Panel World Issue: September 2013

Elias To Become APA President; CPA, Coalition Request Extension; Boise Purchases Two Plywood Mills; CPA Protests EU Pellet Subsidies

Panel World magazine Associate Editor Jessica Johnson highlights Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which turned 40 this year, and the rebuilding of its safety culture. In recent years, Nashville, Tenn.-based Louisiana-Pacific Corp. has been at the forefront of health and safety in the mills, a fact they don't plan on changing anytime soon. When a former CEO decided to refocus part of the company, putting emphasis on the health and safety of its nearly 4,000 employees, “LP's Journey to Zero” campaign was born. Keith Harned, Corporate Health and Safety Director for LP Building Products, acknowledges that LP had some incidents in the past, but this campaign was created not as a reaction to those, but instead as a proactive move to eliminate future incidents. Journey to Zero is what LP calls a long-range plan to have every employee, in every plant, protected.

Panel World magazine Managing Editor Dan Shell discusses new technology that provides powerful tools for process and quality control. Shell writes, “Ask someone to define “quality control” and the answers are as varied as the positions in a producer mill and company. What they all agree on it that quality control should contribute to the production of the best panel products possible in the most cost-efficient manner. A panel producer organization’s overall quality control effort ultimately manifests itself in the marketplace, to not only meet standard grade requirements for current and longtime customers, but also reach out into new markets and applications that bolster market share, sales and business growth.”

High Speed Automatic Repair Line Installed At Arauco; New EWS System Measures Density, Area-Weight Distribution; GreCon Continues To Enhance Thickness Gauge Technology; IMAL-PAL Group Offers Major Innovations In Quality Control; LAP Specializes In Laser Sensor Thickness Measurement; Perten Instruments Offers Fast, Accurate Measurement Technology; Raute Builds Quality Control Into Range Of In-Line Systems; Ventek Introduces New Generation Green Veneer Scanning System

This article, written by Myriam Gauthier, appeared in sister publications Operations forestieres et de scierie and Canadian Biomass, and appears in Panel World with permission. Gauthier writes, “If timing is everything, then launching a pellet complex at the height of the forestry crisis may have been a mistake. Yet four years later, lumber manufacturer Boisaco’s pellet plant continues operations. Since 2009, this sawmill in the North Shore region has run its Granulco pellet division (granules is the French word for pellet). Faced with record low lumber pricing, the company has gone through tough times, but its leaders have never ceased to believe that the full use of byproducts from wood remains a promising market.”

CMPC, Arauco Projects In Chile Take Center Stage; Egger (Austria) Orders Short-Cycle Press; Strong Orders Mean Capacity Utilization; Murphy Veneer Buys Dryer, Grading Line; Kronospan Orders Cut-To-Size System

Columbia Forest Products Reveals New Brand Identity, Logo; Woodworks Names Executive Director; Plywood And Adhesive Book Available

Vibrating Conveyor; IMAL-PAL Lineup; Cutting Edge Dryer; New Screening Design