Longtime independent veneer producer Idaho Veneer Co. in Post Falls, Id. is closing its doors in July, as the family ownership has decided to sell the mill property, which has slowly “moved” from outside of town to the middle of town as the area has grown. The company dates to 1953 with “a slicer the middle of a field in northern Idaho,” according to a company statement.

The mill is located along I-90 in Post Falls, which has grown dramatically as part of the commercial corridor between Spokane and Couer d’Alene, and family members decided to sell the property for conversion to a higher value use.

The late April release said the company was planning to run out its log yard and veneer inventory and liquidate as much of the facility as possible by the end of July. “We value the friendship and camaraderie we share with so many of you…The decades we’ve spent in the business make for a treasure trove memories,” said the statement, signed by Malloy family members and company executives.

Richard Waring, professor emeritus in the Oregon State University College of Forestry in Corvallis, is one of three researchers sharing this year’s international Marcus Wallenberg Prize for developing a revolutionary computer model to predict forest growth in a changing climate.

The annual prize, one of the highest honors in the field of forestry, was announced in Falun, Sweden, and is named for the late Marcus Wallenberg Jr., a banker, industrialist and member of Sweden’s long-influential Wallenberg family.

Waring and co-honorees Joe Landsberg and Nicholas Coops, both of Australia, will each receive 2 million kronor, about $200,000, when they are presented with the prize in October by Swedish King Carl Gustav XVI.

Waring joined the OSU College of Forestry faculty in 1963 and remained active in forest science teaching and research until 2018. The model created by Waring and his colleagues includes use of satellite imagery to show how different environmental conditions affect the world’s forests.

Established in 1980, the Marcus Wallenberg Prize goes to an individual researcher or a small group of researchers for “a groundbreaking discovery or development in an area of importance to the forest industry,” according to the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.

Waring and Landsberg are pioneers in forest growth modeling under changing environmental conditions. They first presented their 3PG model—Physiological Principles Predicting Growth—in 1997. In 1998, Coops added satellite imagery to the model, enabling large areas of forest to be surveyed and forest growth and carbon storage to be predicted on a greater scale.

Irish manufacturer Combilift, best known for its range of space-saving forklifts and other handling solutions, has drawn on its expertise in engineering and software design to develop the Combi-Ventilate, a splitter device which turns one ventilator into multiple ventilation stations.

Designed to address the requirements of medical professionals in the current COVID-19 emergency, the Combi-Ventilate was developed by a team of mechatronic and software engineers with a unit currently undergoing laboratory tests with Ger Curley, Professor of Anaesthesia & Critical Care at Royal College of Surgeon’s in Beaumont Hospital.

The Combi-Ventilate uses standard pipes and fittings for easy assembly and its individual patient filters prevent cross contamination. Each patient has a dedicated screen that allows medical professionals to individually monitor their vital information. This includes live values, data on patient history and statistics and adjustable alarm settings. Features include non-return valves, HEPA filters,
flow sensors and an automatic flow control valve. Any abnormalities that occur are detected and will only trigger that specific patient’s alarm.

The Combi-Ventilate has automatically adjustable flow control valves that allow the health service professional to control the tidal volume to each patient electronically without having to make manual adjustments.

Shown in photo, at the launch of the Combilift-Ventilate, left to right, Antonio Patacho, Combilift engineer; Martin McVicar, Co-Founder & CEO, Combilift; Dr. Michael Power, National Clinical Lead, Critical Care Programme, Irish Health Service; and Christopher Carragher, Combilift engineer.

One of the many intriguing tales to emerge from the Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo held March 12-13 at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta was the plight of CalPlant I, the new rice straw-based medium density fiberboard plant entering startup in Willows, Calif. Co-founder and CEO Jerry Uhland told the story of the long and winding road, and the roadblocks therein, to reach the financial and physical realization of the plant, which is why his talk was entitled, 20 Years, 8 Months and 17 Days…But Who’s Counting.

Uhland told of the challenge California rice farmers faced with how to dispose of their post harvest rice straw. Controlled burns had been the primary means, but diminishing air quality prompted a legislative ban in 1991 on open field burning of rice fields, phasing out burning over a 10-year period. Flooding fields to decompose rice straw became the most valuable option but drained a precious resource in a drought prone region.

 CalAg was founded in 1996 by longtime California rice industry veterans Jim Boyd and his family and Uhland to address the challenges to rice growers and propose a possible solution. Their trial work on rice straw-based MDF began and the first successful MDF trial was in 1997 at the BioComposites Centre in Bangor, Wales.

 Thus began the long and winding road of working with equipment suppliers while trying to get the project funded. Uhland referred to the first three funding efforts that fell short as “Capital Raising Take I, II and III.” Finally in 2017 it came together through bond orders and allocations, resulting in a $315 million financing.

 The German-based equipment supplier Siempelkamp had become a crucial partner by then, and the project began construction immediately after funding closed. Today there’s a 325,000 square foot facility on site nearly ready to produce 140MMSF annually of MDF.

 Commissioning of some units of operation commenced prior to Siempelkamp departing for Germany mid-March during COVID-19. Siempelkamp engaged a U.S.-based sub to continue load and no-load testing of the production line (i.e. turning the press, load testing post-press processes—CalPlant purchased 8×16 wood-based MDF to test stacking, intermediate storage, sanding, sawing, etc.). Siempelkamp will need approximately five weeks once they return to produce the first board, Uhland estimates.

For additional coverage of Uhland’s presentation at PELICE, and other presentations, see the May issue of Panel World.