Con-Vey LLC, a North American-based manufacturer of automated material handling equipment for engineered wood products, is pleased to announce the promotion of Jeremy Goebel to Vice President. With over 10 years of experience at Con-Vey, Goebel brings a wealth of industry knowledge and leadership to his new role.

Goebel joined Con-Vey as a sales representative in 2013 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the sales manager in 2017. With his exceptional technical skills and personable nature, Goebel has been instrumental in driving Con-Vey’s success and growth.

“We are thrilled to have Jeremy take on this new role of Vice President at Con-Vey,” asys Dave Larecy, CEO and President, “His vision, commitment, and strengths make him the right guy for the job, and we are confident he will help us achieve our strategic initiatives and continue to grow Con-Vey into the future.”

As Vice President, Goebel will continue to lead the sales team, while also managing other departments’ operations. This promotion is part of Con-Vey’s growth plan and the next step in expanding its management team.

Roseburg Forest Products has ordered a veneer dryer for its plant in Coquille, Ore. from Westmill. At 204 ft. length, the dryer will be the longest veneer dryer in North America, according to the participants. The 6-deck, steam-heated jet dryer is designed to dry the heaviest moisture Douglas fir, hemlock and spruce green veneer.

Some key innovations that are on new Westmill dryers, including the new dryer going to Roseburg, include:

• WestVac End-Wall Emission Control System (patented): Provides an effective method of controlling end-wall dryer emissions, increase production, save energy, and improve veneer quality while reducing the risk of dryer fires.
• 2-Pex Exhaust and Dryer Humidity Migration and Control System (patented): Provides unparalleled control of humidity along the entire dryer’s length, resulting in increased production, energy savings and greatly improved veneer quality.
• Quick-Change Dryer Roll Baffle System (patented): Removing and replacing roll baffles now takes under one hour vs. 16-man-hours of very labor-intensive work to change a complete set of baffles (stop-off wall).

• Fan Shaft Seal System: This proprietary Westmill design permanently solves the common problem of emissions leaking through fan packing glands at the circ.-fan shaft. This solution has also greatly reduces the common problem of bottom bearing failures caused by high-heat and contamination at this location. Westmill has this installed and successfully operating now in more than 300 dryer fan applications in North America. It is also retrofittable to old style fan assemblies.
• “Safe Motion” Door Handle Load-Dampener (patent pending): Eliminates the potential risk of “strike-hazard” for dryer tenders when opening a dryer door.
• Bearing Vibration Monitoring: This real-time monitoring of all dryer fan bearings directs maintenance personnel to “out of tolerance” areas before they become failures.
• Water Misting System: Greatly reduces the risk of fires caused by debris build up on the dryer floor.
• Minimal Heat Transfer Dryer Housing: Designed to virtually eliminate metal-to-metal contact between the inner and outer walls of the dryer’s roof and siding. This greatly reduces energy consumption due to improved thermal efficiency, and also reduces pitch build-up and dryer fires inside the dryer. Unlike any other dryer housing, Westmill reports its housing is actually “cool to the touch.”

Chinese wood-based panel producer, A Beautiful Family Plate Making Co. Ltd. (BFP), has contracted with Dieffenbacher for a complete Fine OSB plant in Guangxi, China. Installation of BFP’s new plant is scheduled for the second quarter of 2023. The first board is expected to be produced in fall 2023.

Dieffenbacher will supply everything from chip flaking to raw board handling. The contract includes the dryer, screens, particle preparation and material recovery, glue preparation and dosing, gluing system, forming station and forming line, CPS+ continuous press system and electrics and plant automation. The plant will be able to produce 500,000 m³ of Fine OSB per year.

“Fine OSB is increasingly popular in China,” comments Matthias Rübsam, Area Sales Director at Dieffenbacher. “The lower cost of the raw material makes OSB an economical alternative to plywood for almost every application. Fine OSB, however, overcomes traditional OSB’s poor laminating capability, caused by its uneven board surface.”

In Fine OSB, the OSB core layer is covered top and bottom by layers of particleboard to give a better structure to the top surface. This enables further processing, including laminating or coating on both sides with melamine or phenolic paper in a short-cycle press.

“Fine OSB combines the excellent mechanical properties of OSB, including moisture resistance, robustness, stable size and strong screw-holding force, but with the surface quality of particleboard,” Rübsam adds. “That makes it the perfect product for applications in home furnishings and decor, flooring, custom furniture making and many other areas. The Chinese authorities believe in the product so much that they’ve established a national standard for Fine OSB.”

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Due to the industry-wide challenge to get labor, automation plays a big part in profitable production. This is one of the reasons Richmond Plywood Corp. Ltd. (Richply), Canada, and Tolko Industries Ltd., Canada, have invested in Raute Plywood Lay-up Line R7, and Swanson Group, USA, has ordered a Raute Plywood Lay-up Line R5. These brand new layup lines will replace existing labor-intensive lines.

With 50 deliveries of one-sided-gluing plywood lay-up lines, Raute is the global leader of this technology. These deliverable R7-Series and R5-Series plywood layup lines are semi-automated. Raute Lay-up Line R7 will run with two operators and the one-sided gluing operation will reduce the mill’s glue consumption. Raute Lay-up Line R5 will run with two operators using a roll coater and have a small footprint.

Lines are designed and manufactured jointly in Raute Canada and Finland. Lines are expected to be delivered in 2023-2024.

Dieffenbacher and 19 organizations from seven countries have joined forces in the EcoReFibre (Ecological solutions for recovery of secondary materials from post-consumer fibreboards) research project to make the production of wood fiberboard such as medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and high-density fiberboard (HDF) more sustainable. The aim of the project is to recycle wood fibers at the end of their life cycle and use them to produce new fiberboard. Currently, fresh wood is used almost exclusively to produce wood fiberboard.

The four-year project, which kicked off in May, has 12 million euros in funding from the European Union through its research and innovation funding program Horizon Europe. The project partners, which include wood-based panel manufacturers Homanit and Sonae Arauco, intend to develop and test solutions that will enable up to 25% of the fresh wood fibers used to manufacture wood fiberboards to be replaced by recycled secondary fibers. Five pilot projects will also explore how recycled wood fibers can be used to manufacture new end products such as insulation materials and biocomposites.

“More than 100 million cubic meters of wood fiberboard are produced worldwide every year—almost exclusively from fresh wood. The industry urgently needs a sustainable recycling solution here,” explains Dr. Matthias Graf, who is leading the project at Dieffenbacher. “With the innovative technologies and business models that we’ll develop as part of the EcoReFibre project, we’ll take the circular economy in the MDF/HDF industry a big step forward,” he adds.

EcoReFibre was launched in May with a meeting at the consortium leader, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. The project will end in April 2026.