HOW IT WORKS 

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• An RF (Radio Frequency) box located outside of the kiln generates an electromagnetic pulse of known power that is sent to an antenna inside the kiln through a high-temperature coaxial cable.

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• The antenna sends the electromagnetic pulse toward the wood that will absorb, transmit and reflect part of the pulse.

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• The part of the pulse reflected by the wood is captured by the same antenna and sent to the RF box via the coaxial cable where it is analyzed and converted to wood moisture by an analytical model developed by Secovac.

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• The humidity of the wood, above and below the fiber saturation point, is measured this way at the beginning and at the end of the central drying zone of the continuous dry kiln.

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• The dry bulb temperature of the central drying zone and the lumber’s push rate are adjusted with these two (2) wood humidity measurements.

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• All the RF boxes of the same kiln are connected with an Ethernet cable to the Power box of the kiln which provides the Ethernet communication and the 24 VDC required for the RF boxes using the PoE (Power Over Ethernet) technology.

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• When the kiln PLC signals the end of a push to the EchoStop™ program, the latter will command a humidity reading to each of the RF boxes in succession via the Ethernet network.

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• Once all the calculations have been made, the EchoStop™ program will write the moisture values ​​obtained to the kiln's PLC, which will then be displayed in the HMI.

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 VALUABLE FEATURES

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• The contactless EchoStop™ system is well-adapted for continuous kilns.

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• The kiln operator does not need to insert plates into the wood packages.

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• There are no batteries inside the kiln that could explode and catch fire.

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• The EchoStop™ system has no moving parts inside the kiln.

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• Integrates with practically any computerized continuous kiln controller using a PLC.

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 MAJOR BENEFITS

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• Eliminates the downgrade caused by overdrying.

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• Increase the production while reducing the energy required by fbm.

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• No human intervention is required for its operation.

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• No maintenance is required.