Company is preparing for the 198Os

H *l, "P"o Blf"?Y""J8' xlll Willits, Ca., has just completed a year with over 100,000,000 feet of lumber produced and sold. The company manufactures both redwood and fir lumber and has drv kiln capacity.

A larger finger-joint remanufacturing plant in Willits has contributed a variety of additions to the Harwood product line this year, such as "Sunburst" redwood siding.

The company runs a truck fleet of chip trucks, log trucks and lumber carriers. The truck shop is based in a new, larger headquarters in Willits.

The company has a group of knowledgeable foresters that are working with landowners in 12 counties developing and harvesting timber. Working with the rancher and small landowner is one of the areas the company has relied on over the years for resource and this relationship has contributed many friends and long term associations.

As a family-owned agriculturally oriented company looking toward the 1980 s, it is taking steps to be in the forefront of the lumber business through expansion of machinery and technical knowledge.

hydraulic cylinders for accuracy. Computer programs for best opening face cut will improve accuracy and recover. A new twin band resaw manufactured by Kockums will be installed in the second stage of expansion as well as two more new edgers.

The mill has been sheathed in a new larger metal building and will have a new saw filing shop when the carriage goes in. The Salem ring debarker is finishing its first year of operation and is greatly improving production.

At the Willits mill, cutting redwood, a new Kockums twin band resaw is going in as well as an additional edger. A new building is being added with a saw shop upstairs and a basement to hold hydraulics and conveyors.

At the "B" Plant. the remanufacturing division, a new 23,000 sq. (Please turn to page 71)

C0ilPUTERS are one way of effectively processing information for timber inventory, preventative maintenance, safety and injury studies, and such concepts as "best opening face" on log scans in the mill.

At the Branscomb mill, a facility that runs two shifts, a new carriage of sophisticated design will be installed next month. A new, high strain 8'bandmill is going in at the same time. The carriage will operate with an efficient SCR drive. The headrig will have a slabber and be able to taper cut using any two knees of the four available on the carriage. The knees are set by

Story at a Glance

PRESSURE-TREATED WOOD

(Continued from page 16) our product is so durable.

To begin with, we take as much water as possible out of the wood to make room for the chemicals that are injected into the wood cells. (Air drying and kiln drying are the most common methods used in this part of the country.)

The dried wood is then loaded onto narrow gauge railway tram cars and wheeled into a long horizontal cylinder, where the pressure treatment takes place. With as much as 55,000 board feet of lumber inside, the end door of the cylinder is tightly sealed.

The cylinder is then filled with the treating chemical, and pressure up to 150 pounds psi is applied until the desired penetration is obtained, requiring a minimum of eight hours.

When the cylinder is emptied, the amount of preservative retained by the wood can be checked by measuring the amount of remaining solution. This is called gauge measurement, which is later verified by laboratory tests of core samples, a quality control check (nown as assay measurement.