by Web Editor | Jul 24, 2017 | News
It’s been 20 years since the first containers of AraucoPly plywood made their way from Chile to the United States in 1997. Arauco celebrated the anniversary in a special event held at its booth during AWFS Fair 2017.
The company said despite temporary setbacks caused by the economic downturn in 2008 and a wildfire that devastated one of its manufacturing plants in 2012, AraucoPly has made giant strides in growing its customer base throughout the United States and Canada. Michael Vincent, director of Import Panels – Arauco North America, noted that the United States and Canada now account for 40 percent of AraucoPly’s worldwide sales.
The plywood panels are made from 100 percent radiata pine, grown in the company’s own FSC-certified, sustainably managed forests and composed of cores using exterior PF resins for flatness and stability, Arauco said.
As part of the anniversary, Arauco is introducing factory-primed AraucoPly panels at the 2017 AWFS Fair in booth 4609. Primed AraucoPly Siding, Beaded and Sanded products are offered with a consistent, full-coverage prime on five sides (edges included) and a smooth, sanded back. The company says the primed option was introduced in response to growing market demand for the time-saving advantage of a factory-primed wood surface.
Also featured at AWFS, Arauco’s Prism TFL collection has expanded its North American distribution of the exclusive Taction Oak collection. The company says the oak’s natural characteristics are captured and replicated using Embossed in Register (EIR) technology, resulting in a finished panel that rivals the look and feel of wood. Offered in five contemporary colors, Taction Oak coordinates with Prism Accentz neutrals. The Prism collection features more than 80 styles, including 59 exclusive designs.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/awfs/awfs-news/araucoply-commemorates-20-years-north-america
by Web Editor | May 24, 2017 | News
One building stands out in the old logging town of Prince George, Canada. Encased in a sleek glass facade, the structure towers above most of its neighbors, beckoning from afar with the warm amber glow of Douglas fir. Constructed almost entirely from timber in 2014, the 8-story, 30-meter building is among the tallest modern wooden structures in the world. But it is more than an architectural marvel. As the home of the Wood Innovation and Design Centre at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), it is also an incubator for wooden buildings of the future — and a herald for a movement that could help to tackle global warming.
The building is less like a log cabin and more like a layered cake, constructed from wooden planks glued and pressed together, precision cut by factory lasers and then assembled on site. All told, the university avoided the release of more than 400 tons of carbon dioxide by eschewing energy-intensive concrete and steel, and the building locks up a further 1,100 tons of CO2 that was harvested from the atmosphere by British Columbian trees. In total, that’s enough to offset the emissions from 160 households for a year.
Wooden construction has ancient roots, but only in the past two decades have scientists, engineers and architects begun to recognize its potential to stave off global warming. By substituting concrete and steel with wood from sustainably managed forests, the building industry could curb up to 31% of global carbon emissions, according to research by Chad Oliver, a forest ecologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In time, such a shift could help humanity to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere, potentially reversing the course of climate change.
“It’s the plywood miracle,” says Christopher Schwalm, an ecologist at Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. “This is something that could have a significant impact on the riddle that is global environmental change.”
From Nature.com: https://www.nature.com/news/the-wooden-skyscrapers-that-could-help-to-cool-the-planet-1.21992
by Web Editor | Nov 2, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Jackson Morrill, president of Composite Panel Association, updated the executive committee’s recommendations on “policy positions” with regard to energy/biomass issues that impact wood fiber supply during the September Fall Meeting in Banff, Alberta.
CPA opposes government policies that distort the market for woody biomass raw material, Morrill noted, adding that market forces should determine all uses of wood and wood residuals for renewable energy; policies that have the direct effect of diverting biomass supply to subsidized energy should be avoided; and governments that choose to initiate policies intended to increase demand for biomass energy production should couple them with policies that increase the available long-term supply of wood to meet future demand of composite wood panels as well as new and growing markets for energy and other uses.
Morrill said CPA will stay silent on the carbon neutrality of wood-to-energy, noting however that forest derived biomass should be treated as carbon neutral where there is a sustainable growing forest; within carbon accounting frameworks, the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals to make long-lived products should be treated as a higher value use than energy recovery; the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals is an important alternate use that should be considered when determining the scope of “qualified biomass” under the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan.
Morrill said CPA will advocate that composite wood products be recognized for their carbon sequestration benefits; that public policies should recognize that sustainably managed forests and forest products sequester and store carbon and reduce CO2; the use of biomass in creating long-lived products that serve as carbon sinks should be formally recognized in any carbon calculations that might be referenced in a future carbon economy.
