New Fir-Tex Plant at St. Helens Nearing Completion

Prominent Cdifornia Business Men

Interested in New Northwest InduCtry.

Alongside of the Columbia River, at St. Helens, Ore.; the large Fir-Tex plant covering an area of over six acres and containing 149,6L2 square feet of concrete floor, is rapidly nearing completion. Here sarvmill waste will be converted by Jnewly discovered process into insulation board. It is the plant of the Fir-Tex Insulation Board Company in which a number of prominent California business men have been chosen as directors. These are: Herbert Fleishhacker, President, Anglo London-Paris Bank, San Fran- experimental plant, a board was produced and tests were -ad. itt the nationallv known laboratories of the Robert H. Hunt Company and by Mr. G. F. Gebbardt of the Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago.

Features of the New Plant

Straight-line production is carried ou-t perfectly in the new Fii-Tex plint. Starting at the dock on a- degP water channel where chipped sawmill waste is brought by barge from the sawmills, it is loaded by derrick on to a conveyor which carries it 700 feet to the storage bin in the digestor building. 'A battery of six huge l8-foot diameter rotary globe d"igestors, wi[h a capacity of .3000 cubic feet edch, ire loaddd with raw material, ihen.filled r/ith steam and hot water. After a few hours of softening, the material-is emptied into the conveyor pits, {rom wh-ere it goes by.c9"veyors into a series of shredding machines, o-perated by synchronizing motors. This procEss shreds and reduces it to wood fibri of the finest cbnsistency. From here it is pumped to the mixing tanks where the now pulpous mass is kept in constant agitation.

Board Machine

Next in the manufacturing process is the large board machine, especially designed for insulation board manufacture-166 inches wide. Into this machine the pulp comes at a proper thickness and then by a succession of rolls, it .-.ri.r^ as insulation board, \i f.eet in width and 7/16 inchei in thickness. It produces an endless chain of the finished product at a rate of 20 feet per minute.

Drying Room

cisco; Lee A. Phillips, Executive Vice-President, Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, Los Angeles; J. A. Jevne, President, H. Jevne Company, Los Angeles; Paul H. Helms, Chairman Executive Committee, First National Corporation, Beverly Hills, Calif.; Stanley !. Anderson, Bev-erly Hills, Calif. i E. G, King, President, King Lumber Compiny, San Francisco, and William B. Dean,.General Maniger, Diamond Match Company, Chico, Calif. : Fir-Tex is the creation of A. E. Millington and son, C. A. Millington, who have been closely associated with the early development of insulation materials in this country' Whln the importance of insulation began to be recognized; A. E. Millington was called upon because of his wide experience as a designer, builder and operator of some of the leading paper, pu-lp and board plants in the United States and Canada. h 1926, accompanied by C. A. Millington, he came West and built an experimental plant, equipping it with miniature machines of his own design. The machinery of this little plant weighed over 20 tons. For three years they cgntinued to work and experiment. The chipped wood and bark were prepared for treatment in many different ways. Processes were constantly tested, revised and improved, and many tests for insulation and sound-deadening values were made. Tensile strength, waterproofing and fire retardant qualities were important factors considered.

At the end of three years of concentrated research in this

The scientific drying of the board contributes much to its strength and insuiation value. In the new Fir-Tex plant, the drier is in 8 decks, 15x360 feet. Finished board as it comes from the drier is inspected, checked for color and weight, cut into standard 4-foot widths and lengths to 12feet. Special sizes will also be made. The board storage is a separate all-steel building, 90x30O feet in size, with railroad tracks through center so that cars may be loaded at door height from both sides.

Other Modern Plant Equipment

Other buildings .at the Fir-Tex plant include separate all-steel boiler house with 2lGfoot 'reinforced concrete stack. Oil burners generate steam used in digestors and for heating purposes. All machines are operated electrically by individual motors. A pumping plant has a capacity of 4000 gallons per minute, with a water tower of 50,000 gallons capacity for the fire sprinkler system with which' the plant is equipped throughout. Two oil tanks have a capacity of 25,000 gallons.

A separate modern two-story office building is also located on the site, the lower floor of which will be occupied by the large laboratory in which processes of manufacture rvill be constantly stirdied.

Ground was broken for the Fir-Tex plant on September 23 last by the J: F. Shea Construction Company, general contractors. All concrete work is nolv practically completed, the machinery is rapidly going into place, steel sash and roof are installed, The pump house, boiler house, board storage building, office building, concrete stack, water and oil storage tanks are all finished.