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Glub 34 Heors

Fowler Tell of Fir Plywood Prospects

Hoo Club 34 an inside view of what's ahead in this fabulous product at the club's October 28 meeting at the Seattle Athletic Club.

Gordon D. Marckworth, dean of the College of Forestry, University of Washington, the newly elected club president, presided.

With machine-gun rapidity, Fowler presented facts and figures on the amazing growth and new developments in fir plywood that virtually lifted his audience off its feet.

"In 1925, there were 12 plants producing Douglas fir plywood with a combined capacity of 153,000 feet. Today we have 118 plants with more than 7-billion annual capacity or a weekly production equal to an entire year's output little more than a quarter century ago. More than 70/o of today's industry is on hot press. The product is accepted nationally and 98/o of the nation's dealers inventory it," he said.

"Construction still takes 70/o of the total use but the remaining 3O/o is forging ahead in a variety of new applications and the industry is only on the threshold of its magnitude."

He presented a glowing picture of new developments, illustrated by colored films. "More and more uses are being found for plywood in industry: pallets, tote boxes, packaging materials handling; in construction, especially heavy: box beams, stressed-skin panels, roofing of folded plates, domical, diaphragm, hyperbolic paraboloid and barrel vaulted for strength and architectural beauty; construction elements in which the plywood becomes an integral working part of the component; highway signs; concrete forms that contractors can use over and over again; farm silos, barns, storage units; do-it-yourself items; pleasure boats and marine construction. 7l/o ot the total output now goes into the latter field-approximately Gmillion feet," Fowler said.

"With labor costs steadily advancing and the trend toward factory pre-fabrication, plywood offers substantial savings in time, labor and money. There are 285 factory fabricators in business today making component parts for homes and buildings.

"Architectural flexibility is offered by fir plywood where parts are assembled, rather than fabricating on the job site." :

Fowler pointed out that plywood gets the greatest strength and utility out of the log, and the greatest dollar. return. "With prices of logs steadily advancing, people with timber are getting into the plywood business and consolidations are taking place with timber owners tying in with the mills. Perpetual logging with sustained yield is the answer.

"As the stands of timber have become exhausted within easy haulage of established mills, we have been getting lower grades and must find ways to cover the plywood cores. Such means, for example, of spraying rejects with epoxy resin with a catalyst and colored glass fiber. Plywood rejects sprayed with polyester and a fiber glass mat are now i going into refrigerator cars as lining. There is no absorption of odors and the cars may be steam-cleaned after each run,",. he continued.

"Rolled asbestos is being applied to create fire-resistant