by Web Editor | Nov 30, 2016 | News
A new massive plywood building panel developed by an Oregon company and tested at Oregon State University may be the largest such product ever manufactured.
Builders are familiar with standard plywood sheets that measure 4-feet wide, 8-feet long and between a quarter-inch and more than one-inch thick. The new panels made by the Freres Lumber Company of Lyons, Oregon, can be as much 12-feet wide, 48-feet long and 2-feet thick.
The company announced its new panels in October, capping more than a year of development and performance testing at Oregon State’s Advanced Wood Products Laboratory. “The results look very promising,” said Ari Sinha, assistant professor in OSU’s College of Forestry, who oversaw the tests. “This is a unique product with the potential for creating jobs in rural Oregon.”
Versatility is one of the benefits of the product known as a Mass Plywood Panel (MPP). “These panels can be customized for different applications. Because they have very good compression qualities, they could be used for columns as well as panels,” said Sinha. The veneer manufacturing process enables manufacturers to orient wood grain and to distribute the defects found in smaller trees, such as knots, in a way that maintains the strength of the final product, Sinha added.
Tests in Sinha’s lab focused on the panels’ structural and physical properties such as density, adhesive bonding and resistance to the kinds of vertical and horizontal stresses experienced in an earthquake. Additional tests are planned after the first of the year. Mass Plywood Panels can achieve the performance characteristics of a similar product known as Cross Laminated Timber panels with 20 to 30 percent less wood.
From Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2016-11-prototype-plywood-panels-world-largest.html
by Web Editor | Nov 11, 2016 | News
Officials with major panel industry vendor USNR have announced the acquisition of Ventek, Inc., an industry leader in veneer scanning, grading and handling systems for the plywood industry.
Based in Eugene, Ore., Ventek has designed and built vision-based and moisture-based grading solutions for veneer since the company was founded in 1991. From the very start, Ventek developed a reputation for having some of the best technology in the industry, and for many years the company has been the go-to choice for veneer scanning and grading solutions. Building on its expertise, Ventek formed an internal group to design and build green and dry veneer handling systems, and the group’s patented multi-point diverter is now the flagship product of Ventek’s veneer handling product catalog.
Chris Blomquist, USNR Senior Vice President for Sales and Engineering, commented, “Our customers on the lumber side of our business have long recognized the value of tightly integrated mechanical and optimization technology. With the addition of Ventek’s veneer scanning, grading, and handling solutions to USNR’s lathe, dryer, and downstream product portfolio, we now have an opportunity to bring this integration benefit to our customers on the plywood side of our business as well.”
Rodger Van Voorhis, formerly President of Ventek and one of its founders who has now joined USNR as Director of Sales for Veneer Systems, added, “I am thrilled to join the USNR team, and I am excited to see what we can do with our veneer scanning, grading, and handling products as part of a larger organization. I think there are going to be a lot of great opportunities to learn from each other—such as taking our plywood technology and applying it to lumber grading, and vice versa.”
“I am tremendously pleased that Rodger and the rest of the Ventek team have decided to join USNR to help us build the next generation of products for the plywood industry,” commented Alan Knokey, Vice President responsible for USNR’s plywood and panel business. “The people—the engineers, service technicians and guys who actually build the systems and everyone who supports them—they are the most important part of this transaction.”
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by Web Editor | Oct 28, 2016 | News
The EPA, expected to issue soon a final rule to implement the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, which added Title VI to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
It’s latest comment period is still open until November 7:
The EPA reviewed its emission inventory and compliance databases to determine if its current information was sufficient to conduct an RTR for the PCWP NESHAP and develop emission limits for the remanded PCWP process units. The available data for the affected population of plywood, composite wood products, and lumber dry kilns was found to be insufficient to adequately review and evaluate the emission standards for these source categories. The ICR will provide specific, required information, including emission inventories, compliance demonstrations, process changes, and information about control technologies/practices adopted since the application of maximum achievable control technology (MACT). Table 1 contains the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes of facilities impacted by this information collection. Only major sources and synthetic area sources for these NESHAP categories will be affected by this information collection.
There will be a survey phase, Phase I, and a contingent testing phase, Phase Start Printed Page 62126II, in this information collection. Phase I seeks to collect facility-level information (e.g., facility name, location, contact information, and process unit details), emissions information, compliance data, control information, and descriptions of technological innovations. Phase I will be sent to all known operators of PCWP facilities that are major sources for hazardous air pollutants (HAP) regulated by these standards and synthetic area sources which used technology to avoid major PCWP NESHAP source status. Phase I responses may contain CBI. The survey will be provided and collected in an electronic format. The submission requires the owner or operator to certify that the information being provided is accurate and complete.
Read more at Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/management/epa-hardwood-plywood-formaldehyde-rule-goes-live-federal-register-october-27-2016
by Web Editor | Oct 26, 2016 | News
The global market for plywood is projected to reach 223.4 million cubic meters by 2022, driven by recovering construction activity in most countries worldwide; rise in high value, high rise constructions; growing preference for plywood in interior design especially of floors, ceilings, and walls; and a healthy furniture industry, according to Plywood – Global Strategic Business Report 2016.
Significance of plywood in the construction sector has increased substantially over the last decade due to the various benefits of plywood such as maintainability, strength-to-weight ratio and price.
A growing construction market particularly residential housing, spurt in renovation and remodeling projects and increased spending on bedroom and dining room furnishing represent major drivers of plywood consumption worldwide.
The growing demand for furniture is supported by improving economic growth, rising incomes, recovering home values and the ensuing greater willingness of homeowners to invest in furnishings and interior architecture. Demand is also expected to surge in the transportation end-use sector. In the packaging sector, on the other hand, growing popularity of alternative materials such as cardboard and plastic will challenge growth of plywood based packaging solutions, according to the report.
Production of plywood is migrating from North America, Europe and South Asia to China. Quality and cost continue to drive plywood supply mix worldwide. In 2015, Russian plywood made its mark in international trade, particularly in the EU market, driven by relatively lower prices of Russian birch plywood.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/construction-china-demand-drive-global-plywood-growth-2022
by Web Editor | Oct 14, 2016 | News
Real estate investment trust Weyerhaeuser Co. said on Wednesday it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, for its timberlands and manufacturing operations in Uruguay.
The Uruguay operations include more than 300,000 acres of timberlands in northeastern and north central Uruguay, a plywood and veneer manufacturing facility, a cogeneration facility and a seedling nursery, the company said.
“This is a strategic revision with various possibilities: one is a sale but another is maintaining operations just as they are today,” the company’s South America Director Alvaro Molinari told Reuters.
Weyerhaeuser has been restructuring its business since it bought Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc in February, combining the two largest owners of timberland in the United States. Since then, Weyerhaeuser has said it would sell its pulp business to International Paper Co. for $2.2 billion and its liquid packaging unit to Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd for about $285 million.
Weyerhaeuser said this month it would sell its North Pacific paper unit to private company One Rock Capital Partners LLC.
From Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/weyerhaeuser-divestiture-idUSL4N1CI4DI
