PW 0723 digimag

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...AND BACK IN THE U.S. A

s has often been the case in my previous trips there, perhaps the leading topic of conversation at the Ligna show in Hannover, Germany in mid-May was the status of multiple new projects back in the United States, such as Roseburg’s new MDF plant in Oregon, Kronospan’s new OSB plant in Alabama, Hood Industries’ new softwood plywood mill in Mississippi and the discussion landed on some rumors that had been percolating.

I ran into a friend from the U.S. who is, how I can put this, “involved” in the panel industry. This person asked me if I had heard that Huber had selected a new location to build its next OSB facility. I told this person I hadn’t heard and asked where it was. “I can’t tell you,” this person answered. “Why not?” I asked. “Because the person who told me swore me to secrecy,” this person said. “I shouldn’t have even told you they had selected a location.” We laughed at the exchange. I mean, why not tell your most confidential information to the editor of a panel industry magazine?

“What letter does the state start with?” I asked with a chuckle. This person thought a moment, “Okay, it’s M.” In grade school I had learned a song in which you sang the names of the states in alphabetical order. “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas…” It was usually good for winning a beer in college when I pretended I didn’t know any such song but was just trying to recite the states in alphabetical order, purposefully stumbling over a state along the way as if I couldn’t quite remember it until miraculously coming up with it, much to the groans of my easily impressed peers.

My mind and memory quickly raced through the song: “Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska…”

It wouldn’t be Maine. Huber already had one there. Maryland, Massachusetts, nope. Michigan, possible, but unlikely. Minnesota, are you kidding me after what Huber just went through there? Mississippi, very possible, the state had come on like gang-

busters with sawmills and plywood mills and apparently has timberland to spare. Missouri, negative. Montana, don’t think so.

“Mississippi,” I said. “Don’t say you heard it from me,” this person said. “I’ll never identify you,” I said, “except maybe by your initials...just kidding.”

Bernstein, Woodward and Watergate it wasn’t, but a couple of days later I did a Google search for Huber Mississippi. Lo and behold. There it was, not an official announcement from Huber, but a joint public notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality Control that Huber wanted to build an OSB plant in Shuqualak, Noxubee County, Mississippi, and the purpose of the public notice was to inform the public, I guess, that Huber wanted a permit in order to discharge fill material into some wetlands. It got much more specific than that, but my initial thought was didn’t Huber didn’t get enough of the wetlands thing during its effort to build an OSB plant in Minnesota before saying goodbye? I’m guessing the circumstances are much different this time.

I was able to pull together this information and get it on our news site online. About two weeks later, after I returned to the U.S. from Germany, Huber officially announced it was building its next OSB plant in Shuqualak, Miss. I owe my friend a beer. PW

RICH DONNELL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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ROSEBURG MAKES MAJOR DECISION

The production process is expected to use up to 100% sawdust as raw material. “Here we score with our flexible press infeed, a very precise hydraulic system for thin boards, the EcoScan NEO concept, and the adaptive MDF forming system—all decisive reasons for Roseburg Forest Products to cooperate with us again,” comments Ulrich Kaiser, Head of Sales Wood Div. at Siempelkamp.

Fifty-four years ago it was Dr. Dieter Siempelkamp, Managing Director in the third Siempelkamp generation, who sold Roseburg the first operating system for composite panels. The companies noted they are united not only by the drive to push innovations but also by the commitment to long-standing loyalty and “handshake integrity,” core values of Roseburg Forest Products and Siempelkamp alike.

Roseburg Forest Products, which announced in April a $700 million investment over the next four years to expand operations in southern Oregon, including a $450 million MDF plant in Dillard, Ore., has selected Siempelkamp as the primary supplier of the MDF plant, including a 10 ft. x 42.1 m ContiRoll continuous press.

The companies noted that in 1969 Siempelkamp supplied Roseburg Lumber with its very first composite panel press line.

Roseburg’s Oregon investment, which also includes a component manufacturing center at Dillard, and upgrades to existing plants in Douglas and Coos counties, is considered to be the largest known manufacturing investment in rural Oregon and one of the largest private capital investments in the state’s history.

According to Senior Vice President of Operations, Jake Elston, “Effective manufacturing in today’s globally competitive environment requires efficient and automated equipment as well as new skills, analytical tools and work methodologies to optimize production capacity and the work environment. We

are excited to be working side by side with Siempelkamp on making these things come together for a long and successful future at the new plant.”

Siempelkamp is supplying the heart of the new MDF plant. The scope of supply includes a Büttner dryer line, sifter, the forming and press line, cooling and stacking line as well as the intermediate storage and the associated automation of the machine technology. The planning of the plant by Sicoplan is also included. Also integrated is a glue saving system for MDF, which through atomization technology is said to reduce glue consumption by up to 15% percent while enhancing panel quality.

A EcoScan NEO measuring system will also be used, which features high resolution analysis of basis weight distribution and foreign tramp material detection directly after the prepress. Via the adaptive forming system developed by Siempelkamp, it provides a closed control loop for best and permanent forming accuracy without human intervention.

Speaking of the massive investment, Roseburg President and CEO Grady Mulberry adds, “Roseburg is embracing advanced manufacturing and leveraging new technology and methods to make our current products and develop new ones, with the goal of ensuring we remain competitive in the global market. I want to thank our partners at the Governor’s office and Douglas and Coos counties for helping make this historic investment possible.”

Dillard MDF will use wood residuals from Roseburg’s local mills as well as other regional mill suppliers to manufacture standard MDF panels as well as

Of historic proporations. Standing with the sign from the first Siempelkamp press at Roseburg from 1969, left to right: Steve Tavernier, Director of Sourcing at Roseburg Forest Products; Joachim Meier, Executive Vice President at Siempelkamp LP; Gottfried Bluthardt, Sales Engineer at Büttner; Dirk Koltze, President at Siempelkamp LP; Ulrich Kaiser, Head of Sales Wood Division at Siempelkamp; Michael Jensen, Sales Engineer Wood Div. at Siempelkamp; Jim Salchenberg, Director of Engineering/Construction, Automation & Robotics at Roseburg Forest Products.

Roseburg Forest Products operations at Dillard, Ore.

UPDATE

applications. The plant will produce panels with a thickness range from 2 mm to 28 mm.

“HDF is a new product for Roseburg that meets growing customer demand for domestically manufactured panels of increasing thinness and strength,” Mulbery says.

Dillard Components will convert specialty MDF panels manufactured at Roseburg’s MDF plant in Medford, Ore., into Armorite Trim, a finished exterior trim product for residential and shed use. This is an innovative, new product currently unavailable within the industry or market, according to Roseburg, which will invest roughly $50 million in this plant.

Roseburg currently owns and operates three MDF plants in North America. The company anticipates that both new plants will begin operations in 2025, and will employ approximately 120 once completed.

The remaining $200 million of the investment will go toward improvements and significant upgrades at the plywood

plant in Riddle, Ore., including two new lathe lines and a new hardwood plywood line; and a new dryer at the plywood plant in Coquille, Ore.

“These operations are all key parts of our integrated platform in Oregon, starting with our timberlands, and including our primary processing plants making lumber and plywood, as well as our secondary plants that use wood residuals like sawdust and chips to make value-added products such as MDF, ensuring the full utilization of our precious timber resource,” Roseburg’s Director of Government Affairs Eric Geyer says.

In June 2022, Roseburg revealed that it was exploring the feasibility of locating an additional MDF plant or other residual-based operation within its Western operating footprint. That study, combined with a years-long strategic assessment of company operations across the state, resulted in the decision to make this investment in southern Oregon, where the company was founded in 1936.

HOOD ANNOUNCES NEW PLYWOOD MILL

Hood Industries announced plans to invest more than $200 million to build a plywood manufacturing facility in Beaumont, Miss. and create 265 direct jobs. The announcement was part of a groundbreaking event at Beaumont held May 4, and it comes 40 years after Hood Industries took over operations at Beaumont Plywood in 1983.

The new facility will operate at twice the capacity of the previous facility, which was made inoperable by a tornado on April 17, 2022. Construction will begin this summer, and manufacturing will commence in early 2025. Hood Industries plans to fill the jobs over the next four years.

“The mill has been one of the cornerstones of our company because of the support received from the community of Beaumont, Perry County and surrounding areas and the hard work of our excellent employees,” commented Warren Hood, Owner and CEO, Hood Companies. “We

UPDATE

are excited to be able to rebuild the facility into one of the most modern plywood plants in North America.”

Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for infrastructure improvements and site development. AccelerateMS is providing a Mississippi Works grant to support the critical training needs of Hood Industries and will support the company’s long-term workforce goals and objectives for this project. Perry County and the town of Beaumont also are assisting with the project.

“After a devastating tornado shut this plant down, some would have left. But not this team, and not this company,” adds Gov. Tate Reeves. “Today’s groundbreaking is the launch of an incredible comeback story. This $200 million investment will bring 265 good-paying jobs to Beaumont and Perry County and have a tremendous impact on the local community. I congratulate Hood Industries on this exciting day and thank them for their enduring commitment to our state.”

Hood Industries is a mix of wood manufacturing and distribution opera-

tions that also includes a plywood manufacturing plant in Wiggins, Miss. and four sawmills in Waynesboro and Silver Creek, Miss., Bogalusa, La. and Metcalfe, Ga., and 15 wood products distribution operations.

Hood resumed plywood operations at Beaumont after the previous owner, Weyerhaeuser, had shut it down in 1982 during a recession. Weyerhaeuser had purchased it in 1979 from Delta Industries, which built the plant as Delta Pine Plywood in 1971.

Parallel to the starting of operations at Beaumont in the 1980s, Hood also began plywood operations at Wiggins, Miss., which Hood continues to operate today.

HUBER TAKES ANOTHER SWING

Huber Engineered Woods LLC (HEW), a subsidiary of J.M. Huber Corp., plans to build a new oriented strandboard (OSB) facility in Shuqualak, Noxubee County, Miss. The plant will increase the company’s pro-

duction of its ZIP System and AdvanTech structural panels, while providing more than 150 direct new jobs.

“After considering multiple locations for what will be our most efficient and sustainable facility, we have decided to invest in and partner with Shuqualak, Mississippi, and the broader Noxubee County region,” HEW President Brian Carlson comments. “We will build a world-class workforce by leveraging the diverse talent in the surrounding communities. In line with our commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, we have already started our permitting process in Mississippi.”

“Huber Engineered Woods is committed to meeting demand for customers, and we are excited to do so in a state with a rich history of sustainable forestry and wood products manufacturing,” Carlson adds.

The new facility, reportedly a $418 million investment, will be located on 551 acres and will feature some of the most advanced processes and technologies available for manufacturing opera-

tions. Initiation of project construction is pending various federal, state and local permits as well as economic development incentive approvals and/or processes.

Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for infrastructure needs. MDA also certified the company for the Advantage Jobs Rebate Program, which is designated for eligible businesses that create new jobs exceeding the average annual wage of the state or county in which the company locates or expands.

In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality released a joint public notice for Huber’s application for a permit pursuant to the Clean Water Act, and in May MDEQ released a Large Construction Notice of Intent under the Large Construction General Permit applied for by Huber at Shuqualak.

Huber had planned to build its sixth OSB plant in Cohasset, Minn., but after experiencing constant entanglements in the process from governing authorities, including a Minnesota Court of Appeals decision that would have caused further

delay in the construction of the $440 million plant, Huber opted to pull out of the project.

KRONOSPAN PLANS OSB OPERATION

Kronospan announced it will begin construction of a new oriented strandboard (OSB) manufacturing plant on its 460 acre site in Oxford, Ala. Employing 125, the new facility will have a footprint composed of 44 acres of new development, including substantial areas designated for product storage, rail spur and loading docks. Groundbreaking for the $350 million facility is scheduled for later this year.

“We’re very pleased to announce the next project at our Oxford site,” says Hans Obermaier, CEO of Kronospan’s North American companies. “This is not only an opportunity to further expand our portfolio of wood panel products in the United States but also meets our customers growing need for high quality construction materials. Just like the other

plants on our site, the OSB plant will be constructed with our sustainability principles in mind and will further enhance our negative carbon footprint status.”

This latest expansion is one of several new investments Kronospan has made in recent months. New equipment for the site includes an extension of its existing medium density fiberboard press, a new water treatment plant, expansion of manufacturing capacities of its existing particleboard plant and the ongoing construction of a new wood yard. Capital projects of more than $89 million have occurred in the last six months or are currently in progress at the Oxford site.

“Kronospan is very proud of our commitment to job creation in Calhoun County and East Alabama,” says John Connell, Director of Human Resources at Kronospan. “As we continue to grow our operations in the U.S., we are very conscious of the impact on our local communities and are consistent in our philosophy of creating a sustainable future for generations to come.”

UPDATE

MERCER TAKES OVER STRUCTURLAM

Mercer International Inc. has received Bankruptcy Court approval for its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Structurlam Mass Timber Corp. and its subsidiaries, including a new production facility in Conway, Ark. and production facilities in British Columbia, Can., for $81.1 million.

The acquisition will increase Mercer’s cross-laminated timber capacity to 210,000 m3 of CLT and add 45,000 m3 of glulam production capacity.

Structurlam filed for bankruptcy protection and Mercer became the Stalking Horse bidder. The facility opened in 2021 and was tied to a deal to produce 1.7 million cubic feet of mass timber for Walmart’s new corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. But in January Structurlam suspended operations in Conway after Walmart canceled work with the manufacturer.

The Conway operation is a state-ofthe-art manufacturing facility that was

built in 2021 and has an annual capacity of 75,000 m3; can produce both glue laminated timber (glulam) and crosslaminated timber (CLT); includes more than 280,000 sq. ft. manufacturing space; and is strategically located in the Southern U.S. in proximity to growing construction markets and with access to a large and high-quality regional wood basket.

The purchase also includes three facilities in British Columbia with a combined annual capacity of 40,000 m3 of glulam and CLT.

The transaction will, among other things, add glulam production capability to Mercer’s existing mass timber offering.

Juan Carlos Bueno, President and CEO of Mercer, states, “The acquisition of the Structurlam assets is consistent with our strategy to expand and diversify our product mix in our solid wood segment and build out our existing mass timber business. The acquisition will materially increase our existing production capacity and cement

our position as a leading producer of mass timber products.

“These assets complement our existing Mercer Mass Timber facility, located in Spokane Valley, Washington, and provide significant potential synergies on a combined basis. As glulam is commonly incorporated into mass timber construction projects that utilize CLT, the acquisition of Structurlam will enhance our ability to service the growing customer base for our mass timber business.”

Mercer International Inc. is a global forest products company with operations in Germany, the U.S. and Canada with annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes of pulp, 960MMBF of lumber, 140,000 m3 of cross-laminated timber, 17 million pallets and 150,000 tonnes of wood pellets.

“I am delighted and grateful for Mercer’s vote of confidence in Structurlam,” Structurlam CEO Matthew Karmel said. “It is especially rewarding given the difficult period the company has had since suspending its operations.”

ROSEBURG KEEPS SIMSBORO P’BOARD MILL FLOWING AFTER 42 YEARS WITH UNBENDING COMMITMENT

Classic particleboard longevity, efficiency and new emphasis on safety define the Roseburg facility.

BY JESSICA JOHNSON

SIMSBORO, La.

If you want to see a plant that can survive, you’re looking at it. Nestled off I-20, in a town so small the state of Louisiana calls it a village (the 2021 population estimate was 791) there runs a particleboard plant—first built by Willamette in 1971, assumed by Weyerhaeuser in 2001 as part of the Weyerhaeuser purchase of Willamette, then Flakeboard purchased it in ’06 (installing a melamine lamination line in 2009), and then sold to current owner Roseburg in 2011 as the Oregon-based company expanded east. Since then, Roseburg has continued to run the operation, called Simsboro Composites, with consistency and upkeep.

Current Plant Manager Cody Clark says production capacity is holding

steady at 240-260MMSF, but could jump to 300MMSF with a few equipment changes that the team is currently looking at. “Not major changes,” he adds. “But definitely some investments if we choose to go that route.”

Perhaps the most important investment of all has been the emphasis on safety. Clark and Safety Professional Klay Koonce point to the operation’s 0.0 DART rate for the past 18 months. DART was developed by OSHA to provide a better idea of the impact of an employee situation. DART stands for Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred.

Koonce, who has worked at the Simsboro facility for a decade, says that it is easy for companies and facilities to say they put safety as a priority. At Roseburg, it is a value. “You can tell that on the floor, seeing the improvements, that we are really putting safety as a top value. That goes a long way, a company that is willing to take care of you, and make sure you go home safe to your family at the end of the day. That is not a bad place to be,” Koonce says.

Clark agrees that by really pushing the value of safety, and not just giving it lip-service, has also improved the mill’s run rate—hitting production numbers that haven’t been seen, ever. “Safe mills are mills that run well,” he says. “We are exceeding plans for production, having just sat a new weekly record.” Weekly targets aren’t the only thing being exceeded. One day, three different machine centers produced more than 1MMSF. Safe and happy Team Members work with pride, and that translates to increased performance.

“Any mill can get lucky in one week, but the way we’ve been running the last several months is astonishing,” Clark adds.

SAFETY FOCUS

The key for Koonce is that he and the safety committee have been intentional with their behavior-based safety conversations and changes. He admits it has taken a while to get where they are now, but the mindset of Team Members has definitely changed. Safety meetings went from just grabbing a pizza and talking, to tackling problems head on: Walking the floor as a committee and identifying potholes to repair; ladders that need to be replaced; adding machine guarding; housekeeping; fall protection; fire protection systems and more.

The more visible changes have been adding a rail guard able to withstand 15,000 lbs. of force at 10 MPH, which will be able to hold everything from people to forklifts from going over and into the rail docks. The other has been industrial, overhead fans and as many air-conditioned cabs/rooms on the floor as they can get. With the Louisiana heat, heat stress is something the team has to really be cognizant of. Thankfully, Koonce says, they’ve never had to really deal with any sort of severe heat exhaustion, but keeping the air flow moving and not letting the humid heat get static has significantly improved the quality of the mill’s atmosphere. It also encouraged the Team Members that Roseburg further puts safety as a value.

“The fans were part of the safety only capital improvement. If you look just at the last two years, north of $1.5 million invested just in safety improvements,” Clark explains. “We told the team we have $180,000, about $1,000 per team

member, and asked them how they wanted it spent. The giant overhead fans were their project.”

Another small but noticeable project was the addition of an inspection table at the sander that allows boards to slide over has cut down on sprains and strains since boards are not physically moved anymore.

Clark is very quick to point out that the Team Members on the floor are what drives success—and empowering them to make decisions not just from a safety standpoint, but in general has made Simsboro a considerably better facility.

Koonce says at the end of 2021 new fall protections were added at the book saw, giving millwrights and electricians better tie off spots. Adding more guarding in the mill like that is what’s next on the safety improvement upgrade list.

As the safety committee gets stronger, Koonce believes they will be able to continue the positive, forward motion toward steady improvements. Now, following the safety committee meetings, each member takes their notes and presents them to their specific crews, helping move safety away from a suggestion and more of a condition of employment. Clark now asks potential employees if they could see themselves having a 40-year career here without getting hurt. “If the answer is no, we try to challenge it. And change the mentality. You absolutely can work here and make a career out of this place and go home the exact same way you came,” he says, though quickly chuckling, “Maybe tired or with

Once dried on one of three Westec triple pass dryers, material is conveyed to SHW face and core silos.

The 10 ft. Dieffenbacher continuous press works like a charm to hit 240-260MMSF annually.

With an increase in safety emphasis, the

plant has made multiple investments that boost safety and efficiency.

more grey hairs, but not injured. It is all of our responsibility.”

The new approach has also helped with Simsboro’s retention rate, which had been as high as 16.5%, and now tops out at 7%. Plant staff currently is around 185 Team Members, including administration, with between 35 and 45 a shift, working 24/7/363. Simsboro is closed for Christmas and Christmas Eve.

MILL FLOW

Simsboro Composites is a 100% southern yellow pine particleboard plant using residuals from a 200-mile radius, including green chips, sawdust, shavings and ply trim. The facility has a full truck dump, trailer dump and a truck/trailer dump combo all provided by Phelps. Construction for a new Phelps truck/trailer dump is scheduled for later this summer to replace the trailer only dump. Clark says this was a strategic investment to keep fiber suppliers moving through their process. This part of Louisiana has a lot of competition in the fiber market, so the goal is to have a 35 minute from scale in to scale out turnaround time, making Simsboro incredibly desirable for drivers looking to get the most loads. Right now,

core silos. Clark notes the bridgeless design of the core silo is one of only a few operating in North America, using a highly polished, almost chrome, cone that doesn’t allow material to stick and therefore pose the associated risks.

Mats are blended on an IMAL line. An IMAL high pressure resin system allows Simsboro to be very competitive in its Hexion-supplied resin distribution, Clark notes, adding, “We are running world class resin numbers without negative effects on properties. We’re doing it at the same time as we are running faster than we ever have before. The stars are aligning for us for sure.” He credits a lot of that alignment, on the resin side, to Hexion’s willingness to help the facility with trials, and making sure they are receiving quality resin that helps run rates and overall efficiency.

Once formed, mats are pressed in a Dieffenbacher 10 ft. continuous press that was installed in 2001. Though vintage, Clark says the press holds its own. From the press, master panels are further processed on a Dieffenbacher CTC line—including dual flying saw, adding some redundancy but ensuring precise trims. From the flying saw, Simsboro uses two quality control methods, a GreCon inline thickness gauge across the

Using a star cooler is critical in the humid heat of Louisiana to allow panels to properly cure.

Having two Metso/Lukki robots in the finishing end keeps production moving.

Some of Roseburg Simsboro’s leadership team, from left, James Pace, Area Coordinator; Cody Clark, Plant Manager; Klay Koonce, Safety Professional

panel and a GreCon bond analyzer. The bond analyzer gives Simsboro a real time “x-ray” of the panel, showing the bond, which is the leading indicator of physical proprieties that are produced in a panel. After the thickness gauge and the bond analyzer, panels move to a star cooler, giving them time to cool off and the resin to cure. “Hot stacking in the South means trouble,” Clark says.

An in-line tipple belt is used for rejects that travel to a hog and back to the beginning of the process. With pride, Clark notes weekly waste holds steady at five hoppers.

Moisture control throughout the process has been another focus for Simsboro. Every work center throughout the facility has screens with departmental performance indicators (DPI) acting like a scoreboard of sorts for how each area is doing—and moisture control is a huge indicator. The facility has meters throughout the process measuring in real-time, Clark says, from a variety of suppliers including Process Sensors and KPM.

After cooling, stacked master panel units have two options: either the Lukki warehouse for storage, or directly into the Imeas sander. The Lukki robot will take master panel units weighing anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 lbs., assigning the lot data information with it (thickness, length, width, density, quality, when it was made, etc.) and takes the unit into the warehouse stack for further processing. Simsboro has two Metso Lukkis that run, one on the saw side and

one on the sander side.

The Imeas sander starts with a 50 grit progressively moving higher to 100 for a finish pattern to sand off approximately 20 thousandths or less. The Imeas 10 ft. eight-head machine handles full master panels anywhere from 10 ft. wide to 26 ft. long. The Lukki picks stacks up for the other side of the Lukki warehouse, ahead of a Schelling book saw handling anywhere from six to 12 panels in thickness. The Schelling book saw has received some attention recently from the maintenance team, as Clark admits it was the facility’s bottleneck. “We’ve put a ton of time into it the past few months. Running considerably better than it has, so we can safely say it is no longer the bottleneck. Now we’re waiting to see what’s going to come up. The saw outruns the press, which gets us up to production numbers we haven’t seen before,” Clark explains.

The Schelling runs both rip and cross-cut, followed by three separate stack tables, followed by three strapping stations—two Samuel strappers with VK 30 heads and a Samuel MH600. With the shift in market to more door cores, countertops and generally small pack sizes, Simsboro added the third strapper line just last year.

Clark is proud that the mill operates with very little manual work. If everything goes well, the only time product is touched is when a tag is put on ahead of shipping. In the shipping department, Simsboro can send product via rail or

by truck. For truck loads, the facility has full pull in bays, bringing the flatbed to a person’s ankles, enhancing visibility and decreasing load time. Additionally, Simsboro has full tarping cranes that lower tarps onto loads so no one has to climb around.

VALUE-ADDED

As a value-added option, Simsboro has the ability to produce thermally fused laminated panels using a Siemplkamp 500 line fast cycle press that can do roughly 200 pressings an hour of commodity—single texture, 65-75% base white. A GreCon Superscan optical machine measures every panel top and bottom and can detect defects down to 2 mm square. Having grading in TFL automatic means no defects are missed and a really good quality panel is produced.

For Clark, who only arrived in Louisiana in December of 2021, the cultural shifts in the facility are the most impressive changes, not the increased production or machinery tweaks.

“I think we’re at a place where people are starting to enjoy being here, and that drives everything else—safety, profitability, production—and we’ve put a ton of work into it. The overall culture from our administration team to getting people the tools they need to do their jobs properly, to making people feel safe and secure in their work has changed things up quite a bit.” PW

Imeas 10 ft. eight-head sander takes on master panels.

Finished packs are strapped with Samuel strappers.

WORLD STAGE FOR WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY LIVES UP TO HYPE AT LIGNA 2023 IN GERMANY

BY RICH DONNELL

HANNOVER, Germany

Numerous machinery and technology companies in the structural and non-structural woodbased panel industry exhibited at Ligna 2023 held May 15-19, and they were part of a larger event that covered the entire range of forest products production, from forestry to windows, as 1,300 companies from 50 countries exhibited, attracting 80,000 visitors from 160 countries, with everyone excited to be there

following the missed 2021 event due to the virus.

“Ligna 2023 exceeded the high expectations of our exhibiting companies and our visitors, demonstrating that the machinery, equipment and solutions presented at the show are paving the way for a sustainable and digitized wood, furniture and construction industry,” says Dr. Jochen Köckler, Managing Board Chairman of the Deutsche Messe group of companies. “Visitors were able to experi-

ence the transformation of industry live in our exhibition halls.”

While visitors could choose from a dozen large halls filled with equipment from the various wood products processing sectors, and outdoor venues where portable sawmills were in action, Hall 26 was the main stage for the panel primary manufacturing industry. As usual, there was no shortage of press conferences and hospitality events in addition to friendly discussions at the various booths. Here are a few of (but by no means all of) the highlights:

Dieffenbacher hosted an informal press gathering during which leadership addressed a range of topics and technologies. The company is in its 150th year of operation and in its fifth family generation of leadership with CEO Christian Dieffenbacher. The company operates four business units, including Wood-Based Panels, Forming, Recycling and Energy.

Dieffenbacher Energy is a new formation, established following the purchase earlier this year of Austria power plant technology provider Bertsch Energy. In addition to services such as project development, plant design and lifecycle management, more specifically the energy unit is able to provide solid fuel fired and gas and liquid fuel fired power plants, additional process equipment and in-plant heat energy systems. Dieffenbacher expects considerable growth through its en-

Hymmen revealed remarkable printing technologies.

Almost a sense of relief was in the air as exhibitors gathered for the first time in four years at Hannover.

Dieffenbacher emphasized that the future is now.

ergy operation in the near future. Meanwhile the company continues to emphasize its smart plant concept CEBRO, which combines the digital platform EVORIS and advanced plant engineering and sustainability solutions. Digitilization and Artificial Intelligence would be a recurring theme at many of the exhibitor stands.

Also interesting was Dieffenbacher’s emphasis on continuous plywood production, noting that compared to production on a multi-opening press, you can produce plywood with more consistent mechanical board properties and significantly lower thickness tolerances with less or even no sanding. Fully automated continuous laying and pressing enables board thicknesses from 9 up to 120 mm, using various resins, and can produce continu-

Siempelkamp Chair Martin Stark gave his perspective.

Combilift had an active exhibit outside.

Ledinek high speed Stratoplan planer

Grenzebach pointed to the potential of wood fiber insulation board.

IMAL PAL Group left no stone unturned.

ously produced plywood and LVL on the same line.

Wood fiber insulation board in the U.S. received considerable discussion, including TimberHP’s conversion of a paper manufacturing facility in Maine into a three-line production plant—loose fill TimberFill, interior framing application TimberBatt, and an interior wall, floor and ceiling insulation and exterior continuous insulation board line product called TimberBoard. The board line is the upgrade of an existing Dieffenbacher plant that was shipped from Germany. The line will produce thickness up to 9 in. at 4 and 8 ft. length. Globe Machine is supplying the batt line, including binding, forming, oven treating, cutting, stacking and handling equipment. The Globe line should

vancement of wood fiber insulation, noting that the demand for better environmental performance of buildings to offset rising energy costs, support sustainability, and improve indoor air quality is driving the need for more ecofriendly insulation materials.

The challenge in North America has been the lack of manufacturing facilities. Grenzebach, bringing its experience with wood fiber insulation from overseas, now emphasizes its capabilities to provide full production lines, supported by its operation in Georgia.

Siempelkamp also hosted a press event, led off by Chairman Dr. Martin Stark, and introducing the new management team effective as of July 1, including CEO Martin Scherrer, CFO Martin Sieringhaus, CSO Samiron Mondal, and COO Stefan Wissing.

Scherrer joins Siempelkamp from AstenJohnson, a supplier to the paper industry, where he most recently headed the business as President Eurasia, following many years with Voith. At Ligna, Scherrer and the other managers focused on sustainability, digitalization and services, as well as new machinery offerings.

Siempelkamp emphasized its new platform “IQ,” which integrates all digital processes and tools over the life cycle of a plant. And within IQ is an autonomous closed-loop solution Prod-IQ · SmartPress, which Siempelkamp and SMARTECH provide for wood-based panel plants. The AI-based solution, developed for existing and new production lines, unlocks real-time control for production processes. Plant operators have quickly recognized the savings options

Fagus GreCon showed lots of technology.

EWS revealed new technology and new wave of leadership.

Biele’s stand was impressive as usual.

Wemhöner was all about lamination.

ing to Siempelkamp.

The interest is based on two main aspects. Great attention is paid to increasing the speed of the plants while at the same time ensuring the quality. Prod-IQ. SmartPress includes blister and strength properties as well as plant-specific bottlenecks resulting, for example, from dryer capacity. Another key issue is material savings, which can be realized when the mat weight is reduced. In the future, Prod-IQ. SmartPress will also show its strengths in the area of glue savings, taking into account if gluing factors can be reduced while taking into account the strength properties of the board.

The latest version of Siempelkamp’s mainstay product, the ContiRoll Generation 9i continuous press, also attracted attention. In 2017 ContiRoll Generation 9 was introduced to the market. Since then, continuous improvements have been made, resulting in the new version presented at Ligna.

A redesigned lubrication system for the roller rods provides the plant operator with more reliable and precise lubrication of the roller rods across the entire width of the plant. Optimizations have also been made to the second heating platen. These are aimed at high production output, faster heating of the press, and precise control of the hot platen temperature via the heating circuits The ever-longer presses will also be able to perform reliably and efficiently in the future thanks to targeted adjustments to the chain tensioner.

Tris Young, Group Business Development Manager for John King Chains, says visitor interest was high on the company’s press chains, and several praised JK’s British manufacturing capabilities, along with its uprated materials and heat treatments to provide extended service life.

John King’s recent acquisition of DAB Valves and development of Bulk/Mill Master Conveyor solutions were well received. “Clients are 100% seeing us as more than just a quality chain manufacturer,” Young says. “They like the fact that they can come to us for holistic solutions; not just products but solutions to improve efficiency of their plants.”

Ledinek was riding high off an order from Rigidply Rafter of Richland, Pa., which is upgrading its existing glulam production capabilities with a new automated glulam manufacturing plant for curved, cambered and straight beams.

The new plant has been developed around the advanced Ledinek cold pressing technology and some of the key com-

ponents include the infeed system for multiple qualities to be loaded into the line, fingerjointing machine Kontizink H 5000, Stratoplan high speed planer, Rotopress glulam press, Hyperpress for curved beams, Flexipress for special beams and columns, XXL-Cut for customized length cutting, Superles beam planers for L and XXL beam and X-Lam Manager production control software.

Ledinek said the international visitors demonstrated the popularity of its products worldwide. “Our stand was very lively throughout the day, and we would like to thank all the business partners, students, other exhibitors and guests who visited us, saw our machines on display and spent a pleasant hour with us.”

The IMAL PAL Group 900 m2 stand exhibited online quality control systems, blenders, refiners, separators and more. Amongst these was the latest evolution of the Cyclops optical sorter based on NIR

detection technology equipped with compressed air blowers and the artificial intelligence to remove contaminants. Thanks to the Cyclops technology, MDF can be produced efficiently from recycled wood.

For the chipping area visitors were able to discover both the Drum Chipper MTG and the Re-Chipper (RMG), designed to digest all types and sizes of wood logs and materials. The Knife Ring Flaker (SRC) was also on display, for producing high quality particleboard and processing OSB micro strand.

Hymmen presented surface samples from its Digital Lacquer Embossing technology (DLEplus). At least as much attention was paid to the sophisticated press coating and handling technology that Hymmen now intends to use increasingly in the production of engineered wood. All flanked by Hymmen’s cloud-based smart2i Industry Intelligence solution, which monitors process data across man-

Imeas was on an island of project discussion.

USNR had stands in both the sawmill and panel machinery halls.

ufacturers and machines and is used for production optimization via individual analysis tools.

Hymmen counted a total of more than 300 qualified contacts from 40 countries, and states that more than half of which will result in a project offer in the short or medium term after the trade show. “Even though we had just as many leads overall as four years ago, the interest of our visitors already seemed to be much more concrete than at the trade fair before the Corona break,” says Dr. René Pankoke, managing partner and CEO of Hymmen.

Following the momentum of the first day of the trade show, the Hymmen team celebrated a new project agreement on the second day of the event: This involves a laminating line with peripherals that will be used in the Northern European furniture supply industry.

Electronic Wood Systems (EWS) presented new generation spark detection and extinguishing system ALF 9000, following 10 successful years of the predecessor model, ALF 8000. ALF 9000 consists of almost any number of electronic inputs and outputs (I/Os), which are connected to a control system and can be flexibly configured in a matrix, which makes it possible to create arbitrary links between the areas to be protected for spark detection and extinguishing, as well as for machine shutdown. In order to increase the level of protection, dependent protection areas in the production process can easily be linked.

Fagus GreCon presented measurement technology and fire prevention systems. The further development of its inline thickness measurement system, THICKNESSCONTROL, enables measurements of almost the entire panel, even at high production speeds. With

determining the formaldehyde emission of wood-based materials.

The full-surface measuring mat scanner, MATCONTROL HF, used for measuring the weight per unit area and detecting foreign bodies in chipboard and fiberboard, also offers customers relevant improvements.

In fire prevention, Fagus-GreCon has continued the digitalization of its product portfolio. Following the Intelligent Detection Technology IDT at the last Ligna, it presented a maintenance-optimized extinguishing system with Intelligent Extinguishment Technology.

Steel belt manufacturer IPCO, moose in tow, continued to emphasize repair and maintenance services on steel belts, such as the next generation of Shotpeener Pro, including increased flattening capacity, and discussed continued enhancements to its steel belt manufacturing process.

Biele focused on the two “megatrends” of sustainability and digitization, and their integration in Biele’s layup and press lines, finishing lines, packing lines and

Three machines were shown in the stand, including the new all-in-one EVO system for feeding, transferring and stacking; multiple-opening twin press; and new compact trimming station.

“It was an incredible week where business and personal relationships have grown,” the company stated.

Meinan Machinery Works was on hand to celebrate its 70th year, which has started off in a good way with the order for two Meinan peeling lines for Roseburg’s panel complex at Riddle, Ore., including 8 ft. and 10 ft. peeling lines with automatic knife changer on the lathes, clipping, stacking, and in-line green composing on both lines, with installations expected this year and next.

“This was my first Ligna, and it was a very positive experience,” says Terje Haltbakk, who has been the CEO of Argos Solutions since 2021. “Seeing how our existing and future customers perceive us as a reliable and innovative supplier is highly motivating. For the furniture and wood industry, automated solutions like the ones we provide are undoubtedly an investment that gives our customers a competitive advantage.”

Argos brought a demo grading system to Hannover. In addition to a selection of panels that were scanned to demonstrate the system’s capabilities, potential customers had the opportunity to bring their own samples to personally check if Argos meets their requirements and specifications for quality control. Throughout the fair, there was a wide variety of panels and plates being tested, both from existing and new customers, ranging from Ecuadorian Balsa wood to melamine plates from Italian kitchen manufacturers.

The next Ligna runs May 26-30, 2025. PW

Look for continuing coverage of developments at Ligna in the upcoming issues of

John King got down to business.

Meinan Machinery welcomed visitors from around the globe.

Argos Solutions provided some sweet talk.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted these editorial profiles and images to complement their advertisements placed elsewhere in this issue. Please refer to those advertisements for web site and contact information. All statements and claims are attributable to the companies.

CLARKE’S

Clarke’s PyroGuard spark detection and extinguishment systems provide the utmost protection and reliability for the safety of plant personnel and protection of facility assets. The system is used to identify and extinguish sparks, before they have a chance to enter sensitive dust collection equipment or material storage bins.

Clarke’s also manufactures a complete line of HiSpeed abort gates to supplement the PyroGuard system. When applied properly, the PyroGuard system and related devices can virtually eliminate the possibility of harm to plant personnel, and can minimize the extent of damage caused by a fire or an explosion.

Other products that Clarke’s manufactures include Pneu-Aire primary and secondary filter systems, machined rotary feeders and airlocks, material handling and backward incline fans, Flo-Matic storage and metering bins, rotary screens and classifiers.

CMC TEXPAN

The devastating effects of fire explosions are the main risks in the wood-based industries and plants. It is very important to avoid explosive atmospheres and ignition sources. Prevention is the first step to take when approaching the task of explosion safety, therefore it is necessary for the implementation of suitable venting systems as means of protection, in order first to safeguard people, and machinery and other parts of the plant.

The “EX-PROTECTOR” system for flameless explosion venting on screens, featuring the REMBE QBox, has been conceived by CMC Texpan with the specific purpose of reducing the safety distance to be kept around the machine; consequently, there is high operational safety for personnel and equipment.

The “EX-PROTECTOR” unit components consist of a special and innovative connection system on the inlet and outlet hoppers designed as a replacement for the traditional textile sleeves. The system is made of a flanged connection, provided with spring suspensions to compensate the slight movement in height of the screening machine, in addition to a sliding shoe out of a special low-friction plastic material, which follows the horizontal movement of the machine during the vibratory motion.

A group of REMBE Q-Box units is located on the upper section of the screening machine, instead of the traditional bursting panels. This group allows a gradual venting in case of an explosion and a mitigation of the pressure wave arising from the explosion itself. The REMBE Q-Box unit is installed on a frame with a particular fastening arrangement, whose function is to discharge the weight of the whole unit on the legs of the screening machine and not on the roof of the machine. Thanks to this, the whole system is an independent structure; therefore it can be retrofitted to existing screening machines or for projects under updating.

ELECTRONIC WOOD SYSTEMS

Electronic Wood Systems GmbH (EWS) is an internationally-operating high-tech company, which develops, manufactures and sells measuring and inspection systems as well as spark detection and extinguishing systems for the wood-based composite industry with headquarters in the German historic town Hamelin.

“EWS is well prepared for the future, not only in terms of the product portfolio, but also considering the corporate structure,” says Hauke Kleinschmidt, owner of the family business. Matthias Fuchs, CEO, points out, “that the transition process initiated in

Clarke’s PyroGuard system

CMC Texpan “Ex-Protector” with REMBE Q-Box

the last few years is now being successfully continued with two essential steps.”

Jan Deutschmann, 31, was appointed commercial director in November 2022. He started in the company in 2009 with an apprenticeship, gathered experience in different departments and completed his profession with further training.

Dr. Konrad Solbrig, 38, was appointed technical director in May 2023. He joined the company’s research, development and technology team in 2016 and later became head of the department.

After 10 successful years of the predecessor model, the new generation spark detection and extinguishing system is released in 2023 featuring an outstanding flexibility with stateof-the-art technology. Previous spark detection and extinguishing systems are organized in lines representing single protection areas. Cross-area actions for detection, extinguishing or machine shutdown are only possible, if at all, through complex hardware wirings. The new EWS system does not have this limitation and consists of almost any number of electronic inputs and outputs (I/Os), which are connected to a control system and can be flexibly configured in a matrix.

“For the electrical I/Os of the control system it does not matter where exactly spark detectors or extinguishing units are mounted in the process,” Solbrig points out. This approach is possible because the mapping between the I/Os and the areas to be protected is exclusively software-based. In order to increase the level of protection, e. g., dependent protection areas in the production process can easily be linked.

Furthermore, the design of new EWS system enables the decentralized monitoring of a plant. Sub-control-centers can be installed in different sections with network connection to the main control center, e. g., a compact unit in the control room. Development is currently in progress on further options that are not included in the first release but will play a role in the future, e. g., a redundant control system setup in order to protect the spark detection and extinguishing system against failure.

The new High Sensitive Spark Detector (HSSD) is a further development. This sensor works like a temperature sensor and detects very low-energy ignition potentials depending on the material temperature. The EWS HSSD can also be applied for reliable spark detection in case of the presence of extraneous light.

FAGUS GRECON

Processing wood products can create ignition sources that can be quickly transported through conveying systems and can ignite product and waste dust causing fires and explosions. Common causes of fires are heat, sparks, embers, and hot particles. One of the most efficient measures to prevent fire or dust explosion is the early identification of the ignition source so it can be extinguished quickly.

GreCon spark detection & extinguishing systems provides excellent preventive protection; it does not wait for an actual fire or dust explosion to erupt. The GreCon system prevents the development of these hazards by early detection and elimination of the ignition source.

Now there is also an even better “smart” extinguishing option. The new GreCon Intelligent Extinguishing Module (IEM) reliably extinguishes sparks while also monitoring early wear recognition. The new smart GreCon IEM has sensors integrated into the extinguishing module to detect the wear of your nozzles while also monitoring low pressure flow to the nozzles, thus increasing plant and system availability with efficient planning of maintenance to reduce downtime. In addition to monitoring flow to the nozzle the system will also detect and recognize when micro leaks are occurring with a nozzle, thus allowing for repair of defective nozzles before they become a problem.

The IEM system can also add a built-in integrated frost monitoring component into the system for greater operational safe-

New leaders at EWS, left to right: Jan Deutschmann, Commercial Director; and Dr. Konrad Solbrig, Technical Director

GreCon’s new Intelligent Extinguishing Module (IEM)

ty. Another benefit of the system may be less intelligent, but it is certainly smarter for saving time while maintaining the system. This is the non-tool needed quick release latches that are built into the system to allow for changing a nozzle in less than a minute.

The IEM builds upon Fagus GreCon’s existing knowledge of intelligent systems, which includes the intelligent DLD 1/9 spark detector. The DLD 1/9 also offers additional protection to industries with intelligent detection technology (IDT). IDT not only identifies hazardous moving ignition sources before a fire breaks out, but the DLD 1/9 detector is also able to differ entiate between dangerous sparks or harmless incidence of extraneous light due to leaky/damaged pipes or an opening of an inspection flap.

FIREFLY

The wood industry has a longstanding issue with fires. In many plants, fire incidents happen regularly and are dealt with routinely, but at the cost of production stoppages and downtime. As the production rate increases, so does the risk of fire.

In a U.S. study, wood products were found to be behind 28% of all combustible dust fires and explosions. Board presses are particularly susceptible to fire. Other high-risk areas include dryers, cyclones, screens, mills, wind sifters, silos, line extractors, sanders, and saws.

The board press is where heat and combustible material come together. In the board press, wood material is mixed with adhesive and subjected to high pressure, 15-25 bar, as well as a high temperature of 200-240° C. The high temperature ensures that the board dries rapidly; however, it will quickly set fire to any oil that leaks from the press. Due to the large quantities of wood material stored at the site, a fire can be very difficult to control once it becomes established.

The chip dryer is another potential hazard in the board manufacturing process, as is friction in the process due to stones or metal objects in the material flow, or faulty bearings.

Firefly offers several solutions for the wood industry to help manage the risk of fire and optimize the productivity of the plant. Firefly protects your business using fast IR-radiation and flame detection, in combination with effective water spray extinguishing and water mist suppression.

Key benefits:

l Quick System Response Time

l Minimum Water Usage

l Third Party Approved System

l Precision Detection

Firefly provides a range of sensors to protect plant, equipment and buildings in the board manufacturing industry. Ignition sources are identified as soon as they emerge and targeted with water mist. Your process continues uninterrupted, safeguarding the profitability of the plant.

Since 1973, Firefly has specialized in creating customized system solutions of the highest technical standards and quality. Firefly has developed and patented products and solutions, creating a unique portfolio of innovative products and system solutions to increase the level of safety. The company is represented worldwide and has customers in more than 80 countries.

COMING NEXT ISSUE

Air Emissions Control Latest Technologies & Developments

Firefly offers multiple solutions to manage fire risk.

FLAMEX

FLAMEX Inc. has been involved in protecting industrial facilities from the hazards of fire and explosion for more than 40 years. We specialize in industries that handle combustible dusts. Our experience in the industrial wood processing industry in particular has given us a deep understanding of the risks inherent in the production process and how to address them in a manner that eliminates or minimizes production downtime.

Our capabilities include the design, supply, installation, repair and service of complete protection systems. The wide range of protection solutions that we offer can be implemented to address the fire hazards which exist in many areas of a modern wood processing facility. Such areas include the composite board press, thermal oil areas, wood processing machinery, drying systems, conveying systems, pneumatic transport and air filtration systems, and material storage areas.

The Minifog ProCon PressProtect system is specifically designed to protect continuous and multiple-opening board presses from fires which can commonly develop. The system provides early detection and suppression of press fires without causing thermal damage that can result if large volumes of cold water are used for suppression, and greatly minimizes costly downtime. A series of flame and spark detectors are strategically mounted around the press, which trigger a fine water mist in the area where a fire is detected. Suppression is achieved by both the cooling effect and the creation of steam, which smothers the fire. Very little moisture is left to clean up or damage equipment Spark detection and extinguishing systems have long been recognized by the industry and loss control community as an effective measure in the prevention of fire and explosions in dust collection and air filtration systems. Introduced to North America in the late 1970s, the FLAMEX spark detection and extinguishing system became the first system of its type to gain a Factory Mutual Approval. These systems have proven to be an invaluable part of an overall protection design in thousands of secondary woodwooking facilities located all across North America.

As part of a major global fire protection organization, FLAMEX Inc. continually strives to improve our product offerings in step with the latest technological advances. Accordingly, we have recently introduced a new powerful tool to combat fires effectively from a safe distance. The MX One firefighting turbine can spray 1,000 gallons of water per minute and project a water stream up to 260 ft. and water mist up to 130 ft. The unit can be controlled automatically or manually by a remote device.

Dust explosion caused by sparks.

PROJECTS

HOOD ORDERS WESTMILL DRYERS

Westmill Industries reports it has been awarded the contract to supply two new jet dryers to Hood Industries as part of the new plywood plant to be built in Beaumont, Miss. as recently announced by Hood.

Hood Industries VP Manufacturing, Ryan Daniels, comments, “The Westmill dryer order was the first PO issued of the entire Beaumont plant rebuild project. We thoroughly vetted all available veneer drying technologies worldwide, and because of their commitment to innovation and acute attention to detail, we are happy to announce that Westmill was selected to join Hood Industries in the rebuild of our plywood facility.”

Westmill states the dryers will incorporate the latest in hybrid gas/steam heating technology as well Westmill’s many patented and proprietary dryer control and emission technologies.

HOOD TAPS ALTEC FOR GREEN END

After a tornado heavily damaged the Hood Industries mill in Beaumont, Miss., the company decided to rebuild the operation which will operate at a rate twice the capacity as the previous facility.

Hood Industries’ new plywood operation at Beaumont has selected Altec to supply the green end line, from step feeder to sheet stackers. The green end aims to produce consistently high-quality, lowvariance veneer with production levels above 60,000 m3 per hour.

The lathe deck will feature an Altec electric charger with Altec XY scanner and Altec’s new electric lathe. The new electric lathe will feature electric spindles, dual AC motor spindle drive, electric backup rolls and an electric carriage featuring a new electric incised roller bar. The dual AC motor electric spindle drive eliminates the heavy gears, chains,

shafts, and large horsepower motor traditionally used to connect and drive the spindles. Each spindle will be driven in synchronous operation, providing very tight speed tolerances, and eliminating all the associated maintenance and downtime of the old-style linkage system. The motors are able to be downsized and allow for cost savings in energy consumption.

The primary and strip trays will be supplied by Altec and driven with all AC drives. The Altec clipper scanner uses vision and light technology to clip for grade, moisture, and defects with no contact with the ribbon. The clipper will be installed with electric-driven rolls.

The 6-bay Altec diverter, recently installed in two other locations, is an allnew vacuum design utilizing innovative belt technology with much lower powered fans required resulting in greater power savings.

Two 4-bin Altec sheet stackers will be supplied with an all-new design featuring electric servo-driven knock-off arms. This new design will eliminate the traditional pneumatic knockoffs, which create ongoing costly downtime and maintenance.

The mill is scheduled to start plywood production in December 2024.

THEBAULT ORDERS LVL PLANT FROM RAUTE

Raute Corp. has signed a contract worth EUR 44.6 million with the Thebault Group of France for the technology delivery of a new greenfield LVL production plant.

The plant, which will be the first LVL plant in France, will eventually produce 100,000 m3 of LVL, with this delivery agreement covering a first phase at 70,000 m3

The order for Raute’s technology includes all the production processes from veneer peeling to LVL billet handling, including an extensive service package. The lines are a complete solution compiled of Raute’s most automated R7Series technologies.

The ordered machinery and equipment will be delivered during 2024. It will be manufactured at Raute’s production units in Lahti and Kajaani in Finland, and in the company’s partnership network.

This new plant, which is expected to

be in full operation in 2026, is part of Thebault’s development to extend its offering particularly to the construction industry. Driven by a fast-growing market, this French production of engineered wood products will expand the offer of bio-sourced materials contributing to the decarbonization of the building sector, according to the participants.

“Thebault is our long-term customer, and we are very pleased to continue our close partnership with them on this new project. Raute is committed to provide its latest innovations and complete endto-end expertise to build a new worldclass LVL plant for Thebault,” comments Mika Saariaho, President and CEO of Raute.

Antoine Thebault, President and CEO of Thebault Group, adds, “After partnering with Raute for three generations of our family history, collaborating again with Raute in this important investment for our company is a guarantee for success and sign of trust, because Raute is the only equipment supplier in the world able to design, engineer and build the equipment for all processes in an LVL plant.”

The Thebault Group, a family-owned industrial company, is the leading French plywood manufacturer with annual production of 125,000 m³ making almost 50% of the total domestic plywood production and ranks among the top five European producers. 70% of the produced plywood is exported, mainly in Europe but also to the rest of the world. The group employs 400 and generated a turnover of €100 million in 2022.

LATVIJAS FINIERIS PLANS EXPANSION

Raute Corp. has signed a contract worth EUR 29 million with AS Latvijas Finieris for the delivery of technology to a plywood mill expansion. Latvijas Finieris, the leading producer of birch plywood in Europe and the Baltic countries, will expand its Verems, Latvia plywood factory to increase production capacity by 35,000 m3.

The order for Raute’s technology includes all main production processes from veneer drying to plywood overlaying: veneer drying line, veneer scarfjointing line, veneer composing lines, plywood layup line, plywood pressing line, panel trimming line, and panel

PROJECTS

overlaying line, with extensive service package and long-term on-site management. The lines are a complete solution compiled of Raute’s proven R5- and most modern automated R7-Series technologies. All lines are equipped with analyzers for grading and MillSIGHTS software for data capturing.

The ordered machinery and equipment will be delivered between March 2024 and June 2025. This new expansion, which should be in full operation in 2025, is part of Latvijas Finieris’s strategy to develop and innovate sustainable birch plywood production enabling further processing of special end products.

Latvijas Finieris Group is a multisectoral international company with key business in research, development, production, and sales of tailored birch plywood products under the brand Riga Wood. Its birch plywood and veneer factories are located in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

BARLINEK GEARS UP WITH HYMMEN LINE

In 2023, the Barlinek Group in Poland will produce high-quality floors that have been digitally printed and textured using Hymmen’s JUPITER Digital Printing technology DLEplus.

Barlinek Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of multilayer parquet flooring and is also involved in the production of modern vinyl flooring. Hymmen’s DLEplus supports Barlinek in meeting the demands and desires of the market in terms of individual design collections and flexible batch sizes, while at the same time ensuring reliable quality and cost-effectiveness. This goes hand in hand with the expertise of Barlinek’s own decor development department, which has access to highquality woods thanks to the established real wood flooring business. As a result, Barlinek has its own decor library for digital wood flooring decors.

In cooperation with i4F as a partner for the patented technologies used, including Hymmen IP, the first contact between Hymmen and Barlinek was established in spring 2021. Within the scope of extensive test series at the Hymmen Technology Center, digital decors and structures were tested and verified with different substrates and product variants.

“This is how the deep trust in a successful cooperation developed,” explaines Lukasz Luto, CPO of the Barlinek Group. This was confirmed when the contract was signed in early summer 2022. In the summer of 2023, the plant will be delivered to the Barlinek production site of the same name in Poland, and production will then start in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The plant concept comprises a digital printing line with a total length of approximately 140 m. Depending on the type of operation, the calculated production capacity is more than 10 million m² per year.

The overall system includes handling via fully automated gantries and transports from Hymmen as a single source. After loading, SPC plates are prepared for digital décor printing using several roller applicators. The ACC scanner installed downstream of the JUPITER digital printing system extends over the entire printing width and enables homogeneous printing of even difficult decors.

In Europe and the U.S., Barlinek will be able to serve various target groups in both the residential and commercial sectors with a flooring quality that can be scaled as required.

LUMIN ANNOUNCES NEW PLYWOOD MILL

Lumin will invest US$136 million to build its third industrial plant in Uruguay, which is expected to create more than 300 jobs and significantly increase the country’s sustainable plywood production. The announcement was made in Melo at an event attended by the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, the Mayor of Cerro Largo Dept., José Yurramendi, and Lumin CEO Álvaro Molinari. Following approval by Lumin’s Board of Directors, which includes representatives of the BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG) and British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI), construction of the new plant is beginning, with operations expected to commence the first quarter of 2026.

The expansion is part of Lumin’s strategy to capitalize on the growing global demand for sustainable timber products for the construction and furniture sectors. All of Lumin’s 120,000 hectares of commercial forests are inde-

pendently certified as meeting the global standards for responsible forest management of the FSC (FSC-C162602).

This new investment complements investments of US$48 million made over the last two years into the company’s existing facilities, which includes the construction of a thin peel line and a new warehouse facility.

Lumin CEO Molinari comments, “Lumin currently employs 780 people and produces 304,000 cubic meters of plywood per year at its two existing plants in Tacuarembó. We expect this new plant to create 320 additional jobs and to expand Lumin’s production capacity to nearly 500,000 cubic meters. Based on current figures, this would make Uruguay the second largest producer of plywood in Latin America.”

The new plant aims to capitalize on tree farms that Lumin has been sustainably managing for more than 15 years in the departments of Cerro Largo and Treinta y Tres.

NEW MDF PLANT COMES ON FAST

On March 27 an MDF plant made by Siempelkamp in Balikesir that had been ordered by the Turkish wood-based panel producer Kastamonu Entegre AS had its final inspection. Just nine and a half months from the start of assembly to final inspection—an amazingly tight timeline achieved by the teams from Kastamonu Entegre and Siempelkamp between June 2022 and March 27, 2023.

This MDF plant operates the Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous press 8 ft. x 63.7 m—the longest continuous press on the Turkish market.

“The ramp-up curve to final inspection of the scope of delivery in just seven weeks stands out in particular within the entire timeline—a super performance by both teams,” says Ulrich Kaiser, Head of Sales Wood Division at Siempelkamp.

The new plant will manufacture standard grade MDF, lightweight MDF (LMDF), and HDF. The products are placed in both the local and export markets for furniture and flooring.

Previously, in 2020-2021, Siempelkamp and Kastamonu Entegre realized an equally successfully managed timeline: The plant for producing particleboard that Kastamonu Entegre is op-

PROJECTS

erating at the Samsun site was completed within nine and a half months from the start of installation in July 2020 until the final inspection in early May 2021, despite all the COVID-19 restrictions.

“We are aiming for a hat trick,” adds Kaiser with a smile, referring to yet another project that Kastamonu Entegre is currently realizing with Siempelkamp: In January 2023, installation of a new plant to produce particleboard started at the Kastamonu City site. The plant is the 10th in the chronology of continuous presses that Kastamonu Entegre has ordered from Siempelkamp so far. Türkiye’s largest wood panel producer starts up third

KEAS STARTS UP ANDRITZ FIBER LINE

Kastamonu Entegre has started up a new Andritz fiber preparation line for MDF at its mill in Balikesir, Turkey. KEAS is the largest wood panel producer in Turkey and now successfully

operates three production lines supplied by Andritz.

Hasan Akpinar, Global Investment and Projects Director of KEAS, says: “We have relied on Andritz MDF technology and service for many years and are very satisfied with the results. Our new line from Andritz is equipped with a pressurized refining system for low electricity and thermal energy consumption. This perfectly contributes to our sustainability strategy.”

The new line has a capacity of 60 t/h and processes pine, beech and oak wood. Its centerpiece is the pressurized refining system, which includes a 24 in. plug screw feeder and a high-capacity S2070M refiner. The high dewatering efficiency of the plug screw feeder ahead of the high-pressure zone ensures low thermal and electrical energy consumption, which is one of the major benefits of the Andritz pressurized refining system.

Andritz’s scope of supply also included a gravity-fed HQ-Chipper, a

chip bin discharger and a digester, as well as supervision of mechanical installation and startup.

ETHANOL FIRM PROCESSES STRAW

Clariant, a specialty chemical company based in Muttenz, Switzerland, recently signed the acceptance for its new Dieffenbacher line in the “sunliquid” plant in Podari, Romania. The plant processes straw into cellulosic ethanol.

The straw bales, which come from throughout the Oltenia region where the plant is located, are opened, shredded and cleaned using the Dieffenbacher equipment. A Dieffenbacher ClassiCleaner cleans the shredded straw before it is processed further for bioethanol production. The Dieffenbacher scope of supply included bale reception and opening, to shredding, screening and cleaning, conveyor, exhaust system and plant electrics and control.

UPDATE

SIERRA PACIFIC PLANS WINDOW EXPANSION

Sierra Pacific Windows, a division of Sierra Pacific Industries, is expanding its roots in high-end window and door production by unveiling plans for a manufacturing campus in Phenix City, Ala. following the acquisition of 610,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing and warehousing space that’s located on 113 acres, once home to a textiles plant.

The added space will allow Sierra Pacific Windows to increase its production capacity and more efficiently respond to nationwide customer demand for its wood and vinyl products that has grown ten-fold in the last decade. Products manufactured will mirror what is produced at the company’s existing California and Wisconsin locations

“This expansion of our windows manufacturing capacity is a reflection of our confidence that customers value the distinctive product quality and service associated with Sierra Pacific Windows,” says Sierra Pacific Indus-

tries CEO Mark Emmerson. “Our unique seed-to-window approach starts by planting trees that take at least 50 years to mature. We always take a long-term, sustainable view to business. We also pride ourselves on being a place our employees feel valued for their contributions and stay for long careers.”

“The attractiveness of Alabama as the right location for our company to advance is undeniable,” adds Sierra Pacific Windows President Tom Takach. “We wanted a location that gives us the room to grow and expand. With our significant and rapidly growing demand for our windows and doors, locating in Phenix City is an obvious choice, from easy access to transportation corridors to the skilled labor forces in the greater Russell County area.”

The 610,000 sq. ft. building is just the beginning of the company’s investment in Phenix City. New equipment is already on order and fast-tracked to outfit the greenfield build of Sierra Pacific’s most high-tech window and door

plant to-date. Combined with the company’s existing locations in California and Wisconsin, the addition of the new facilities brings Sierra Pacific to a milestone of more than 2 million combined sq. ft. of manufacturing space for its Window division.

The company credits local municipal and elected officials as being instrumental in drawing their attention to the area. The Phenix City region and the State of Alabama were a supportive force that furthered Sierra Pacific Windows confidence in putting down roots in this region for their Eastern U.S. windows manufacturing operations.

SPI is a third-generation, familyowned forest products company based in Anderson, Calif. The company owns and manages more than 2.4 million acres of timberland in California, Washington and Oregon. Along with being a windows manufacturer, it is one of the largest U.S. lumber and millwork producers including 18 sawmills and eight biomass-fueled cogeneration power plants.

CALPLANT FILES, SEEKS A BUYER

CalPlant I Holdco LLC and its affiliates and subsidiaries, a northern California-based company focused on manufacturing no-added-formaldehyde, rice straw-based medium density fiberboard, known as Eureka MDF, announced that it is proceeding with an orderly liquida-

tion of its assets through a Plan of Liquidation to be approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court, and is focusing on sales of assets, in whole or in part.

CalPlant took 25 years to develop and build a rice straw-based MDF plant and produce its first board late in 2021 in Willows, Calif., in the Sacramento Valley, an area estimated to have an annual quantity of more than 1.5 million tons in rice straw waste. Once operating at full capacity, the company expected to process 280,000 tons of otherwise non-recyclable rice straw from its surrounding regions per year to produce 150MMSF of MDF product.

The pioneering operation was founded upon eliminating the need for postharvest re-flooding, thus reducing water usage and methane emissions.

CalPlant and its predecessor company, CalAg, spent many years and millions of dollars researching, developing and patenting a process to make highquality MDF using rice straw waste as the feedstock, the disposal of which had posed environmental issues in Califor-

nia for decades. Until 2001, the postharvest rice straw was burned at a nominal cost to farmers. In 2001, California banned the burning due to air quality concerns, leading to greater expense for farmers to dispose of the straw.

CalPlant had secured it raw material needs by executing long-term fixed price rice straw supply contracts. The project went through a series of unsuccessful efforts to pull together funding, and then in June 2017 closed the deal with $92 million in equity from a small consortium of investors and $225 million in tax-exempt bonds issued via the California Pollution Control Financing Authority and subsequently sold to qualified institutional investors.

However, in addition to scheduling issues for contractors, delayed machine startups and commissioning caused by the pandemic, the plant reportedly ran into mechanical issues on the front end at the refiner and in feeding of raw material to the digester as well as issues with straw preparation and moisture

CalPlant’s rice straw-based MDF facility in Willows, Calif.

control, leading to fiber quality issues, as well as odor problems.

The project had taken on additional funding beyond the original financing.

LP CONTINUES SIDING GROWTH

LP and Forex Inc. entered into an agreement under which LP will acquire the assets owned by Wawa OSB Inc., a subsidiary of Forex Inc. The transaction will add to LP’s assets a manufacturing facility in Wawa, Ontario that will be converted into an LP SmartSide Trim & Siding mill.

“LP SmartSide Trim & Siding has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years, becoming one of the fastest-growing siding brands in the United States,” comments Executive Vice President and General Manager of Siding Jason Ringblom. “In response to customer demand, we continue to expand our capacity across North America to position SmartSide for long-term growth. Our acquisition of Forex Inc.’s

Wawa facility is a great addition to our fleet of siding mills and perfect example of how we are investing in the future of SmartSide.”

Once converted, the mill will add 400MMSF of capacity, making it LP’s largest single-line siding mill. This will bring LP’s total siding capacity to 2.7 billion SF annually

Built in the mid 1990s as an OSB mill, the site is an ideal location for SmartSide production due to its access to an ample and sustainable aspen wood basket and efficient logistics options, according to LP. The mill’s conversion will bring more than 150 jobs to the region, which has a long, rich history in forest product manufacturing.

“We are thrilled to see the continued revival of this wood-based plant coming true,” says Forex Executive Vice President Yolaine Rousseau. “We would like to thank all the employees, First Nations, suppliers and local authorities for their support of this project.”

LP is evaluating project schedules at Wawa. A second SmartSide manufac-

turing line is still planned for LP’s Houlton, Maine facility, which will break ground after the conversion of the Wawa mill.

LP also announced the first production of LP SmartSide products at its Sagola, Mich. facility in March, followed by the production of the first APA-approved SmartSide board in April.

LP’s Sagola facility opened as OSB mill in 1988. In 2021, the company announced a phased, multi-year plan to expand its siding production capacity to meet the increased demand for SmartSide products. At that time, LP Sagola was among the two facilities, including LP’s Houlton mill, announced for conversion from the manufacturing of OSB to SmartSide siding.

LP successfully completed the initial phase of Sagola’s conversion to a siding mill, which culminated in the pressing of the mill’s first siding board on March 15 exactly one year after breaking ground on the project. At full capacity, LP Sagola will be able to produce 330MMSF of SmartSide siding annually.

CLIPPINGS

LUOMA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Westervelt in 2017 and has held roles in strategy and planning, sustainability and continuous improvement.

Luoma comments, “I am so blessed to have had a long and fulfilling career in the best industry in the world. Nancy and I will cherish all of the friendships we have made all over the industry. Friendships that will last a lifetime. We appreciate our time at LP and all of the great people there. Our time at Westervelt literally changed our lives. The people at Westervelt are in a league of their own. I am very proud of the next generation of leadership that will take the company to a new level. This is the right time for me and for Westervelt.”

ly purchased a house in Murfreesboro.

“My wife told me I could go wherever I want but that she’s going to Tennessee. I decided I better go to Tennessee!” Luoma says tongue-in-cheek.

NORM VOSS RECEIVES CPA LANDRY HONOR

the wood products industry, for years with LP, Brian Luoma announced he is retiring at the end of 2023 from his position as president and CEO of The Westervelt Company.

Luoma joined Alabama-based Westervelt as president and CEO in 2017, and has been instrumental in the company’s expansion of its lumber and timberlands divisions.

Prior to coming to Westervelt, Luoma worked in various capacities for Louisiana-Pacific for nearly three decades. He led LP’s EWP division for nearly 10 years and also headed its siding division.

Current Westervelt COO Cade Warner will succeed Luoma. Warner joined

From Fort Bragg, Calif., Luoma’s first job for LP, while attending college, was as an assistant log scaler in the log yard at the LP stud mill in Fort Bragg. He worked for LP each summer during college, and LP moved him into the woods as a forestry technician, laying out roads and timber harvesting plans.

Luoma graduated in Forestry from Humboldt State University in 1986. He became timberlands manager for LP in northern California, then was wood procurement manager for the Western Region. He later led LP’s Northern Operations OSB group out of Hayward, Wis., before moving to LP headquarters in Nashville as head of forestry and wood procurement and ultimately being promoted to head up engineered wood products and then siding operations.

Luoma plans to move back to Tennessee, where his children and grandchildren reside and where he has recent-

CPA recognized Norm Voss as the 2022 Brock R. Landry Industry Leadership Award recipient during the Spring Meeting Chairman’s Dinner in Tucson, Ariz. The Landry Award is given annually by CPA members to an industry leader in recognition of his or her outstanding contributions to the composite panel industry. The award was created to honor CPA counsel

Brian Luoma stepping away

Norm Voss, center, receives the Brock R. Landry Industry Leadership Award. At left is previous Landry recipient Elliott Savage of Seemac. At right is Brock R. Landry himself.

CLIPPINGS

Brock R. Landry upon retirement after more than 40 years of significant contributions to the North American composite panel industry.

CPA Executive Committee member and Swiss Krono President and CEO Erik Christensen presented the award and commended Voss on his numerous contributions to the industry and commitment to the association throughout his more than 50-year career. Beginning in 2000 Voss served as president and CEO of Kronotex USA (which later became Swiss Krono USA) for 12 years, during which he led the establishment of North America operations, and became U.S. Project Manager for Capital Expansion and led considerable expansion projects including the completion of the Swiss Krono MDF manufacturing facility and flooring lines in Barnwell, SC.

Voss was on the CPA Board and Executive Committee for numerous years and actively served on many task groups particularly focusing on formaldehyde regulations and industry advocacy. As the 1996 Chairman of the association, known then as the National Particleboard Assn., he led the integration of the Canadian particleboard industry into the newly named Composite Panel Assn. in March 1997. This was a defining point in the association and industry’s history.

Prior to coming to Kronotex, from 1987 to 2000 Voss was director of man-

ufacturing for Georgia-Pacific’s Industrial Wood Products Div. and responsible for 22 manufacturing factories in North America. Previously he was vice president of sales for U.S. Plywood, and prior to that from 1978-1984 was director of planning and development for Champion International, where he started his career in 1968 and held various sales and technical positions for U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers for 10 years. He received a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University.

CPA RECOGNIZES SAFETY LEADERS

Composite Panel Assn. presented its 2022 awards for Safety and Safety Innovation to member companies during its spring meeting held in Tucson, Ariz. Awards were given to participating manufacturing plants with exemplary safety records, including acknowledgments for long-term, annual, safety improvement and safety achievement. For each award, plants were categorized by low worker-hours (Class I) and high worker-hours (Class II).

Awards for the best long-term safety record over the past three years were given to Arauco North America, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (Class I); and Arauco North America, St. Stephen, New Brunswick (Class II).

Annual safety awards for having the lowest incident rate in their class for

2022 were awarded to Arauco North America, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, for Class I plants; and Arauco North America, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Albany, Ore., for Class II plants.

The two plants recognized for safety improvement were Timber Products, Medford, Ore. (Class I); and Roseburg, Missoula, Mont. (Class II).

Three plants were recognized for achieving an incident rate of less than 50% of the industry average over the past three years. Class I plants were WestPine MDF, Quesnel, BC; and Roseburg, Eldorado, Ark. The Class II plant was Arauco North America, Albany, Ore.

CPA presented Weyerhaeuser’s Columbia Falls, Mont. plant with the 2022 Safety Innovation Award. The Weyerhaeuser plant’s implementation of “Forward Looking Infrared Windows” significantly decreased arc flash hazard exposure.

A total of 124 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) windows were installed on power transformers across the manufacturing complex to eliminate the risk of 432 individual arc flash hazard exposures while performing monthly and quarterly transformer inspections. Performing these inspections ensures safe and reliable power is delivered to mill operations and provides electricians and engineers with appropriate data to act prior to unplanned equipment failures.

CLIPPINGS

WOOD TURBINES WILL USE LVL

Swedish wood technology company, Modvion, and the Finnish wood product company, Metsä Wood, have an agreement for Metsä Wood to supply lami-

nated veneer lumber (LVL) for Modvion’s wooden wind turbine towers.

“Building renewable energy with renewable materials can enable net-zero energy production from wind,” says Pär Hallgren, Head of Procurement at Modvion. “Metsä Wood is an important partner in our journey to become a leading supplier of the next generation of sustainable wind turbine towers, which will also make us potentially one of the largest buyers of LVL.”

The material is essential for the design as its strength-to-weight ratio results in lighter towers with less need for expensive reinforcements.

“Kerto LVL enables high material efficiency thus making it ideal for sustainable construction. Modvion’s design and application is a great example of its versatility,” says Henrik Söderström, SVP, Sales and Marketing at Metsä Wood.

Along with the technical benefits of LVL, it also enables radical reductions in emissions. According to a lifecycle

analysis conducted by the Swedish research institute RISE, a wooden wind turbine tower reduces emissions by 90% when compared to a steel tower of the same height and load. Considering that wood is also storing carbon, the tower becomes carbon negative, since it is binding more CO2 than it emits during manufacturing. To ensure maximum carbon storage, Modvion plans to reuse the wood material after the wind turbine tower is decommissioned.

“The volumes of wood needed for a Modvion tower is between 300-1200 cubic meters depending on the height and load. That means an LVL carbon storage capacity between 240- 950 tonnes CO2 per tower,” says Pär Hallgren.

Modvion’s next milestone is building its first commercial wind turbine tower during 2023. The wooden tower will be installed with a 2 MW wind turbine on top and stand at 150 m total height, including the blades. Metsä Wood is the supplier of the LVL for this project.

EGGER TOUTS RECYCLING CENTER

With its new recycling center fully operational, EGGER Wood Products, a leading manufacturer of wood-based materials, is further demonstrating its commitment to producing sustainable materials for interior design and furniture applications. This investment offers architects, designers and millworkers an option for U.S.-made thermally fused laminate (TFL) and particleboard made with up to 15% post-consumer recycled wood.

“We are happy to say that most of the wood material in our U.S.-produced boards is waste wood from sawmill residues and pre-consumer recycled material,” says Markus Frevert, plant manager for production at EGGER Wood Products. “With the addition of our $41 million recycling center, up to 15 percent of the wood chips used are post-consumer recycled material. Only about seven percent comes from harvested timber, sourced from sustainably managed forests.”

In January, EGGER Group acquired the business and assets of Novem Industries, located in Charlotte, NC. The acquisition, via EGGER’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Timberpak, LLC, serves as a collec-

Modvion’s wind turbine towers are built with engineered wood products. Replacing steel and concrete with wood—when possible—is a hyper intelligent way to make wind power almost free from carbon emissions.

CLIPPINGS

tion and preparation site that accepts construction and demolition waste wood and packaging waste—primarily used and broken pallets. The wood is ground into pieces about one foot in length before delivery to EGGER’s Lexington production plant. The majority of EGGER’s post-consumer recycled wood is sourced through Timberpak.

At Lexington, EGGER Wood Products LLC’s first production facility in North America, EGGER operates a particleboard manufacturing plant, with TFL lamination, which started production in 2020.

ADMARES PLANS HOUSING FACTORY

ADMARES, which specializes in industrialized manufacturing of buildings and homes, plans to construct its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Waycross, Ga. The company expects to create more than 1,400 jobs and invest $750 million in Ware County.

ADMARES originates from Turku,

Finland and specializes in the mass production of buildings using proprietary technology. Currently, the organization is in the process of relocating its headquarters to the U.S. while continuing to leverage its innovative technology. The company’s buildings have been used in both the residential and hospitality sectors.

Mikael Hedberg, Founder and CEO of ADMARES, comments, “With the rise of modern industrialization practices, we have combined our expertise to create a revolutionary robotic-driven manufacturing process that allows entire buildings to be manufactured at a factory rather than on a traditional construction site. With our advanced technology, we are adopting successful practices that are common in other advanced industries.”

Hedberg adds that Waycross is an ideal location for a transportation hub with easy access to major highways and extensive rail connections. Its proximity to the Port of Brunswick, one of the busiest ports on the Eastern seaboard, offers a competitive advantage for global trade.

ADMARES has selected a greenfield

site to construct a 2.5 million SF buildto-suit facility located along Highway 23. The manufacturing facility will specialize in producing buildings for the housing sector and is expected to begin production in late 2025.

The company will be hiring for positions in administration, management, engineering and IT as well as logistics, assembly, robotics maintenance and production.

UNIVERSITIES RECEIVE MASS TIMBER GRANT

Researchers from the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the University of Washington will use a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to advance mass timber technologies in Oregon and Washington.

“This grant enables us to analyze what needs to be done to make a much more robust mass timber ecosystem from forests to buildings,” says Judith Sheine, a professor in the UO’s Dept. of Architecture, and project director.

WMF RETURNS SEPTEMBER 5-8

Shanghai International Furniture Machinery & Woodworking Machinery Fair (WMF) has been one of the most established and successful woodworking machinery exhibitions of its kind in Asia since 1986. In view of the rising demand in innovative technologies across the entire supply chain of furniture production and woodworking industry, WMF has been co-located with CIFF (China International Furniture Machinery & Woodworking Machinery Fair) since 2018 to serve as a one-stop sourcing platform connecting upstream and downstream enterprises and stretching across the whole woodworking industry.

WMF will be held on September 5-8, 2023 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, where more than 300 exhibitors and 30,000 high caliber domestic and foreign buyers are expected to gather and ahead of the curve in the post-pandemic era.

Registration for WMF 2023 is open

now at https://bit.ly/40whwib. All industry players are welcome to pre-register online to enjoy free admission to both WMF and CIFF.

WESTMILL GOING STRONG AT 48 YEARS

Westmill recently celebrated 48 years of business. Established in 1975, Victor Crondahl started Westmill Industries supplying parts and equipment to the Canadian plywood manufacturing industry. Now, nearly five decades later, Westmill continues to grow under its current owner, Mike Crondahl, son of the founder.

Westmill has become a world leader in the design and manufacture of veneer drying equipment and technologies. Twenty-five years after Westmill installed an insulated stainless dryer floor under an existing dryer, a practice that is now standard worldwide, Westmill continues to grow and achieve milestones such as currently building the largest veneer dryer in the world.

Throughout the recent Ligna event in Hannover, Germany, Dr. Dieter Siempelkamp, previous managing director of the third generation and honorary chairman on the current advisory board of G. Siempelkamp GmbH & Co. KG, was represented on site with other family members and the new management board. Left to right: Martin Sieringhaus, CFO; Christian Siempelkamp; Dr. Dieter Siempelkamp; Philipp Siempelkamp; Samiron Mondal, CSO; Stefan Wissing, COO.

“To all our friends and customers worldwide, thank you for entrusting us with your dryer needs and for helping us grow!” comments Mike Crondahl.

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to 5'x12', Internal logistics for fast on-time deliveries

Contact us: Birchland Plywood-Veneer Ltd. TeL: 705-842-2430 • Fax: 705-842-2496 Visit www.birchlandplywood.com to view our “Live Log Program”

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Manufacturers of Decorative Hardwood Veneer Domestic and International Markets Species include: Walnut, White Oak, Red Oak, Hard Maple, Cherry and Birch

“Quality is the Lifeblood of our Business” 112 Shelby Ave. ◆ P.O. Box 7 Edinburgh, IN 46124 Phone: 812-526-2671 ◆ Fax: 812-526-5865

E-mail: info@amoshill.com

Website: www.amoshill.com

The mark of responsible forestry FSC Supplier: SCS-COC-002445 * SCS-CW-002445

Send your ad information on a separate sheet of paper, or send via email, and we will typeset it for you for FREE.

Please be sure to include appropriate contact information so we may contact you for questions and payment.

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25-28 • AWFS Fair 2023, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV. Call 800-946-2937; visit awfsfair.org.

12-13 • Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; e-mail dianne@hattonbrown.com; visit bioenergyshow.com.

14-15 • Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE), Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 800-669-5613; visit pelice-expo.com.

23-25 • Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Expo, Music City Center, Nashville, Tenn. Call 504-443-4464; visit sfpaexpo.com.

APRIL 2024

10-12 • International Wood Products Assn. 67th World of Wood Convention, San Diego, Calif. Call 703-820-6696; visit iwpawood.org.

Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

5-8 • WMF: Shanghai International Furniture Machinery & Woodworking Machinery Fair, National Exhibition and Convention Center, Shanghai, China. Call (852) 2516 3518; visit woodworkfair.com.

12 • Pennsylvania Forest Products Assn. annual meeting, Wyndham Garden State College, Boalsburg, Pa. Call 717-9010420; visit paforestproducts.org.

17-21 • American Wood Protection Assn. Technical Committee meeting, Le Meridien Downtown, Denver, Colo. Call 205-733-4077; visit awpa.com.

20-23 • IFMAC WOODMAC Indonesia—the International Furniture Manufacturing Components and Woodworking Machinery Exhibition, Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, Indonesia. Visit ifmac.net.

14-17 • APA-Engineered Wood Assn. annual meeting and Engineered Wood Technology Assn. Info Fair, JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, Palm Desert, Calif. Call 253-5656600; visit apawood.org and engineeredwood.org.

22-24 • Composite Panel Assn. Fall meeting, Lansdowne Resort, Leesburg, Va. Call 703-724-1128; visit composite panel.org.

22-26 • IndiaWood 2024, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bangalore, India. Call +91-80-4250 5000; visit indiawood.com.

5-7 • Dubai Woodshow, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Call +971 4 39 23232; visit dubaiwoodshow.com.

2023 • PanelWorld

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