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A Hatton-Brown Publication
Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. Street Address: 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Telephone: 334.834.1170 FAX: 334.834.4525
Volume 49 • Number 1 • January/February 2024 Founded in 1976 • Our 503rd Consecutive Issue
Renew or subscribe on the web: www.timberprocessing.com
Publisher: David H. Ramsey Chief Operating Officer: Dianne C. Sullivan Editor-in-Chief: Rich Donnell Senior Editor: Dan Shell Senior Editor: David Abbott Senior Editor: Jessica Johnson Publisher/Editor Emeritus: David (DK) Knight Art Director/Prod. Manager: Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coordinator: Patti Campbell Circulation Director: Rhonda Thomas Online Content/Marketing: Jacqlyn Kirkland Classified Advertising: Bridget DeVane • 334.699.7837 800.669.5613 • bdevane7@hotmail.com Advertising Sales Representatives: Southern USA Randy Reagor P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 904.393.7968 • FAX: 334.834.4525 E-mail: reagor.randy@outlook.com
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NEWSFEED
Mellott Founder Passes
18 PERSON OF THE YEAR Andy Pollard, Inventor Extraordinaire
28 MONTROSE FOREST PRODUCTS New Cogeneration Plant Has The Right Touch
32 MACHINERY ROW
Blanca-MiCROTEC Project Gets High Grade
42 AT LARGE
Lots Of Personnel Announcements
45 PRODUCT SCANNER 10 Developments In Optimization
46 MAIN EVENTS
East Coast Expo, Portland Shows This Year
COVER: While running a family-owned, small southern yellow pine sawmill in Georgia, Levi Anderson Pollard’s contributions to the sawmill industry have been large. Story begins on PAGE 18. (Jessica Johnson photo) VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.timberprocessing.com Timber Processing (ISSN 0885-906X, USPS 395-850) is published 11 times annually (monthly except Jan./Feb.) by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscription Information—TP is free to qualified owners, operators, managers, purchasing agents, supervisors, foremen and other key personnel at sawmills, pallet plants, chip mills, treating plants, specialty plants, lumber finishing operations, corporate industrial woodlands officials and machinery manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. All non-qualified U.S. Subscriptions are $55 annually: $65 in Canada; $95 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. Funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE: 800-6695613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.timberprocessing.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Timber Processing magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorse nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Timber Processing. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2024. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A.
Postmaster: Please send address changes to Timber Processing, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, Alabama 36102-2419 Other Hatton-Brown publications: Timber Harvesting • Southern Loggin’ Times Wood Bioenergy • Panel World • Power Equipment Trade
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THEISSUES
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Jessica Johnson Senior Editor
WHEN HE TALKS PEOPLE LISTEN
S 28
32
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ome of the smartest men and women in the industry have graced the pages of this magazine—and have won the award of Timber Processing Person of the Year. They’ve all been incredibly worthy of this recognition for innovation, commitment and love of the industry they serve. Perhaps none have been quite as innovative as the introverted sawmiller from Georgia named Levi Anderson Pollard, V, whose name is on two of the patents that changed the way the sawmilling world manufactures and dries lumber (and on so many other patents as well). Andy Pollard is just a little boy who grew up around a sawmill, but also loved to take Andy’s pile of patents things apart and figure out how to make a broken thing work again. He would eventually get a mechanical engineering degree from Clemson University and return to his family sawmill; and then notice things that just didn’t work, or otherwise didn’t make sense to him. That’s when he’d start thinking, and that thinking would turn into “twiddling,” as Pollard referred to it, when I met him on a rainy day in early January. There have been many, many times during this job that I have been very intimidated. The first time I heard the debarker on a scorcher of a summer day at M.C. Dixon Lumber Co. in Eufaula, Ala.—my very first visit to a sawmill, ever. Or the August day I was eight months pregnant with the twins, and I smiled at Tommy Battle gesturing for him to go ahead, as I somehow climbed the Battle Lumber catwalk in Wadley, Ga. to get the good shots of his mill, big belly and all. Then there was waiting in the brightly polished lobby of the Georgia-Pacific Tower, a building I’d driven by no less than 100 times growing up, waiting to meet GP lumber chief Fritz Mason to complete his Person of the Year interview. But meeting with Andy Pollard had me on pins and needles. Andy Pollard! The guy who changed the industry—or at least how to curve-saw cants and dry more lumber more efficiently. His list of patents alone had me running through an entire ream of printer paper. But after my eyes glazed over discussing calculus (a subject I didn’t even attempt in any of my years of schooling) he brought us back down to Earth, telling me that plainly working on things is what brings him joy. That and spending time with his wife of nearly 50 years and their five grandchildren. Nothing but a grown boy with an interest in making things work better. He put me at ease, almost easy enough to forget big parts of modern sawmilling happen because of his tenacity. Bryant Beadles, a longtime independent sawmiller turned Canfor sawmiller, said it perfectly: “Behind Any Pollard’s soft-spoken nature is a brilliant mind running one hundred miles per hour. I spent years around him like an aggravating child trying to get to some words of wisdom of what he was thinking. Andy has been instrumental in my learning of the lumber business. In his soft-spoken way, he taught me to look for new solutions and to follow ideas. As soft-spoken as he is, we all consider him like the old E.F. Hutton commercial, when Andy TP speaks people listen.” Contact Jessica Johnson, ph: 334-834-1170; fax 334-834-4525; e-mail: jessica@hattonbrown.com TIMBER PROCESSING ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ■ 5
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NEWSFEED HAMPTON LUMBER BUYS REDBUILT Atlas Holdings has entered into an agreement to sell RedBuilt, LLC to Hampton Lumber Mills, Inc. Atlas formed RedBuilt with the acquisition of the commercial division of Trus Joist from Weyerhaeuser Co. in 2009. Over the next 14 years, the company became an industry leader in the engineering, design and manufacturing of proprietary wood-based structural solutions serving the low-rise commercial construction market. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2024. RedBuilt and Hampton Lumber are united by their roots in the Pacific Northwest and shared commitment to their people, communities and sustainability. Hampton Lumber is a fourth-generation family-owned company with operations dating back to 1942. Today, Hampton’s 1,700 employees operate 10 sawmills across Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, RedBuilt is a leader in engineered structural systems across light-frame commercial, multi-family, and offsite building applications. RedBuilt’s broad product line, customer centric service posture, and project management skillset provide the commercial construction community with solutions to the unique challenges of the commercial segment. Today, RedBuilt’s skilled team of more than 400 associates deliver nationwide sales and support out of four design centers and manufacturing facilities in Chino, Calif.; Delaware, Ohio; and Stayton and Hillsboro, Ore. “The decision to conclude our extraordinary partnership with the team at RedBuilt is bittersweet. The journey over more than 14 years to build the
company in partnership with Atlas Operating Partners Tom Denig, Bill Corbin and Kurt Liebich and current CEO Don Schwabe has been long and rewarding, but the time is right to transition RedBuilt to great new partners in Hampton Lumber,” says Atlas CoFounder and Managing Partner Andrew Bursky. “We wish Hampton and our good friends at RedBuilt every success.”
PEAK NA, FEHR PURCHASE RPM Peak North America (PNA), part of the Brian Fehr Group of Companies, announced the acquisition of Real Performance Machinery (RPM), effective February 1. “This new development will further position the Peak Group as a premiere North American company focused on the manufacturing and installation of industrial and mechanical equipment for wood processing facilities,” according to a company statement. RPM has proven to be a top producer of high quality, technologically advanced log and lumber breakdown equipment. With a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Independence, Va., and a control systems engineering and production facility in Enderby, British Columbia, the operation is poised for continued success and growth. Michael Sawer, outgoing CEO of RPM, states: “RPM and our successes can be attributed to the focus on quality and service. We have had an enduring pursuit to provide the most innovative and dependable machinery and equipment the industry has known. This alignment with (BFG) Brian Fehr Group and Peak NA will provide RPM and all its employees the resources and opportunities for continued growth and success. I am extremely proud of all of RPM’s employees and
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MELLOTT BUILT MACHINERY BUSINESS Hayes Richard Mellott, of Fort Loudon, Pa., who co-started and led Mellott Manufacturing Co., an important manufacturer and supplier of sawmill equipment, died on December 24, 2023 at his residence. He was 98. Born December 17, 1925 in Cito, Fulton County, he was a son of the late Frank L. and Henrietta “Nettie” Heinbaugh Mellott. Mellott graduated from Lemasters Hayes Mellott High School and enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was a Crew Chief on the B-29 Boeing Superfortress Airplane. Hayes worked on the family farm and later started Mellott Manufacturing Co. with his brother John S. Mellott in the early 1960s. The Mellott family history, dating back into the 1800s, involved primarily sawmilling and farming. The Mellott brothers followed in these footsteps, both beginning in their father’s sawmill and also becoming farmers. Hayes Mellott had an intrinsic understanding for designing and fabricating machinery. The business started on the Mellott family farm in rural Mercersburg, Pa. by Hayes Mellott with his wife, Mary Jane Mellott. Hayes’ first design was a small cant hook style turner that eventually evolved into what is now the Mellott Model 4 Log Turner. This log turner was small, but powerful, hydraulically operated. At that time manual labor was primarily being used in sawmills and a market opened up looking for safer and more economical ways of handling logs and lumber. As the business grew, in 1965 the plant was built on an adjoining property and the business relocated to its present location. John S. Mellott retired in the early 1970s and the name was changed to Mellott Manufacturing Co., Inc. Hayes and Mary Jane Mellott retired in the late 1990s, leaving the next generation to follow in their footsteps. Mellott Manufacturing still remains a family owned and operated company and has grown and evolved over the years, including a line of log turners, debarkers, offbearers, drop belts, unscramblers and decks. Hayes Mellott once stated: “It has always been my goal to supply quality equipment that exceeds our customers’ expectations. The excellent workmanship and attention to detail that our people give to each item quite often makes this possible.” Mellott was an avid hunter and enjoyed fishing and flying airplanes. He was a member of the NRA and American Legion. He is survived by his children, Samuel H. (Cindy R.) Mellott, Sue (John) Ausherman, Ann M. (Charles) Cushwa, Dale R. (Stacy) Mellott, nine grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. Mellott was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Jane Garland Mellott, and siblings, Clark, Frank, and John Mellott, Almira Lauver and Betty Palmer. A graveside funeral service was held December 29, 2023 at Union Cemetery, McConnellsburg, Pa.
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NEWSFEED our collective accomplishments. I wish RPM, Brian, BFG and Peak NA the very best and much prosperity in the future.” “We are proud to now have RPM within our group of companies. From the quality and ingenuity shown in the manufacturing of equipment, to the professionalism of the staff, we couldn’t be happier to work with this team. We see exceptional things in our future and look forward to doing great things with RPM,” says Leif Norrgard, CEO of Peak North America. RPM will continue to service all current customers and sectors of the wood products industry. In conjunction with Peak North America, RPM will now offer complete turnkey supply and installation services across North America. “With the continued leadership of Shawn Guiber-
gia, Richard Vetter and Daniel Gravely, we look forward to a great future ahead for Peak and RPM,” the company states. “Our sincere thanks to Michael and Leah Sawer for their leadership and commitment in the building of this company. We wish them all the best on their next adventures.” Peak NA in recent years has also purchased Advanced Sawmill Machinery and Endurance Equipment, and is currently building a sawmill in Louisiana.
HAMPTON CLOSES BANKS SAWMILL Hampton Lumber announced the indefinite closure of its sawmill in Banks, Ore., where operations had been curtailed since October. “We are well aware of the detrimental impact a mill clo-
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sure has on employees, their families, and the surrounding community,” says Hampton CEO Randy Schillinger. “I want to thank our Banks employees for their professionalism and hard work over the years. And I want to also thank community leaders in Banks and rural Washington County for the support they have shown for the mill over the years.” The Banks mill employed 58. “No one wants to see a mill close,” Schillinger adds. “However, with the current log supply restrictions in Oregon and the likelihood of additional restrictions on State Forests in the coming years, we just can’t see a viable future for the Banks facility.” The town of Banks lies on the outskirts of Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests, Forest Trust Lands managed
by the Oregon Dept. of Forestry (ODF) for recreation, habitat, timber harvest and revenue for county services. ODF returns roughly 64% of the revenues produced from timber to the counties to fund public services like rural schools, fire departments and law enforcement agencies. The state retains the remaining 36% as a management fee. Under a proposed Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) now being considered by the Board of Forestry, harvests on state forests are expected to decrease up to 34% from roughly 250MMBF annually to just 165-182.5MMBF each year for the next 70 years, according to Hampton. These figures do not include the impact of subsequent lost jobs and economic opportunity related to these harvest reductions. This decreased harvest pro-
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NEWSFEED jection is due to ODF’s decision to set aside 57% of state forestland for habitat under the HCP, the company states. In the coming months, the Board of Forestry will have to decide whether to make changes to the HCP to improve harvest outcomes or continue with the plan as proposed. “It’s hard to see the loss of local manufacturing capacity, particularly when it seems so unnecessary,” Schillinger says. “We have some of the most healthy and productive forests in the world and they’re already maintained under the best forest practices to ensure we meet non-harvest goals on our mixed-use forests.” Since Hampton took over the Banks mill in 2016, the sawmill produced enough lumber to frame 38,000 single-family homes and generated over $263 million in
local economic activity. Hampton will maintain operations at its three remaining sawmills in northwest Oregon in the communities of Willamina, Tillamook and Warrenton, which collectively employ more than 600.
WEYCO ANNOUNCES DODSON UPGRADE Weyerhaeuser, one of the world’s largest private owners of timberland including 1.39 million acres in Louisiana, announced it is investing $96.2 million to modernize and decarbonize its Winn Parish lumber mill. The upgraded technology is designed to increase overall safety, productivity and product reliability. The investment will allow the company to retain 157 direct jobs and maintain an associated annual payroll of
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more than $13 million, while reinforcing Louisiana’s foothold in the residential construction supply chain. “We are proud to announce another multimilliondollar investment in our state’s booming timber industry, demonstrating yet again how our state’s groundbreaking Climate Action Plan is driving economic growth across a wide range of industries,” Gov. John Bel Edwards says. “Weyerhaeuser’s reinvestment in its Dodson facility is a win not only for Winn Parish and Louisiana’s vibrant agribusiness sector, but also the rural communities whose workers rely on the hundreds of existing jobs this modernization will preserve.” The project includes the installation of three continuous dry kilns (CDK). This tech-
nology will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, waste and maintenance costs while increasing drying capacity. The facility will also add a new trimmer, sorter and stacker to improve mill efficiencies and help reach production targets. “This investment is a testament to each employee here at Dodson,” says Anthony Bivings, Dodson mill manager. “It reflects their personal commitment to the highest level of performance, both operational and safety. We’ve been working very hard on this project, and we’re excited for the sustained benefits it will bring to our people, our operations, and the Dodson and Winn Parish communities.” Weyerhaeuser has eight locations in Louisiana, including timberland operational bases in Hammond, Ruston and Winnfield; lum-
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NEWSFEED ber mills in Dodson and Holden; and a plywood and veneer mill in Zwolle that, along with its oriented strandboard mill in Arcadia, supplies its Natchitoches Microllam manufacturing facility. The company plans to install the first two CDKs by the end of 2024. The additional new equipment is expected to be installed by the end of the second quarter in 2025. To secure the project in Dodson, the state of Louisiana offered Weyerhaeuser a competitive incentives package that includes a $500,000 performance-based forgivable loan from the Economic Development Award Program for infrastructure improvements and equipment. The company is also expected to participate in the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program.
BOISE CURTAILS CHAPMAN SAWMILL Boise Cascade announced an indefinite curtailment of its lumber production mill in Chapman, Ala. The curtailment affects 80 positions. The plywood operations at the Chapman location are not part of the curtailment. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notification was provided to impacted employees and specifies that operations were to cease on January 28, 2024. “The team has worked diligently every day; however, a combination of challenges, including required future investments and overall profitability, has led to this decision,” says Chris Seymour, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing Operations. “It
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was a difficult and unfortunate decision, but after evaluating a number of factors over the past year, it is not feasible to continue operating at an efficient level. “We understand the impact that this shutdown has on our employees and their families,” Seymour adds. “We are communicating about job opportunities within the company as well as resources that are available to assist them.”
VIDA PLANS BRUZA UPGRADE VIDA AB, owned 70% by Canfor Corp., will invest 700 million SEK (CAD$85 million) at its Bruza Sawmill in Hjältevad, Sweden, expanding production from 175MMBF to 240 MMBF. This investment includes a new high-capacity planing
mill, new boiler, wood drying kilns and warehouse. Construction of the planing mill, which is being designed to efficiently process lumber for all of Vida’s markets, will commence in spring 2024 and is expected to be in full production in 2026. Due to the increased capacity, Vida will grow its Bruza team as it introduces a second production shift. The planing mill will be supplied by C Gunnarssons Verkstads AB from Vislanda, Sweden, which has been supplying the European sawmill industry for more than 60 years.
TWO WEST FRASER SAWMILLS TAKE HIT West Fraser Timber Co. announced it is closing its sawmill in Maxville, Fla. and indefinitely curtailing opera-
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NEWSFEED tions at its sawmill in Huttig, Ark.—due to high fiber costs and soft lumber markets. The closure of the Maxville sawmill impacts 80 employees, while the indefinite curtailment of Huttig impacts 140 employees. This will reduce West Fraser’s U.S. lumber capacity by 270MMBF. High fiber costs at Maxville and the current low-price commodity environment have impaired the ability of both mills to profitably operate, according to the company.
METSÄ LVL PLANT BRINGS IN SWECO Metsä Group and Sweco have signed an agreement for the implementation planning of the new Kerto LVL mill in Äänekoski, Finland. Sweco is responsible for the complete implementation
planning of the mill project, including structural, process and plant design. Sweco was also responsible for the design of Metsä Group’s Äänekoski bioproduct mill, which started operations in 2017, and the planned wood product mill will apply the synergy benefits offered by the mill area. For example, the steam needed in the production process of Kerto LVL will be produced at the Äänekoski bioproduct mill, and the condensate generated in the process will be utilized for heating the building. The mill will have an annual production capacity of around 160,000 m3 of Kerto LVL and is expected to start production in the second half of 2026. When completed, the mill will employ 150 directly and 200 in its value chain.
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LUMBER INSPECTOR MATHEWS DIES James R. Mathews, known by most as Jim, a WWPA Lumber Inspector and Master Lumberman, and remembered by his colleagues and those in the industry as a great friend and mentor, has died at age 74. Mathews spent 42 years working in the lumber industry. He began his career with Weyerhaeuser Co. at Klamath Falls, Ore. in 1970. He worked in most of the planer mill positions until moving into the lumber grading department as a student grader in 1972. He was first certified in 1974 in Commons and then subsequently earned certificates in all NGR Grades, Shop and Selects. He remained within the Grading Dept. for the next 17 years.
Mathews joined WWPA as Lumber Inspector in 1987 overseeing the California Southern Central Valley. In 1989 he was moved to the WWPA Portland office. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Master Lumberman award. When asked how he got started in the business as a lumber grader, Mathews replied with his typical humor: Although I had lived in Klamath Falls my entire life, I really wasn’t prepared enough for the cold weather. I did look around (the mills) and see the only jobs that had a heater was the lumber graders. So, I decided I was going to be a lumber grader so I could have a heater also.” After 25 years with WWPA, Mathews retired in the spring of 2012 as the Quality Assurance Administrative Manager.
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ANDY
POL LARD By Jessica Johnson
Timber Processing names Levi Anderson Pollard, V (okay it’s Andy), the 2024 Person of the Year.
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W
APPLING, Ga.
hat started on the back of a napkin in a hotel lobby, just two guys talking about how to make something that wasn’t working quite like they thought it could, or should, ended up changing the way many sawmills process lumber. Sitting in that lobby drawing on that napkin was Levi Anderson Pollard, V, a third generation sawmiller (and mechanical engineer) from just a little northwest of Augusta, Ga., talking to his friend Chris Raybon, the sawmill machinery and optimization expert. The drawing? It would become the curvesawing gang. Pollard, who literally everyone in the industry knows as “Andy,” didn’t just revolutionize the sawmill industry with the curve-sawing gang; in 2006 he would also have a few ideas on how to re-work a dry kiln. Those ideas would eventually become the dual path continuous dry kiln. He admits that his single shift southern yellow pine sawmill operation is not one of the big guns, but it has always been focused on recovery, rather than production—a lesson his father, Robert (Bob) Pollard, instilled in him, and a lesson he’s passing on to his son, Levi Anderson Pollard, VI, (Lee), who now helps run the family’s sawmill business, Pollard Lumber Co. Thanks to his legendary contributions to the lumber industry—all while remaining true to his independent sawmill identity—Timber Processing names Levi Anderson Pollard, V, the 2024 Person of the Year, the 36th recipient of this annual award, and the third sawmiller from the state of Georgia.
A legacy unlike any other, Levi Anderson Pollard, V holds a significant amount of patents that have changed the timber processing industry.
HOW IT STARTED After the end of WWII, Pollard’s father Bob returned to their home and began working in the lumber business—first with planer mills in several different locations, before in 1972 deciding to build a sawmill at the current site. Bob’s wife, Jennie, was involved as well on the administration and bookkeeping side. Andy would attend the University of Georgia for four quarters before transferring to Clemson University to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. Pollard came out in 1979 and began his lifelong career at the sawmill bearing his name. Pollard’s brother Robert was already in place, having graduated from UGA in forestry, overseeing the land and timber company portion of the family’s enterprise. It then fell to Pollard to oversee the
Lee Pollard, left, follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, in the painting, and father, Andy, right
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sawmill, with the goal of always improving lumber recovery. Pollard remembers conversations with his father. “He would come to me every now and then and say, ‘Okay Andy, what’s the worst thing going on in the sawmill, where are we losing the most money?’ And I would tell him something.” Then the plan would be hatched to fix the problem—perhaps a new machine they needed to buy or the renovation of one. Pollard says that often his father would advise that the company didn’t need to do whatever the plan was at that moment. But then six months later, he’d be ready to dive into the project. “He had been in the business so long he could tell when the market was going down, because it goes up and it goes down,” Pollard says of his dad. “He’d time it that when the market went down, we’d stop and do some little job on the sawmill. We never rebuilt the whole thing, it was always just fixing something.” From the beginning the family was never interested in running a lot more lumber through their mill. Instead of being production oriented, Pollard’s goals were always focused on cutting more lumber out of a log than any-
one else. He admits it took him a little while to understand his father’s perspective, but once he did, he was all in.
GAME CHANGER I In 1984, the Pollards began the discussion around putting in an optimizer, the
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newest technology at the time. “All our edgers were terrible, we need a new one and there’s this new thing called an optimizer you run it through and it measures the board and cuts the right thing out of it. They make a trimmer optimizer, too, where it trims the end. We were missing the boat a lot. So we agreed to do it. Put in a trimmer and edger optimizer, which was really early as far as people putting in those machines.” Recovery improved substantially and both machines ran well. A few years later, the USNR arc-sawing gang had been invented and was getting some play within the industry, Pollard recalls, but Pollard wasn’t buying in. He wanted to really improve recovery and knew there had to be a better way to do it. Fast forward to the sawmill machine show in Portland, Ore. Pollard bumped into Chris Raybon, whose company at the time was producing optimizers and the two began talking about how a curve-saw might work. Pollard recalls: “Well, it makes sense to me, that we would set the log down on a chain, infeed straight and take the saws and move them backwards and forwards, twist them. When you do engineering
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While innovation is definitely Pollard’s legacy within the sawmill community, his real legacy is his family.
you do a lot of calculus. In calculus, you have a polynomial equation; if you take the first derivative of the polynomial equation you get the slope of the line. The slope of the line shows you which direction it is going at that time.” As the conversation continued, Pollard figured that if the curve of the lumber could be described with a polynomi-
al equation when it goes through an optimizer, taking the first derivative of it will show how much to turn the saws as the lumber goes through. This would allow the saws to be turned back and forth as they moved through the process. Raybon and Pollard agreed that the idea seemed reasonable, but neither had the ability to actually build a gang. That’s
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when the pair brought Ron McGehee into the equation, he of Ukiah gangs, and Raybon knew he was “looking for something to do.” A few months later, McGehee, Raybon and a few others showed up at Appling and they hashed out a plan to make a gang like the one drawn on the napkin on the other side of the country—the first curvesawing gang. Pollard wanted to patent the idea, which was met with some pushback from the others. Ultimately, Pollard is a named inventor on the patent as well as Raybon, McGehee, Russell Kennedy and Patrick Conry, the last two cohorts of Raybon’s at HEMCO, Hi-Tech Engineering and Baxley Equipment. The date of the patent is March 3, 1998. The original curve-sawing gang helped Pollard Lumber increase its recovery 8%, and that original is still in operation today. Its days are numbered, however, as Pollard has signed with Real Performance Machinery to install their new gang at the mill later this summer. “Those guys have done a really good job of making improvements with it and I am really excited about putting their new gang in,” Pollard explains. “I am on the sawmill side. I spend all my time in a sawmill making
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it run. I never was on the machinery manufacturer side, where I built something over and over again, looking every time to see where we could improve it over time and build another one that is better.”
GAME CHANGER II Pollard never stopped thinking of ways to improve lumber recovery. “I had some other ideas, and I patented them. Some of them I tried to make work and some of them I didn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to make them work,” he laughs. In the middle ’80s Dad had seen an article in the magazine with a burner that would burn sawdust and take the heat to dry lumber with it. He came to me and said he wanted one of those.” So the pair bought one, built the slope grate, sawdust burner, hooked it to the kiln and started drying lumber. In the late 1980s, Pollard Lumber added a second kiln of the same configuration. Then the 2000s came—and the 30year-old kilns couldn’t keep up. “I am standing there one day, looking at the kiln, there’s lumber in the kiln, and it didn’t make sense: 200° heat is blowing out of the door and I’ve got all this lum-
ber sitting green that needs to be drying. It was the same way every day, whole charge ready to go, we would stop, pull and push and start it all back up. It doesn’t make sense. We put doors on the kiln, but if you sealed them up the burner would not work. If we just build a kiln over the top, all this heat will have to go over the top of all this cold lumber. We will leave the doors open, put some fans to circulate it on the top.” It just made sense to Pollard that you don’t want all the lumber to go through one way, you want it to go opposite directions—dual paths. And thus, the next game-changing invention began. “My thought process at the time was: You have dry lumber on this side and wet lumber on this side, remove the heat from the dry lumber and heat the cold lumber with it. Just made sense to me. If I could move the lumber through the kiln, it sees the best parts and the worst parts to create an average.” Pollard approached USNR with his idea, and drawings and designs were made to build his kiln that was three times the size of the current one using the same old sawdust burner from the ’80s. After back and forth, it was supposed to take 12 weeks to build. At the
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24-week mark, it was getting close but still not complete. Pollard approached one of the USNR staffers on the project asking his opinion: “I asked him if he thought this kiln’s going to work. The response was, ‘oh, we don’t think it’s going to work.’ Head engineer on the project also didn’t think it was going to work. Found out no one thought it was going to work but me.” Once the kiln was completed, Pollard spent significant amounts of time figuring how to run it. Since it had never been done before, no one knew how to make the controls. But eventually, after tweaking and twiddling and trial and error, Pollard got the dual path continuous dry kiln running and drying southern yellow pine lumber consistently. As the 2007 Great Recession took hold of the country, it took a while for the new way to dry lumber to catch on. When it did Pollard had his patent, and he was ready to help others see the benefits. That’s when Doug Tinsley paid him a visit. Pollard remembers Tinsley telling him, “This thing is great, and I told him, ‘I know,’” Pollard laughs. Tinsley obtained the licensing from Pollard to build the new kilns, before eventually several people and manufac-
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turers would also obtain licensing once they had a good grasp of the technology. Today, multiple equipment companies around the world manufacture some version of a continuous dry kiln. Pollard feels it took a sawmill owner to bet millions of dollars that the concept of the dual path kiln would work. Reflecting on his machinery innovations, Pollard says simply: “Took the trees we have and made the most lumber we can, to get the most lumber to the consumer that we can. You just have to be a little crazy to be willing to
spend a little more than a million dollars on a gang that would curve-saw not knowing if it would work or not. If it doesn’t I don’t lose my job, because I own the sawmill. Same with the kiln.”
AND TODAY While he vehemently says he’s “retired,” Pollard is still helping out around the sawmill and working with his latest project, the whisper gang, made out of eight band saws, one wheel and two guides per saw with a small footprint. It
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works, but also sometimes self-destructs and therefore is not currently commercially viable. “It cuts beautiful lumber,” he says proudly. “I’ve run 5,000 logs through it, but haven’t been running it lately. My last great invention. It isn’t going to make anyone any money. If I had not done it, I would have more money but as it is I have less. Sometimes you build things, and they don’t work. You have to be willing to take the loss, too. It was a great idea, but it didn’t work as well as I had hoped. I haven’t given up on it yet. Got to give up at some point, but I haven’t done it yet.” About a year ago, Andy and his brother, Robert, made the decision to leave Lee and Bert (their sons, respectively, and the next generation of Pollard lumbermen) “something to work with and this is the reason for the investment in new equipment this year.” So, Andy has been stepping back gradually in his role as VP of Pollard Lumber. Robert remains CEO of the companies. Bert is the President of Pollard Land Co., while Lee is President of Pollard Lumber. “Lee is going to be a great leader of Pollard Lumber Co. But he’s playing catchup having spent years in the banking industry. I’m the only engineer amongst us four so I oversee the mill improvements and I enjoy it. It is not work to me. Work to me is telling this guy he can’t be late anymore, he’s been late too many times. I don’t like to do that. Fun to me is fixing broken things. I wish I was really good at it, but I am only pretty good at it,” Pollard says. Pollard’s sisters, Lynn and Patty, also work for the business—Patty on the bookkeeping side in Appling and Lynn as a salesperson out of Atlanta. “Our father said he wanted to have a business and wanted to work for himself, providing good jobs for his employees in the community and to make a decent living.” Pollard says his father operated conservatively and was cautious to take on debt. “Making money to him was recovery. That’s where we are. We’re not trying to be a corporate mill; we’re trying to have a good place to work for ourselves and provide for 100 people in our community and make a dollar at the end of the year.” Pollard doesn’t look at his life’s work as changing the industry. He’s incredibly humble and doesn’t like to talk about himself: “I don’t think of myself as changing the industry, but I feel like I could tell a person who’s not in the industry, less trees are being cut down and more houses are being built now because of some things that I did along the way.” TP
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GOING
CO GEN R
MONTROSE, Colo. educing energy costs while becoming more self-sufficient and investing in operational solutions, the Neiman family’s Montrose Forest Products sawmill here has done both with the installation of a new 1.25 MW cogen-
By Dan Shell
Montrose Forest Products takes control of residual disposal and energy cost challenges with a new 1.25 MW cogen plant.
eration plant that’s providing 40% of the mill’s electricity needs while fully utilizing its residual stream. “We had been looking hard at a pellet mill,” says Montrose Forest Products General Manager Mike Kusar. And Neiman does operate a pellet plant at its Spearfish, SD sawmill. However, a biomass-powered cogeneration plant provided a better solution for the Montrose mill at its western Colorado location for a couple of big reasons. In the area, getting rid of residuals can be a major challenge for a larger operation like Montrose Forest Products, which produces approximately 80MMBF annually. There’s no large pulp-paper mill, composite board or pellet plant in the region that consumes significant volume and serves as a large
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market for chips and sawdust. Kusar notes the sawmill has long processed dead and dying trees from the beetle killed forests of Colorado. This in turn has increased its residual output. The overall energy situation in the region also led the mill to seek more selfsufficiency. An existing gas-fired boiler needed upgrading anyway for the increased kiln activity (and is currently kept in place as a backup). But even more important, the region’s natural gas infrastructure can be stressed during extended or extreme cold spells, and the mill’s kilns had to be taken off-line for several days in a recent winter due to the extremely high price of natural gas supplies. Electricity costs are also on the rise. “We have high electricity and natural gas costs here, and (the new plant) will
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Neiman’s Montrose mill has successfully transitioned to a wood-fired boiler that’s solved a residual disposal issue and lowered power costs.
help offset those costs,” says Allen Satur, cogen plant supervisor. “But the project really came from the necessity of moving huge piles of byproducts.”
PROJECT Mill personnel made the decision to go with the cogen plant in mid 2021, and the facility was in full construction mode a year later. To make it happen, Montrose Forest Products turned to Wellons, which provided a turnkey system that included a 50,000 PPH boiler coupled with a 1500 KW turbine generator from Siemens. The package included two A-30-40 fuel storage bins, fuel delivery and handling equipment including the truck reclaimer—plus a Columbia Water water treatment facility. The plant is fitted with a Wellons built electrostatic precipitator for pollution control. The project cost is roughly $16 million. Put in as a mostly turnkey package from Wellons, the plant includes two 80 ft. silos that store boiler fuel, roughly three days’ worth. The mill is using live bottom trailers to move collected material—mostly sawdust and chipped mill residuals—to the infeed area reclaimer that feeds a 300 ft. conveyor leading to the two silos. According to Satur, the project has gone relatively smoothly. Wellons has provided plenty of on-site assistance and is always on call if needed, he adds. It was quite a startup crew: Satur had no formal boiler training; one of the crew members did but no one had any wood-fired boiler experience. Much of his early time was spent researching and learning. The selection of Satur, an 11-year employee who was working in the rolling stock shop, may have raised some eye-
brows in the organization, but Kusar knew he had the right guy to oversee the new cogen system and process. “Allen’s taken the project by the horns, and he’s done a great job from the time we put the first piling in the ground.” Kusar says. Aside from a late discovery that the new plant’s water pressure requirements meant the installation of new water lines and taps, there have been no real big surprises, Satur says. Startup challenges include standard programming and learning curve issues, he adds. “We had some programming issues and some repeat problems on certain things, and Wellons has been great about helping us find solutions,” Satur says.
OPERATIONS
at the mill’s kilns have been reduced thanks to the boiler upgrade, Kusar says, noting that overall drying efficiency and drying quality have improved. The new plant and its boiler have also benefited the mill’s 1 in. product line, which was expanded in early 2023 to produce pattern stock with the addition of a Weinig molder and Doucet end-matching machines. The operation produces valueadded products up to 12 ft.
KEY FACILITY Neiman acquired the former Intermountain Resources stud mill in 2012 after it went into receivership in 2010. Renamed Montrose Forest Products, the mill under Neiman ownership has received extensive investments, starting with scanning and optimization upgrades, adding a new trim, sort and stacking line and pursuing multiple machine, software, hardware and infrastructure upgrades across the facility.
One big plus is that at 1.25 MW, the facility doesn’t have some of the regulatory burdens that larger power producers have. Also, by keeping all the new plant’s raw material “inside the gate” and produced solely on-site, Satur says they are better able to control fuel quality and sizing. Several issues give the new cogen plant the operational impact that Montrose Forest Products was looking for. The cogen plant provides up to 40% of the mill’s electricity needs when the mill is running, lowering electricity costs directly. “We use all (the cogen plant’s output) when we’re running,” Satur says, adding that on nights and weekends the plant is able to sell sustainable “green” power back to the grid. In addition, drying times Wellons provided a turnkey project for the new plant.
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Neiman personnel are looking for lower electricity costs, and the plant can also sell “green” power to the grid if needed.
A new state-of-the-art planer mill that started up in late 2019 represented a huge investment. In a report five years ago the Montrose Economic Development Corp. cited Neiman Enterprises and Montrose Forest Products’ investments in the plant and community and noted the facility’s $106 million annual impact in the local economy and greater Montrose region. The company has invested more than $50 million overall in the Montrose facility since the 2012 acquisition. Like many areas in the Intermountain West, Colorado is suffering from droughts and pests that have stressed timberlands. Many of the region’s national forests are overstocked and in need of thinning, with large tracts of beetle-killed timber that are setting the stage for future wildfires if not managed. The sawmill plays a key role in the ability to utilize timber resources that are produced from much-needed thinning and stewardship activities. Initially, the re-opened operation focused heavily on bug-damaged and dead salvage timber, much of it Engelmann spruce. As some of that resource has now deteriorated too much for lumber utilization, the mill is investing to meet the needs of the forest including processing some green ponderosa pine that’s coming off national forest thinning projects in the region. In addition to Montrose Forest Products, the Neimans own and operate Devil’s Tower Forest Products in Hulett, Wyo., Spearfish Forest Products in Spearfish, SD and Gilchrist Forest Products in Gilchrist, Ore. A pellet plant, Heartland Wood Pellets, is co-located with the Spearfish facility. A major Intermountain pine lumber and board producer that was founded in the South Dakota Black Hills in 1936 by A.C. Neiman, the Neiman family has long been active in the industry and as a major supporter of rural TP economies. 30 ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ■ TIMBER PROCESSING
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MACHINERYROW Collaboration Pays Off For Blanca, MiCROTEC Established in 2017 as part of a fire mitigation initiative, Blanca Forestry Products in Colorado has embraced technology and innovation as core drivers of its operations. MiCROTEC began working with Blanca in 2020 with the installation of a Lucidyne scanner and the integrated QC Assist tool, leading to a remarkable transformation in the mill’s performance. Rick Engebretsen, Mill Manager of Blanca Forestry Products, and his team saw a significant improvement in their operations following the integration of the Lucidyne scanner. This advanced technology, coupled with MiCROTEC’s grading support, resulted in substantial enhancements, notably in uptime, recovery rates, and reduced downtime. A pivotal aspect of Blanca Forestry Product’s optimization is MiCROTEC’s customer care. Fidel Sandoval, a key player at Blanca Forestry Products, highlighted MiCROTEC’s quick response time and real-time support, crucial for making immediate machine adjustments and fine-tuning to ensure seamless mill operations. The introduction of MiCROTEC’s QC Assist tool marked a turning point for Blanca Forestry Products. Blanca found the tool user-friendly, enabling them to pull boards, identify defects, and fine-tune optimization to meet the desired grade quality. Blanca specializes in processing beetlekilled spruce, a wood species with distinctive defects. This unique challenge required specialized attention from the MiCROTEC team. With MiCROTEC’s grading support and imaging teams, the scanner was optimized to align with Blanca’s unique grading needs, ensuring high-speed operation at an average of 750 FPM and the production of high-quality lumber that meets WWPA grading inspections.
MiCROTEC Names Heyman As CEO MiCROTEC, a leader in innovative scanning solutions for the wood products industry, appointed Ofer Heyman as its new Chief Executive Offer (CEO) in Corvallis, Ore. Prior to returning to MiCROTEC, Ofer served an impressive 17-year tenure at Lucidyne Technologies, acquired by Mi32 ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ■ TIMBER PROCESSING
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MACHINERYROW CROTEC in 2020. Beginning as an image processing engineer in 1999, Ofer assumed roles including senior product and project manager, director of business development, and ultimately director of operations from 2014 to 2016.
Burton Mill Acquires Carolina Cutting Tools Burton Mill Solutions has acquired Carolina Cutting Tools of Newberry, SC, a provider of industrial cutting tool reconditioning services to sawmills and chip operations across the Southeastern U.S. This transaction enhances Burton’s geographic reach and technical capabilities to better serve primary wood producers who choose to outsource the reconditioning of their circle saw blades and machine knives. Burton President Marty Haycraft comments, “This brings together the two leading cutting tool reconditioning services businesses in the Southeast. The cultures of our two organizations are closely aligned.” Carolina Cutting Tools’ Newberry location will complement Burton’s existing network of service centers in Maine, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama.
Krauss Likes Results Of Zippy Scanner Zippy Vision reports it has improved the operational efficiency of the largest European birch solid wood processor, Krauss, by installing its cutting-edge nextgeneration Zippy Vision BestCut M2 scanner. The BestCut M2 scanner provides complete 2D product placement ripcut optimization for five independent sawrips to achieve maximum output value while simultaneously considering fingerjoint and fixed-length final products. Krauss reports extracting 8% more value from raw materials starting from the first day of the fully operational BestCut M2 scanner compared with results achieved with the previous scanner. 15% is the reported overall yield difference between manual operation and BestCut M2. Just 0.9 seconds is required to determine every board’s rip-cut best-value saw-rip position and angle. It allows for a compact machinery layout with minimal distance between the scanner and the multi-rip saw. The production line was stopped only four days due to the scanner exchange process. The BestCut M2 scanner calculates sawing solutions for up to five movable rips. The scanner can simultaneously opti-
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MACHINERYROW mize for full 2D rip-cut/cross-cut placement of up to 10 product surface quality standards and dimensions, totaling up to 60 product specs with different product values, sizes, and quality. The new generation scanner optimizes complete 2D placement solutions using powerful GPUs. It computes the best value rip-cut solutions, simultaneously calculating their use for cross-cutting. It considers the features and the use of every square millimeter of wood on both sides. BestCut M2 features an automatic production plan mode. This mode allows it to optimize for desired volume composition, optimizing material usage and meeting production goals efficiently. BestCut M2 is enhanced with a simulation software/hardware package that allows you to play various operational setups using actual data from the BestCut M2 scanner. This helps find the most efficient configuration to increase yield. “We are thrilled with the smooth integration of Zippy Vision’s BestCut M2 scanner and the resulting significant operational improvements,” comments Aldis Sarkanis, production director, Krauss SIA.
Comact Celebrates 100th Anniversary
BID Group announced that this year its Comact brand is celebrating 100 years of performance, innovation, and commitment. Comact was founded on January 24, 1924 in the Beauce region of Quebec. It has since pushed the technological boundaries of the wood processing industry, elevating customer yields, revenues, and bottom line profitability. The company has grown from a small, family-run business to a global leader with multiple key locations serving international markets. “The last 100 years have been a testament to the hard work and pragmatic ingenuity that are the hallmarks of Comact,” says Alistair Cook, BID Group CEO. The partnership between BID Group and Comact since 2013 has highlighted the companies’ aligned values and visions for the future of wood processing. It has been integral to developing cutting-edge solutions that drive productivity and cost savings for an evergrowing clientele.
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MACHINERYROW
Kadant Completes Purchase Of Key Knife
Kadant Inc. has completed its previously announced acquisition of Key Knife, Inc. and certain of its affiliates for $156 million. Key Knife is a global supplier of engineered knife systems for custom chipping, planing, and flaking solutions. The company is headquartered in Tualatin, Ore. with 141 employees located primarily in the U.S. and Canada. “We are pleased to complete this transaction and welcome our new colleagues from Key Knife to the Kadant family,” says Jeffrey Powell, president and CEO of Kadant. “Our acquisition of Key Knife expands our product portfolio and strengthens our respective positions in wood processing industries.”
Stora Enso Ala Calls On Valutec Stora Enso’s sawmill in Ala, Sweden is investing in one TC progressive kiln, two FB-continuous kilns and three cart-fed batch kilns from Sweden-based Valutec.
“When the new Valutec dryers are in place, we will have a state-of-the-art, sustainable drying park, tailored to our product range. We will become more energy-efficient with high-tech drying technology in all our kilns,” says Jenny Andersson, sawmill manager at Stora Enso Ala. Stora Enso previously had extensive experience from partnerships, project implementation and products from Valutec, which made them an obvious participant in the procurement procedure. “An important quality aspect favoring Valutec was that their dryers have a stainless-steel construction proven to be adapted to the Nordic environment near the sea where we operate,” Andersson says. Valutec chose early on to only manufacture dryers in stainless steel. The installation of the dryers will begin in the summer and all dryers will be put into operation on January 2025 and the plan is for other production to continue as usual during the construction of the dryers. Ala AB built the first sawmill in Ala and since 1998 it has been part of the Stora Enso group. Today, Ala is a pine sawmill with an annual capacity of
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400,000 m3. It also has its own pellet production of 100,000 tons annually. The company has 143 employees.
Carbotech Expands Into Southern U.S. Carbotech Group has acquired a 14,000 sq. ft. plant in Roebuck, SC, marking a major milestone in its American expansion. The company plans to start operations at its new facilities in early 2024. A new local team of mechanical and automation technicians is being formed. This will enhance the manufacturing of Carbotech equipment and enable the storage of spare parts for Autolog and Carbotech equipment. The plant will also be home to a training center to develop expertise on Carbotech and Autolog equipment. Carbotech also announced the appointment of Jon Comber as General Manager of U.S. Operations. His extensive knowledge of Carbotech and Autolog products, as well as his impressive professional background in the sawmilling industry (including experience as a plant manager), make him the ideal person for the role.
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ATLARGE
SPI Names Hoover VP Of Resources Sierra Pacific Industries named Robert Hoover as Vice President of Resources. He will work with SPI’s team that sustainably manages the company’s 2.4 million acres of timberlands and provides a steady log supply for the company’s sawmills. Hoover assumes this role following the retirement of Dan Tomascheski. Hoover began his career with Sierra Pacific cruising timber as a summer intern while working toward his forestry degree from Humboldt State University. Following his graduation in 2003, he joined SPI full-time and has held a variety of positions including his most recent role as California Log Resources Manager and previous log procurement roles at SPI’s Lincoln and Burney sawmills in California. He is a California Registered Forester and active
with a number of industry associations including Federal Forest Resource Coalition and California Forestry Assn.
Roseburg Names Ramm As Senior VP Roseburg announced that Tony Ramm has been named Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Labor, overseeing the company’s human resources, benefits and compensation, recruitment, and environmental health and safety teams. Ramm joined Roseburg in May 2014 as a plant manager at the company’s plywood mill in Riddle, Ore., a role he held for four years before he was named General Manager of plywood for the company. In May 2019, he was promoted to Director of Manufacturing. Three years later, Ramm was named Director of Strategic Improvement, leading special
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projects within operations and procurement. He has served as Vice President of Human Resources since June of this year. Ramm takes over the role from Kellye Wise, who moves into an Executive Advisor role until his retirement on July 5, 2024.
FPIC At La Tech Receives Donation Martin Sustainable Resources LLC of Alexandria, La. has donated $1 million to Louisiana Tech as a leadership gift toward construction of the University’s new Forest Products Innovation Center (FPIC), with the assurance of another $1 million to be presented by this June. The new building will provide space for research collaborations, not only within the forestry industry, but also with other state and national industry partners.
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WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETPLACE NORTH AMERICA
■ Minnesota
■ Tennessee
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Next closing: July 5, 2024 ■ United States ■ Georgia Beasley Forest Products, Inc. P.O. Box 788
WANT TO GET YOUR AD IN OUR NEXT MARKETPLACE?
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beasleyforestproducts.com Manufactures Kiln-Dried 4/4 Red and White Oak, Poplar, Ash and Cypress Contact: Linwood Truitt Phone (912) 253-9000 / Fax: (912) 375-9541 linwood.truitt@beasleyforestproducts.com
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HAROLD WHITE LUMBER, INC. MANUFACTURER OF FINE APPALACHIAN HARDWOODS
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Green & Kiln Dried, On-Site Export Prep & Loading Complete millworks facility, molding, milling & fingerjoint line 02/24
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Call Toll-Free: 1-800-669-5613
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PRODUCTSCANNER10 LINEAR RESAW OPTIMIZER
TRANSVERSE METAL DETECTOR
BID Group introduces the ResawExpert, a Comact-branded AIpowered linear resaw optimizer with vision. “This revolutionary technology will take wood transformation to a whole new level of precision, efficiency, and performance,” the company states. The Comact ResawExpert is a game-changer, especially in hardwood and specialty processing workflows that require resawing. Thanks to artificial intelligence, ResawExpert ensures every inch of raw material is utilized efficiently to maximize yield, significantly reduce waste, and generate superior products. Key features of the Comact ResawExpert include: l Independent optimization and grading of all four product faces l Rotation validation scanner l Optimization of clear wood cuttings, NHLA cutting grades, or custom grades l Quick and easy installation on an existing line In addition, the ResawExpert can be installed without disruptions to current operation. It can be activated immediately once tuning is completed. BID Group is implementing its first ResawExpert setup at Lauzon – Planchers de bois exclusifs, a major North American hardwood flooring producer in Quebec, Canada. Visit bidgroup.ca
MDI now offers the TWA5000-X Transverse Scanner Metal Detector. This system is capable of scanning up to 24 ft. boards in a transverse orientation and it effectively accommodates the most efficient means to run the maximum board feet of dimensional lumber per hour. It touts the company’s same technology that provides more consistent targeting of contaminants and better interference rejections due to environmental noise and product effect. Now standard equipment in all of MDI’s TWA5000-X systems is the highly successful MDI View-Link Remote Diagnostic Module. The View-Link allows MDI to remotely connect to your MDI Metal Detector to monitor, diagnose, and calibrate your system, optimizing your metal detector for maximum sensitivity and stability per your unique environment. It’s as close as one could get to having an MDI service technician available on site whenever needed. This new unit, as with all MDI metal detectors, comes standard with a 3-year warranty and a 3-year View-Link remote service package. In addition, MDI offers unlimited lifetime telephone technical support for all its products at no additional charge. Visit mdiblue.com TIMBER PROCESSING ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ■ 45
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MAINEVENTS FEBRUARY 5-7—Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Assn. Convention & Exposition, Indianapolis Downtown Marriott, Indianapolis, Ind. Call 317-288-0008; visit ihla.org. 21-25—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, Hammock Beach Resort, Palm Coast, Fla. Call 336-8858315; visit appalachianhardwood.org. 22-26—IndiaWood 2024, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Bangalore, India. Call +91-80-4250 5000; visit indiawood.com.
23-25—2024 Virginia Forestry Summit, Boar’s Head Resort, Charlottesville, Va. Call 804-278-8733; visit vaforestry.org. 29-May 2—American Wood Protection Assn. annual meeting, Westin Portland Harborview, Portland, Maine. Call 205-7334077; visit awpa.com.
MAY 3-4—Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo (Loggers’ Expo), Champlain Valley Expo, Essex Junction, Vt. Call 315369-3078; visit northernlogger.com. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
MARCH 5-7—Dubai Woodshow, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Call +971 4 39 23232; visit dubaiwoodshow.com. 6-7—Ohio Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Marriott Northwest, Dublin, Ohio. Call 614-497-9580; visit ohioforest.org. 12-13—Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; visit bioenergyshow.com. 14-15—Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE), Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; visit pelice-expo.com. 20-22—SLMA 2024 Spring Meeting & Expo, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans, La. Call 504-443-4464; visit slma.org. 20-22—National Wooden Pallet & Container Assn. Annual Leadership Conference, Marriott Sawgrass Resort & Spa, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Call 703-519-6104; visit palletcentral.com. 25-27—Hardwood Manufacturers Association’s National Conference & Expo, The Charleston Place, Charleston, SC. Call 412-244-0440; visit hmamembers.org.
APRIL 2-4—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Embassy Suites, Lexington, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org. 2-4—American Forest Resource Council annual meeting, Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, Wash. Call 503-222-9505; visit amforest.org. 10-12—International Wood Products Assn. 68th World of Wood Convention, Hardrock Hotel, San Diego, Calif. Call 703-820-6696; visit iwpawood.org. 12-13—East Coast Sawmilling and Logging Exposition, Meadow Event Park, Doswell, Va. Call 804-737-5625; visit exporichmond.com. 14-16—Western Wood Products Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Indigo Vancouver Downtown, Vancouver, Wash. Call 503224-3930; visit wwpa.org. 46 ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ■ TIMBER PROCESSING
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This issue of Timber Processing is brought to you in part by the following companies, which will gladly supply additional information about their products. ADVERTISER
PG.NO.
PH.NO.
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931.668.8768
Andritz Iggesund Tools
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BID Group
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Biolube
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Brunette Machinery
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Calibre Equipment
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Carbotech-Autolog
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Claussen All-Mark International
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Cleereman Industries
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Cone Omega
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Cooper Machine
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Corley Manufacturing
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East Coast Sawmill Expo
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A W Stiles Contractors
FiberPro
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Gilbert Products
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Halco Software Systems
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Hardwood Manufacturers Association
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Holtec USA
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JoeScan
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KDS Windsor
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Ledinek Engineering
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Linck
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Linden Fabricating
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Mebor
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Metal Detectors
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MiCROTEC
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Mid-South Engineering
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Minda Industrieanlagen GmbH
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Nelson Bros Engineering
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888.623.2882
Northeastern Loggers Association
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800.318.7561
Oleson Saw Technology
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800.256.8259
Opticom Tech
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Piche
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833.574.4333
Premier Bandwheel
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Real Performance Machinery
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Sering Sawmill Machinery
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Signode
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800.323.2464
SII Dry Kilns
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800.545.6379
Staar
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814.612.2077
Superior Solutions
40
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T S Manufacturing
30
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Telco Sensors
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800.253.0111
USNR
3
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Valutec
11
+46 0 910 879 50
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