Mahild Drying Technologies

The pre-drying of freshly sawn timber is particularly gentle and economical. Valuable timber is dried in a mild climate without discoloration to a moisture content of 20 to 30%. Wood damage caused by uncontrolled drying outdoors can be avoided and the quality of the valuable raw material increased. The main advantage of pre-drying is the lower degradation rates of the wood.

The Mahild technology integrates the pre-drying process in a pre-dryer or a combined chamber with other drying processes. Pre-dryers with special zone control in all-aluminium design can be constructed for useful volumes of more than 3000 m³ lumber.

The steaming of wood at the beginning of the drying process is a common practice when drying hard or hard-to-dry lumber. The main objectives are to improve the colour distribution of the wood and to heat it gently to achieve better drying conditions.

Steaming the wood at the end of the drying process is called conditioning. The aim of conditioning is to reduce the transverse and longitudinal tensions in the wood occurring during the drying process and to ensure stress-free sawn timber.

Steaming and reconditioning processes can be either integrated into the dry kiln or externalised in special steaming or reconditioning chambers. Mahild offers steaming and conditioning chambers in all dimensions and for all heating media.

The conventional drying technology is carried out at temperatures of 55°- 80°C and is a very economical solution for drying high-quality wood. Each plant is specially designed according to the type of wood and customer-specific requirements.

The Mahild standard dryer is a classic and is specifically designed for your lumber and location.

ACT: Accelerated Conventional Temperature

Compared to conventional drying, the latest generation of high-speed dryers enables a significant reduction in drying times. Special heating and conditioning programs ensure tension-free, uniform drying and enable immediate further processing of the dried goods. This drying technology is particularly suitable for the drying of fast-growing plantation woods (such as Pinus Radiata, Pinus Elliottii or Pinus Taeda, ...)

Mahild drying kilns of the type ACT can be loaded with single, double or multiple track systems in cycles or in continuous operation. The ACT technology is particularly efficient in combination with the Mahild CONTRAFLOW construction design.

UHT: Ultra Hight Temperature - For high performance with temperatures from 95 to over 140°C.

UHT technology is the fastest and most economical process for drying construction timber and packaging assortments. Mahild UHT kilns guarantee high productivity and allow drying of several batches within 24 hours. The right way not only for special assortments and mass production in the construction timber sector.

ULTRA high temperature processes require robust, highly reliable kiln technology with the highest quality standards and functional reliability of the kiln components for continuous operation.

The new Mahild CONTRAFLOW kiln offers an extremely low energy consumption and increased drying quality. Compared to conventional continuous dryers, up to 30% less thermal energy consumption is achieved with extremely uniform final moisture distribution. Intelligent multi-zone control and integrated conditioning phases offer high flexibility for lumber thickness changes during operation. The Mahild CONTRAFLOW can be used with high, medium and low temperatures. There are no limits to the maximum kiln capacity - depending on customer requirements. Several wood thicknesses can be dried simultaneously to the desired final moisture content.

Thermally Modified Timber (TMT)

Temperature and steam treated wood is a modern product. The thermal treatment allows the colour properties of the wood to be adapted to the customer's requirements and the weather resistance and thermal insulation properties to be improved. In addition, the wood is more resistant to the attack of insects and microorganisms.

For the treatment and refinement of soft and hard wood, kilns with a useful volume of well over 100 m³ are available. The continuously further developed kilns for the thermal modification of wood (TMT) are characterised by low energy consumption and integrated heating systems and can be operated independently of complex boiler systems. Mahild TMT plants are designed for treatment temperatures up to 240 °C. The process requires precise control: a task for the MM4000 controller with special software, which logs all relevant data of the treatment.

Download the brochure of a reference customer here

Present us with your drying problem and we will find the right solution for you. We have designed and built dryers for paper products, veneer re-drying and conditioning chambers for various hygroscopic products.

Send us your technical parameters in a project request. Click here to get to the corresponding form.

All Mahild dry kilns can be equipped for low temperature heating media. Hot water from flue gas condensation or return flow of thermal processes can be used for lumber drying.