Measuring station/Timber sorting

Every day around 35 vehicles and trailers of fir timber (the equivalent of 5,700 logs per day) are offloaded. The logs are measured and graded by staff from the independent measuring association VMF. Measuring/grading here is the basis for payment to forest landowners.

Our average distance for purchasing is 60 km. The timber is sorted by diameter and length into some 38 sawing grades that are sawn in batches.

Sawing line

The sawing process starts with the 3-dimensional measuring of every log. Based on this, the computer calculates how the log should be sawn to achieve the highest timber value from the log. The sawing line produces an average of 50m3 of sawn timber per hour, which varies between 35 – 80m3 of sawn timber per hour depending on sawing grade. The sawing line operates in two shifts, which provides approx 770m3 of sawn timber every day.

About 64% of the volume of the log becomes timber, some 14% becomes sawdust and bark and around 22% becomes cellulose wood chips that are used to make paper. Sawdust and bark from the process are used as fuel for heating our premises and timber kilns. In the timber kiln, fans blow 80-degree warm air through the timber pack for around 3 – 5 days depending on dimension.

Planing

Hästveda has two planing lines as well as a band saw cleaver. The majority of the volume is planed, both to achieve the measurement accuracy required in industrial construction and for a flatter and more easy-to-use surface. The proportion of the planed wood is approximately 90% of the sawn volume. The maximum that can be fed through the planing machines is 50 – 200 metres per minute. The planing lines operate for 2 shifts. In conjunction with planing, machines check the strength of each plank, in order to make sure that it fulfils the load-bearing requirements of structural timber.

In Hästveda approx 165,000 m3 planed timber is produced annually, the equivalent of 26 million metres of planed timber per year.

Market

Our main customers are in Holland and they require accurate deliveries directly to building material suppliers. The packages are adapted for the customer’s warehouse by two quarter packages being stacked into a half-package. This places high demands on our quality, planning and logistics, all the way from value cutting the timber, through industrial processing and delivery to the customer. We have a special warehouse for inventory to be sent to Holland, which has been designed to make it easy to load from.

The history of Vida HN AB

The sawmill was started in 1947 by Harry Nilsson with a simple sawing bench in Sparrarp.
In 1965, the company expanded and moved to Hästveda.
In 1985, Jörgen Nilsson took over the company and continued to develop the technology and the business.
In 2011, Harry Nilsson’s sawmill was acquired by Vida Group.