Swiss Krono France Facility Upgrades Recycling

Swiss Krono S.A.S. based in Sully-sur-Loire, France and the French subsidiary of the Swiss Krono Group, strongly emphasizes the environmental aspects of its activities a key initiative of that commitment is increasing the use of recycled wood for particleboard production.

“We started using recycled wood in our particleboard production 10 years ago,” explains Guillaume Salmon, Industrial Director, Swiss Krono France. “In 2019, 50% of our raw material came from recycled wood. Then we set a target to increase the share of recycled wood even more.”

To hit that target, Swiss Krono commissioned Dieffenbacher to modernize, optimize and expand its wood recycling line. Today, two years after acceptance, the modernized line has boosted the share of recycled wood in the plant’s wood mix from 50% to 65%.

The Dieffenbacher solution for Swiss Krono included a stone separator in combination with new rollers to clean the microchips, X-ray sorting to remove non-wooden impurities from the chip-sized material, a flip-flop screen that separates unusable dust upstream of the dryer, sifting tables that clean fine particles from sand and MDF fibers, and a Prallfiner to produce the fine core layer material.

Salmon adds: “In the engineering phase, Dieffenbacher created a 3D scan of our existing structures. This was very important because the whole setup—most of it is located in a multistory tower—was quite complex. Thanks to the 3D scan, we were not only able to integrate the new equipment perfectly into our existing structures, but we also used it frequently in communication, for example, to inform our employees in the factory about the project.”