the projects on hold.”

The general economic downturn has also affected the day-to-day work of the company. There have even been some layoffs.

“In uncertain times, sawmills have postponed their investment decisions. We have a reasonable number of bids, but many have postponed the final decision. But now things are starting to look a little better. The order books are already full for certain periods this year. Perhaps a new era is starting. And there is always room for a company of our size in Finland.”

The coronavirus did not slow down the company.

“It actually only eliminated negotiations hold on site. They were replaced by remote meetings.”

The geopolitical turmoil has hit the company harder.

The company had started operations in Karelia before 2022.

However, Russia’s war of aggression put an end to that.

Come to work to play the saw game?

Seppänen is also thinking about the future of the industry. In the coming years, a large number of automation and electrification designers will be retiring, and he is one of them.

“Younger people could be attracted to sawmills, for example, by emphasising how game-like working in sawmill control rooms can be during the AI era.”

“The operator is also playing in a way, but their actions are concrete and financially justified.”

According to Seppänen, the image of sawmills as heavy, messy and physically demanding workplaces needs updating.

“Of course, we would also need to be more active, for example, visiting educational institutions in the field to market modern sawmills.”