(This is a publication on Panels & Furniture Asia)
Until recently, timber drying is generally considered a low-tech business by some working in the area, with the majority of kiln owners make use of kiln drying controllers (and accompanying computer software in some cases) that automate the control of the drying process of the kilns . These embeded controllers work dependently in a distributed manner and don’t really generate the kind and amount of data that are helpful for operation management, quality improvement, remote monitoring, data reporting or troubleshooting.
In today’s technological landscape whereas technology 4.0 is an emerging trend, the timber drying business may leverage on this trend to become even more efficient.
Waygo JSC, a company based in Vietnam has developed a new technology called Cloud Kiln that allows for centralized kiln controlling & monitoring, drying data archiving and visualization, remote monitoring, data statistics & reporting via a cloud service and Telegram alarms and notifications. The domain knowledge upon which Cloud Kiln is developed is majorly provided for by Waygo’s Singaporean partner Tritherm Pte. Ltd., a company that has 25+ years of hands-on experience on timber drying.
Some of the major benefits that a Cloud Kiln timber drying control system provides include:
Labor saving - since a single operator is able to command and monitor multiple kilns from the control room
Real-time trends of all drying parameters and device statuses in the form of plots
24/7 real time notification via Telegram
63 preset drying programs for various timber species and thicknesses, unlimited user defined programs
Option to monitor power consumption and boiler operation
Real-time kiln operation & historical drying data available in the cloud service
Figure: The distributed architecture of Cloud Kiln
Waygo also provides system customization service for any special needs of customers.