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TA K I N G

STOCK

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Co-Publisher David H. Ramsey Co-Publisher David (DK) Knight Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Publishing Office Street Address: 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Telephone: 334-834-1170 Fax 334-834-4525

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Executive Editor David (DK) Knight Editor-In-Chief Rich Donnell Managing Editor Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor David Abbott Associate Editor Jessica Johnson Associate Editor Jay Donnell

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Production Manager/Art Director Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coordinator Patti Campbell Circulation Director Rhonda Thomas Marketing/Media Coordinator Jordan Anderson

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Advertising Sales Manager David H. Ramsey • (334) 834-1170

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES SOUTHERN U.S. Kathy Sternenberg • (251) 928-4962 ksternenberg@bellsouth.net Classified Advertising Bridget DeVane • (334) 669-7837 • 1-800-669-5613 bdevane7@hotmail.com MIDWEST USA, EASTERN CANADA John Simmons Mar-Tech Communications 32 Foster Cres.

Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 (905) 666-0258 Fax: (905) 666-0778 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com WESTERN USA, WESTERN CANADA Tim Shaddick 4056 West 10th Ave, Vancouver BC Canada V6L 1Z1 604-910-1826 Fax: (604) 264-1397 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca INTERNATIONAL Murray Brett Aldea de las Cuevas 66 Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain Tel: +34 96 640 4165 Fax: +34 96 640 4022 E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net

FIFTH EDITION OF PELICE REALLY POPPED

U

pon entering the Grand Ballroom North on Thursday, April 7 at the OMNI Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, attendees of the 2016 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo, known as PELICE, were greeted to a diverse group of keynote speakers and technical presenters along with a show floor of 80 equipment supplier exhibitors. This year was one for the record books—and not only because Panel World was the presenting media sponsor and our own fearless Editor-inChief Rich Donnell was the conference chairman.

Instead of going into detail about the presentations here, all equally uplifting and engaging, with nearly all keynotes centered around greenfield startup projects, I’m just going to refer you to page 16. There you can find photographs and reports from all of Panel World’s editors as we combed the floor, notebooks in hand to learn about everything from international developments to environmental issues & technologies. (A special thanks goes out to Magnus Rundqwist with Wechsler Engineering for helping me to delineate between wet scrubbers and venturi scrubbers; and to everyone who sat in on the heat energy & emissions issues & technologies session where I made a bunch of terrible “hot air” puns.)

Technical presentations really brought the heat—I really am powerless to a bad pun—with the latest in drying technologies, for example, from the likes of Büttner, USNR, PDI and Drying Tech. And speaking of heat, presentations also addressed fire prevention— hello Firefly AB and GreCon (not necessarily in that order).

One of many things that made this year’s PELICE stand out was the addition of PELICE On Patrol—PELICE POP, a daily video we produced and streamed worldwide to our Panel World and PELICE listings. You can still view them at pelice-expo.com/pelice-pop.

Modeled after your local evening news,

Yours truly interviewing Greg Harrison of LP for PELICE POP

PW editors Dan Shell, Jay Donnell and myself spent time each day talking with speakers and attendees about their experiences at the conference, and what they might have up their sleeves for their various facilities.

These videos allowed those who couldn’t make the event to get a feel for what was going on and for the enthusiasm that prevailed. I like to think the videos are a crisp snapshot from the event: upbeat, but with some meat on the bone. A special thanks goes to our PELICE POP sponsors, Hexion and Westmill, who supplied advertisements that ran during the video.

Our media coordinator Jordan Anderson served as the producer and “spliced” (to use an old production term) it together.

Truly, the conference offered it all, including out-of-this-world food and the chance to mingle over the unofficial show beverage, the Hemmingway Josie Russell, with friends and suppliPW ers alike.

JESSICA JOHNSON ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Ph: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525 e-mail: jessica@hattonbrown.com

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(Founded as P l y w o o d & P a n e l in 1960—Our 478th consecutive issue) VOLUME 57 NO. 3

MAY 2016

Visit our web site: www.panelworldmag.com

SUPPLY LINES Revamping

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12-15

CLIPPINGS Murphy Personnel RECOVERY APA, HPVA, CPA

TAKING STOCK PELICE POP

3

UPDATE Proteak Is Running

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62

WHAT’S NEW Drying, Coating

64

WMF CHINA Showcase

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COVER: Important industry names such as Martin, Swanson, Liebich, Carlson and Tejado shared their views at the 2016 PELICE held in Atlanta in April. Story begins on PAGE 16. (Photos by Panel World editors)

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69 EVENTS TP&EE

66

38

REINVENTION Plywood Industry

PANELWORKS Classified Advertising

GEO DIRECTORY Veneer/Panel Suppliers

XYLEXPO A Quick Look

PROJECTS Roseburg

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70 Panel World (ISSN 1048-826X) is published bimonthly by Plywood & Panel World, Inc., P.O. Box 2268, Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 (334) 834-1170, Fax (334) 8344525. Subscription Information— PW is sent free to owners, operators, managers, purchasing agents, supervisors and foremen at veneer operations, plywood plants, composite products plants, structural and decorative panel mills, engineered wood products plants and allied exportimport businesses throughout the world. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $50 annually; $60 in Canada; $95 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries—TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-6114525. Go to www.panelworldmag.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe or renew via the web. All advertisements for Panel World magazine are accepted and published by Plywood & Panel World, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold Plywood & Panel World, Inc. harmless from and against any loss, expenses, or other liability resulting from any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement.

Plywood & Panel World, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Panel World. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices.

Printed in USA.

Postmaster: Please send address changes to Panel World, P.O. Box 2419 Montgomery, AL 36102-2419.

Member, Verified Audit Circulation Managed By Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc.

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UPDATE

PROTEAK STARTS UP MDF OPERATION

In February Proteak announced the startup of its MDF plant in Huimanguillo, Tabasco, Mexico, under the brand Tecnotabla. “With state-of-the-art technology, this plant is the first of its kind in Mexico and will use certified wood from the company’s own 100% sustainable plantations,” the company states.

Panel production will increase gradually to reach the plant’s annual capacity of 280 thousand m3. MDF will be sold in the domestic and international markets.

“This plant represents the most important forestry industrial project in the country’s history and evidences that the forestry sector can be sustainable and profitable at the same time, to the benefit of many Mexican families,” comments Héctor Bonilla, founder of Proteak and President of the Board. “Mexico has everything to become an international forestry industrial powerhouse and we are proud to be the first ones to prove it.”

This project diversifies the economy

of Tabasco and is the source of more than 1,500 direct and indirect jobs in the state’s rural areas.

Proteak is the largest forestry industrial company in Mexico and Central America. With more than 20,000 hectares of forestry plantations, it exports to more than 15 destinations in America, Europe and Asia.

EWP PIONEER RHUDE DIES Engineered wood products pioneer Maurice (Morrie) Rhude, President and owner of glulam manufacturer Sentinel Structures in Peshtigo, Wis., died January 26 in Marinette, Wis. He was 91.

Rhude started work at Unit Structures in 1951, became chief engineer in 1954 and vice president in 1961. He established Sentinel Structures in 1972.

Rhude was active in the American Institute of Timber Construction (AITC) for more than 60 years and authored numerous technical articles on engineered wood products. He was also closely in-

volved in establishing many manufacturing and design standards in use today.

Born near Elk Mound, Wis., Rhude was a World War II Navy veteran (USS Denver) and bachelor’s and master’s engineering degree graduate from the University of Wisconsin. He taught at UW for five years and was also a researcher at the USDA Forest Products Lab in Madison.

GALLOWAY SUCCEEDS GRIMM AT HOOD Hood Industries named Jay Galloway as President, succeeding Don Grimm.

Galloway worked for Hood Industries for seven years from 2000-2007 in lumber manufacturing and fiber procurement. He then became president of Tolleson Lumber in Georgia for five years and most recently has owned and managed a transportation and freight logistics company.

Grimm will remain at Hood Industries until June 30 to provide transition assistance. He became president at

6 • MAY 2016 • PanelWorld

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UPDATE Hood Industries in 2003.

Grimm led Hood Industries during one of the worst financial downturns in the history of the wood products industry. Hood Industries emerged as a leading manufacturer of lumber and plywood products.

Galloway will now oversee Hood Industries sawmills in Silver Creek and Waynesboro, Miss., Bogalusa, La. and Metcalfe, Ga., plywood mills in Wiggins and Beaumont, Miss., and numerous wood product distribution operations.

KILLGORE LEADS RFP SOLID WOOD Roseburg Forest Products announced that former vice president of sales and marketing, Steve Killgore, is now Vice President of the solid wood business and marketing. Killgore is responsible for all aspects of the solid wood business including sales and manufacturing of lumber, plywood and engineered wood products. He continues overseeing the company’s marketing efforts.

Killgore joined Roseburg in 2011 as vice president of sales and marketing.

He has 39 years of industry experience in a variety of roles.

Composites Manufacturing Director Mark Avery is now Vice President of the composite panel business and logistics. Avery is responsible for all aspects of the composites business, including sales and manufacturing for particleboard, medium density fiberboard and thermally fused laminates. He also oversees a new logistics group that combines transportation, national account customer service and reloads.

Avery joined the company in 2011 as the plant manager for the Simsboro, La., particleboard plant and has served as director of composites manufacturing since 2013.

These announcements come on the heel of the promotion of Grady Mulbery to president and ultimately to CEO These changes create two new business lines for Roseburg Forest Products—solid wood and composites—by combining the sales and manufacturing

functions for each. Sales and manufacturing previously had operated independently of each other. Other areas of the company remain as structured.

“With the talent we have internally, we have the opportunity to take a fresh look at how we run our business,” Mulbery says. “We have worked hard to develop clarity in our organization and streamline the decision-making process.

Being structured by business unit made the most sense internally and for our customers as well.”

In addition, Thomas Gennarelli, former director of transportation, is now the director of logistics and planning.

This merged group will comprise all functions within transportation and adds the logistics of the national account customer service group.

Vice President of Resources Scott Folk, who oversees the company’s timberlands, log and fiber supply, assumes responsibility for Roseburg’s wood chip business and North Bend terminal facility. Folk joined the company in 2009 as vice president of resources.

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NOT YOUR REGULAR RECOVERY: HOMEBUILDING GAINS MORE MOMENTUM Ongoing economic trends are having positive and negative impacts on housing market.

ecent reports from APA—The Engineered Wood Assn. show that while the housing market continues to gain momentum, economic headwinds are keeping structural panel markets from truly taking off.

In its March 2016 Market Outlook, APA notes recent Census Bureau data showing that household growth and replacement demand from disaster, demolition and other factors have raised housing demand levels to 1.5 million units annually, but tight lending standards and a large-scale shortage of skilled construction workers mean the U.S. market likely won’t reach 1.5 million actual housing starts until the 2018-20 time frame.

According to APA’s market outlook, while the Federal Reserve seems more likely to keep rates low, which is good for single-family housing, multifamily starts are expected to continue to account for at least 35% of annual starts as the affordability challenges facing young adults have not materially changed.

R

“The recovery in the structural panels industry has been frustratingly slow, but that mirrors the recovery in single-family construction,” says APA—The Engineered Wood Assn. President Ed Elias.

“The homeownership rate has been on a sustained downward trend due to several factors,” he adds, noting some people lost homes after losing jobs during the recession, and some were unable to meet increased mortgage payments due to adjustable payments.

“Households headed by young adults are challenged by student loan burdens or securing jobs that make it difficult to save for a downpayment,” Elias says. “We expect to continue to see slow gains as these factors continue to impact the market.”

In addition to its most recent market outlook, APA also recently released its 2016 Yearbook that takes a longer, more detailed view on economic conditions and projections.

According to the APA Yearbook, structural panel production in North America is projected to increase from 31 billion SF in 2015 to 32.7 billion SF in 2016. Growth in engineered wood products output is projected to range between 6% and 9%, depending on the product.

APA’s 2016 Yearbook notes that through the first two months of 2016, there seems to be little in the economic data to indicate the U.S. economy has gained much speed from the pace of

growth in the fourth quarter of 2015. It currently appears that the U.S. economy will grow at an annual rate of 1–1.5% in the first quarter of 2016, marginally better than the 0.7% rate registered for the fourth quarter. No doubt the depression in oil and natural gas prices is playing a role, the report says.

As with the market outlook, APA’s 2016 Yearbook notes that “the demand is there to support 1.5 million starts.”

But a key concern is on the supply side and whether builders can meet additional demand. According to the yearbook projections, “Assuming a stronger outlook for starts requires that constraints on buildable lots and skilled labor ease over the course of 2016.

Similarly, realization of higher multifamily construction activity could develop if the labor constraints ease as developers built up a healthy backlog of authorized permitted units in the second half of 2015.”

Favorable mortgage rates through 2015 and continued growth in employment combined to drive up the demand for homes. Sales of existing single-family homes totaled 4.65 million, up 7.1% from 2014. The number of new singlefamily homes sold was 501,000, up 15.1% from 2014.

Another big concern for the year is business investment, says the APA 2016 Yearbook. “Uncertainty will tend to frustrate the desire of decision-makers to invest in new plant and equipment, and certainly the prospective outcome to the upcoming presidential election is likely to contribute more uncertainty than in the past.”

The 2016 Yearbook notes that no assumption concerning the outcome of the presidential and congressional elections has been made in developing its projections. Instead, the report states, “Regardless of who wins and what party controls the Senate and House of Representatives, it will take time for economic policies to be agreed upon and enacted.

This means it will likely be some time in 2018 when changes in tax and/or spending policies could realistically start to impact the economy.” PW

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INTERNATIONAL TRADE ISSUES AFFECTING HARDWOOD PLYWOOD RECOVERY Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Assn. President takes a look at hardwood plywood industry since downturn.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Panel World has contacted industry trade group leaders to get their thoughts on specific industry segments since the economic downturn of 2007-8. Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Assn.’s Kip Howlett shares insights on how hardwood plywood has fared since and his outlook for the future.

Panel World: How has the economic recovery since the downturn almost a decade ago affected the hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer industries?

Kip Howlett: The “new economy” is at a tepid growth rate at best. While our members in each of our product sectors (hardwood plywood, engineered wood flooring and veneer) have seen some improvement, imports continue to be a major factor to U.S. and Canadian producers. The strong U.S. dollar favors imports. The disappointing ITC decision that 50%-125% dumping by China of hardwood plywood into the U.S. wasn’t hurting the domestic industry has seen the market share of Chinese imports continue to grow fueled further by the dollar’s valuation.

Engineered wood flooring has a modest duty on Chinese imports that has dampened the strong dollar effect. Imports from Indonesia and Malaysia are increasing, though. Veneer has seen its hardwood plywood domestic market remain stable, but the furniture industry, its major market, moved to China years ago. The slow erosion of the furniture industry from China to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries has

Currently, North American capacity utilization is less than 50%.

helped domestic veneer producer exports to those countries improve.

PW: What are some of the biggest obstacles blocking hardwood plywood and veneer industry growth? On the other hand, are there any recent developments that are especially promising?

KH: Chinese imports market share of hardwood plywood and engineered flooring is a key factor. The recent Lumber Liquidators case highlights the dismal record of U.S. and California enforcement of formaldehyde and illegal logging restrictions. Abuse of these requirements saves exporters money, and the increased costs U.S. producers incur to guarantee compliance only makes them less competitive.

Howlett If the dollar gets weaker, US laws are enforced and unfair Chinese trading practices are addressed, then optimism may be warranted. Chinese kitchen cabinet imports are now over $720 million annually, up from $89 million in 2004. China is increasing its market share for hardwood plywood’s key kitchen cabinet market; as previously with the U.S. veneer industry and Chinese wood furniture.

PW: What’s the state of capacity in the hardwood plywood and veneer industry? Is there more of a need to add to capacity or replace/upgrade what’s already there?

KH: North American capacity utilization is less than 50%. The unused capacity is more than enough to offset any reductions in Chinese imports should that ever occur. Capital budgets have been tight and upgrades have been spotty in the industry. Over the last five years we have had permanent closures in hard-

wood plywood and veneer, but in engineered wood flooring there have been increases in production, re-opening of closed mills and new players coming into the market.

PW: What kind of impact has the Lumber Liquidators case had on your segment of the industry?

KH: Consumer awareness has been raised which is a good thing. The continued lack of enforcement and delays in issuing an EPA rule have not led to clarity. Imported products can be legally double inventoried, which appears to be occurring as long as there are no CARB compliant claims being made.

Consumers need to be aware though.

Substitute products have made claims that solid wood is preferable without differentiating between the circumstances of Lumber Liquidators—which involved non-compliant laminate flooring products and compliant engineered wood products. Those promotions have since been withdrawn.

All North American produced hardwood plywood and engineered flooring is CARB compliant. Manufacturers do not double inventory but make the same product for all markets. The CARB emission standard for engineered hardwoods is the lowest emission standard in the world. Compliance ensures emissions are well below the CPSC/CDC levels of concern, as with the Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring made in China. Finally, over 60% of North American products are made with non-formaldehyde resin systems and the rest have achieved exemption status from consistent low emissions. This compliance record ensures consumer safety.

PW: What are your thoughts on the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and its impact on the plywood and veneer industry?

KH: The growth rate of the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve interest rate policy and international trade policy are the three critical issues that can impact the engineered hardwood and veneer industries. The policy positions of the two Democratic candidates and the three Republican candidates could not be more divergent. That uncertainty is the biggest impact on the new directions for federal policy, but the Federal Reserve is the biggest player and not subject to PW the whims of the voting public.

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COMPOSITE SEGMENT OF INDUSTRY RECOVERING SLOW, STEADY Composite Panel Assn. leader discusses how industry has fared after downturn.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Responding to a series of questions on how the industry has recovered since the economic downturn of ’07-’09, Composite Panel Assn. Executive Director Jackson Morrill explains some of the successes and challenges facing the composite board segment of the panel industry.

Panel World: Considering many economists say the U.S. has been in recovery since mid-2009, how do you characterize the recovery for the composite panel industry almost seven years later?

Jackson Morrill: The composite wood panel industry has experienced slow and steady growth since mid-2009 but has some way to go to reach pre-recession levels, particularly for particleboard. Particleboard shipments have increased 9% over a seven year period from 2009-2015, from 3.06MMSF to 3.35MMSF. However, particleboard shipments from 2006-2008 averaged 4.60MMSF, demonstrating how far the industry has to climb to meet pre-recession output. The story is somewhat better for MDF, with shipments having increased 15% from 2009-2015, from 1.87MMSF to 2.21MMSF. This level of output compares more favorably to prerecession levels, which averaged about 2.56MMSF for the period between 20062008. One notable bright spot for the industry has been the growth over the last two years in the North American thermally fused laminates (TFL) business, which CPA has recently begun to track and report on to our membership.

For U.S. manufacturers, a critical com-

Morrill

ponent of future growth will be the extent to which manufacturing in key sectors (e.g., furniture, kitchen cabinets) returns to and/or remains in the U.S. We will continue to also track with interest indicators like housing and remodeling starts, which we hope will continue to improve as we emerge from the recession. A significant percentage of the overall post-recession growth in the housing market has been driven by multi-family dwellings, which ultimately use less of our industry’s products than single-family homes.

This could be one reason why we have experienced somewhat slower growth during this recovery period. Should single family starts begin to edge up—and there are some indications that this is the case now—we are hopeful that we will see more growth in our industry, although the trend towards smaller homes could temper that growth.

PW: What are some of the biggest obstacles blocking composite panel industry expansion and growth? On the other hand, are there

any recent developments or trends that are especially promising?

JM: For our U.S. manufacturing members, imports continue to pose the largest obstacle to expansion and growth, particularly given the strong U.S. dollar and weak domestic markets in developing economies. In looking at raw board imports, MDF producers in particular face stiff competition from MDF importers benefiting significantly from the exchange rate. These challenges are perhaps not as acutely felt by our Mexican and Canadian members, who do not face the same headwinds. However, all North American producers continue to suffer the impact of offshoring production of finished goods. While we have heard that some production may be returning to the U.S., including most notably some furniture manufacturing, this does not appear to have occurred to any great extent yet.

On a positive note, we have seen an increasing willingness on behalf of our members to invest in equipment upgrades, and in some cases new lines, to increase production. The growth of the

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remaining on-line are the most productive and efficient.

The total capacity for MDF has actually increased since 2009—from 2.68MMSF to 2.81MMSF in 2015. The increase really occurred when the MDF mill in Pembroke, Ontario came back online in 2015. The utilization rate has also increased over that timeframe, from 70% to 81.2%, suggesting some growth in market demand and increased efficiencies in the industry.

Our members continue to make upgrades and replace outdated equipment, which will likely continue to increase the overall utilization rate.

Morrill says the North American composite panel industry has some ways to go to reach pre-recession levels, but numbers are trending upward and new mills are being built—all of which are good signs.

TFL business has led to fairly significant investment throughout North America in new lines that can operate with greater efficiency. For the first time in over 20 years, a new particleboard mill will be built in North America. It is scheduled to break ground later this year in Grayling, Mich. and be operational by the end of 2018. Three new MDF mills are set to begin production this year in Mexico.

We also recently learned about an HDF mill to be built in Barnwell, SC, all of which suggests a generally positive outlook on the future.

PW: What’s the state of capacity in the composite panel industry as far as utilization rates and trends?

JM: Total particleboard capacity in the U.S. and Canada has been on a steady decline since 2009—from 6.12MMSF to 4.65MMSF in 2015. Conversely, the capacity utilization rate has gone up over that same period—from 50% to 72.7%.

This likely reflects the fact that the industry has gone through consolidation and some mill closures, and that those mills

PW: What’s the current situation with formaldehyde rule making?

JM: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported in Federal Government’s Fall 2015 Regulatory Plan that it intended to issue the final formaldehyde emissions regulation in May 2016. Unfortunately, we have not heard any news confirming that EPA will meet this deadline—and this is on a rule that Congress mandated must be passed by January 1, 2013. There has been no notification that the draft final rule has been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget, which has up to 90 days to review the rule before sending it back to EPA for final publication. Unless EPA moves expeditiously to get the draft final rule to OIRA, we worry that time may run out with the current administration. We continue to strongly press EPA to quickly publish its final regulation and, equally important, to begin implementing a rigorous enforcement program that ensures a level playing field.

PW: What are your thoughts on the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and its impact on the composite panel industry?

JM: It is still too early to tell what may be the ultimate outcome of the Republican primary and whether they will hold an open convention. With that in mind, I will hold any judgment on a potential candidate and its impact on the composite wood industry. Should Hillary Clinton gain the Democratic nomination,

which appears more likely by the day, we would expect more of the same regulatory philosophy that we have seen under the current administration. Some issues we would likely need to continue to track more closely would be, for example, amendments to the composite wood MACT rule and movement on the approach to biomass under the Clean Power Plan (should it pass legal scrutiny).

PW: What kind of impact has the Lumber Liquidators case had on composite flooring markets and the flooring industry overall?

JM: Certainly, we are concerned when the acts of one company as reported in the mainstream media unjustly cast a negative shadow on an entire industry. On a deeper level, however, the story has brought to light a concern that many of our members have maintained for some time—that there is not a level regulatory playing field in place in the U.S. when it comes to formaldehyde emissions enforcement. Our members have invested heavily in technology upgrades, internal monitoring and thirdparty verification systems to ensure that North American particleboard, MDF and laminated decorative panels meet California’s strict emissions requirements. It is something we take great pride in, and it should provide consumers with the utmost confidence that our North American members take their regulatory obligations very seriously.

These investments become a competitive liability, however, when certain manufacturers can make product overseas with a cheaper, non-compliant board and then import that product into the U.S. without fear of regulatory enforcement.

The Lumber Liquidators story has raised greater attention to this issue, and ultimately, has led to CARB finally issuing its first major enforcement action of the formaldehyde emissions regulation. As manufacturers in North America who have consistently worked to comply with California’s regulation, we encourage CARB to continue efforts to increase enforcement and oversight of the regulation to ensure a level playing field for all manufacturers of composite PW wood products.

The total capacity for MDF has actually increased since 2009—from 2.68MMSF to 2.81MMSF in 2015. The increase really occurred when the MDF mill in Pembroke, Ontario came back online in 2015.

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NEW PROJECTS, NEW PRODUCTS LEAD DISCUSSIONS AT PELICE 2016 IN ATLANTA Not only a record crowd, but an enthused one pumped up the Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo.

Good crowds combed the aisles of PELICE.

ATLANTA, Ga. he 2016 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) set a record attendance of 450, including representatives from 32 wood products producer companies in North America. Overseas interests were represented as well, such as the large contingency from multiple wood products producer Koskisen Oy of Finland.

The event, held for the fifth time and which is held every other year, featured nearly 50 speakers, as well as 80 equipment and technology exhibitors squeezed into the Grand Ballroom North of the

Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta.

PELICE is hosted by Panel World magazine and Georgia Research Institute.

“We’ve tried to establish an event that offers the latest technologies and developments in both the structural and non-structural wood products segments,” comments PELICE Co-Chairman Rich Donnell, who is the editor-inchief of Panel World magazine. “A good example of the diversity of this event is that we had in attendance the new president of composite panel and laminate flooring manufacturer Swiss Krono USA and the new president of structural plywood manufacturer Hood Industries.”

Donnell adds that in addition to the educational aspects of the event, it is also very much about having an enjoyable experience. He says many producer companies brought 10 and more personnel to PELICE, some of them using the event as an opportunity to host regional meetings.

“All of these companies belong to some very great associations that host fantastic annual meetings, which I’ve attended,” Donnell says. “I would like to think that PELICE is the conference and expo they choose to attend to complement their association functions.”

Certainly attendees had every opportunity to expand their horizons at PELICE, given the tremendous range of technologies brought forth by the exhibitors as well as the ongoing technical and information sessions.

Juha Jalkanen, Director at Koskisen Oy, commented that their group of 10 came to catch up on new technology and products used in U.S. mills and to learn about market opportunities.

Greg Harrison, Director of Operations Siding at Louisiana-Pacific Corp., commented of PELICE, “It’s key for operators to have all of their vendors in one

Jackson Morrill

George Goroyias

Rodney Schwartz

BY DAN SHELL

T

Article continues on page 20, more photos, pages 18-19.

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place, whether it’s resin suppliers, raw material suppliers, equipment vendors.”

Harrison added that LP just completed a major conversion of its Swan Valley, Manitoba, plant from OSB to siding.

Fred Carter, wood scientist at Columbia Forest Products, came to listen to the resins and adhesives sessions, especially to hear about lignin technology as an adhesive component. CFP uses its own soy adhesives.

Rob Freres, principal at Oregon plywood manufacturer, Freres Lumber, was interested to hear discussion about cross laminated timber, noting, “We think veneer probably would make more sense than full sawn lumber.

We’re surveying the landscape.”

Scott Weatherford, CEO at ATCO Wood Products in British Columbia, said PELICE is really the event in North America for checking on the pulse of the industry. “We’re touching base on some projects we’re working on and doing some networking,” he said.

Roman Morris, R&D Technical Manager at Shaw Industries, said he had attended the 2014 PELICE and came away impressed and planning to come to the 2016 event. One thing on his mind was advanced robotics material handling.

Perhaps the overriding theme of the event was project development as several keynote speakers addressed new plant construction, including Jonathan Martin, Chairman and CEO of Martin Companies; Steve Swanson, President and CEO of Swanson Group; and Kurt Liebich, CEO of RedBuilt and New Wood Resources.

Speaking before a standing-room only crowd, Martin showed 3-D imaging of the OSB plant his company is currently

Sudip Chowdhury

Alan Knokey of USNR (Coe) brought his vast experience to the table.

building in Corrigan, Texas. Martin noted that while implementing the company’s first OSB project since it started a plant up in Oakdale, La. a decade ago, a priority was made to streamline the process and make as few mistakes as possible.

When listing critical greenfield OSB project areas, Martin noted safety and environmental issues, plant cleanliness, meeting budgets, maximizing uptime and striving to lower operating costs. “Downtime is the second-largest cost after raw materials,” he said.

Many of the same suppliers at the Oakdale plant are also working on the new facility, and to help meet the goal of maximum uptime, Martin Company officials gave each supplier a binder— some thicker than others—covering every performance incident and maintenance and service issue on their equipment since 2007.

Of the permitting and red tape required to move a project of such magnitude, Martin quipped, “If you haven’t had any dealings with the Army Corps. of Engineers, you haven’t had any fun yet.”

With startup at Corrigan slated for fall 2017, Martin said he thought the project is in good position, in a wood basket with 20% growth over removal rate, and the outlook for housing starts and multifamily activity improving this year and next and into the future.

Meanwhile, with the ashes still smoldering in Springfield, Ore. in July 2014, and after initially confirming all employees were safe, Swanson said he and his team were faced with a “Now what?”

moment: “What do you do? We had 250 people out of work and about six months to make a final decision,” Swanson said.

The Swanson Group team explored a variety of alternatives to rebuilding in the same location, including building elsewhere or buying another facility. A good insurance settlement gave the company more options, and Swanson said they even looked at going into CLT or building another sawmill. And though the site itself is relatively small in Springfield, the mill’s wood yard, boilers and vats survived the fire, making it cost efficient to rebuild there.

“Once we decided to make high end, high quality panels, we moved to suppliers,” Swanson said, noting the new mill’s Meinan lathe, Raute dryers and Argus

Brian Valley

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Brad James

Jim Griswold

Dick Baldwin

layup line have an international flavor.

“Less than two years since the fire, just 20 months, we’re getting close,” Swanson said, adding that he hopes to be peeling by late spring and fully laying up by late third quarter. He expects to be fully operational and moving out of startup mode by January 2017.

Swanson Group was able to retain 80 or so of the mill’s 253 employees after the fire at other positions in the company, and 150 former employees showed up at a recent meeting on staffing the new facility.

Just a couple months before Swanson’s fire—and only weeks after purchasing a plywood plant in Louisville, Miss.—New Wood Resources executives were shocked by the devastation from a EF-4 tornado that left the mill in shambles in April 2014.

“It was hard to comprehend the destruction. We were committed, but it took a collective effort,” said CEO Liebich. “It would have been easy to leave, but we recognized the role this plant had in the community.”

Liebich added that wood products operations are great economic engines for rural areas and act as strong multipliers for employment in support industries.

Local and state officials recognized this, and one silver lining from the event was a federal natural disaster designation that opened up financing options that wouldn’t have otherwise been available.

Also because the city of Louisville owned the real estate, there was an opportunity to secure public financing.

While the presses were able to be salvaged and reconditioned, the mill features new USNR lathes and dryers.

“We’re well along and should begin production in summer. We’re really pleased

with where we are, and we’ve had good weather this year,” Liebich said.

While global geopolitical tensions and economic issues will likely remain, and oil prices will inevitably rise, Liebich said, “The fundamentals for our industry are good” in terms of markets and demand.

Leibich, who really engaged the crowd while talking about various projects New Wood Resources is involved in, exclaimed that demand for wood products was going to be fine. “Unless you believe that millennials aren’t going to buy houses and start families,” he explained, “housing is going to be okay,” as he looks toward a 1.5 million starts pace.

Liebich added that a big challenge going forward is “bringing the millennial generation into the industry, and how to attract new, good talent, and it can be tougher in rural areas.” He added that financing will remain difficult and urged visitors to look for alternate sources when possible.

First-day afternoon keynote speaker Brian Carlson, President of Huber Engineered Woods, told PELICE visitors about the importance of not relying totally on commodity markets and adopting initiatives to pursue growth through innovation.

Noting such innovative companies as TrusJoist, Starbucks, Apple and Yeti coolers, Carlson said pursuing growth through innovation is enabled by “People implementing new ideas to create value. And once you create value, market the heck out of it,” he added.

In Huber’s case, Carlson pointed to the success of his company’s Zip System: structural roof and wall sheathing with built-in moisture barrier and tape system that eliminates time-consuming tradition-

al sheathing and house wrapping.

Carlson said Huber product development teams looked at housing construction and sought to identify certain practices and “pain points” that are costly or time-consuming and sought to solve them.

“Someone once said the fastest way to make money is to solve a problem, and the bigger the problem the more money you’ll make,” Carlson said. With its Zip System, Huber has done just that, he added.

Second-day keynote speaker Jackson Morrill, President of the Composite Panel Assn., exclaimed that there’s good reason for optimism in the North American composite panel industry: Investment is up, utilization rates are up, products like thermally-fused laminates are showing strong growth and markets are positive. He pointed to the new particleboard mill announced for Grayling, Mich. (Arauco), and a new HDF mill in Barnwell, SC (Swiss Krono USA), in addition to three MDF mills in Mexico.

Morrill added that another positive is the industry’s sustainability and low emissions message, which holds up well in markets around the world and in the media. (Read more insights from Morrill in this issue on page 14.)

Looking at global panel markets and trends, second-day keynoter Dr. George Goroyias of Poyry Management Consulting noted that while Asia is now the biggest furniture-producing area in the world, the region is facing wood shortages that will not allow Asian furniture producers to meet future demand increases.

“This may increase opportunities for Western furniture manufacturers,” Goroyias said. He added that China is

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Thomas Franz

Tor Gustavsen

Anna McCann

banning timber harvest on much of its remaining natural forests, and there’s a big need for new and extensive investment in plantation wood throughout the region.

Until those raw material needs are met, “It means continued reliance on logs, lumber and panel imports” for Asian panel and furniture producers, Goroyias said. He said Latin America is facing an overcapacity challenge. The U.S. market is recovering and margins are expected to improve, while Europe is facing a slow recovery.

Goroyias emphasized the importance of investing more in R&D. “Innovation in our sector should focus beyond product and technical and explore areas such as creating different routes to market, improving our product marketing and creating supply chain alliances.”

Final keynote speaker Luis Tejado, President of Blue Drop, an investor in new Mexican MDF producer Proteak, reported the $170 million (US) project took 42 months from concept to first board. The plant started up in first quarter 2016 with a capacity of 280,000 m3.

No one had ever built a panel plant in Mexico before, and arguments mounted against it, so the key was demonstrating its advantage as a low cost supplier, including much lower transportation costs, low-cost natural gas imported from Texas, comparable or lower labor costs and more efficient resin technology.

Major investors include a Mexican pension fund and German banking interests, who were encouraged by the involvement of equipment supplier Dieffenbacher and Spanish panel producer FINSA, which is jointly operating the plant with Proteak.

Another big issue was raw materials,

which Proteak solved by purchasing an existing 20,000 acre eucalyptus plantation near the plant, then investing more and adding to it with high-yield trees and FSC certification.

Rodney Schwartz, VP at B&W MEGTEC, a Gold exhibitor sponsor of the event, delivered a keynote talk on his company’s air emissions control systems and working relationship with engineered wood products producers.

Producers want uptime, safety, simplicity, reliability, maintenance friendly design, predictable maintenance and reduced energy consumption, Schwartz noted. He said the company has accomplished 4,811,000 acfm treated (OSB, MDF, particleboard, plywood-veneer) to date, since it started air emission control research and projects with the panel board industry in 2001.

files, resulting in higher recovery. As electronics improve there will be less and more durable components, meaning less maintenance cost. As roller screw actuators replace hydraulic cylinders there will be better positioning, thus higher value veneer. And as positioning improves, things move more securely and rapidly—more production.

Knokey also noted that USNR’s rollin veneer dryer installation package reduces outage cost from 17 to three weeks, while erecting the new dryer as the old one continues to operate. It also allows the opportunity to delay outage if the market suddenly improves. l Anna McCann, President of Merritt Machinery, LLC and U.S. representative of Meinan Machinery Works, reviewed Meinan “firsts” related to plywood manufacturing, including more than 400 lathes sold in Japan and worldwide.

“The Meinan concept focuses on recovery improvement to lower material costs, automation to lower labor costs, and technology to reduce glue and energy costs,” she stated.

Noting mechanical comparisons to conventional lathes, she said the Meinan lathe implements spiked discs along the log circumference as the driving force; a segmented nose bar; and peeling force equal to resistance force.

She also addressed the Meinan peeling line that will be starting up in the new Swanson Group plywood mill in Springfield, Ore., calling the plant the “first in the world with fully automated green end.” It features 3-D vision scanning with PC optimization, constant lathe peel speed for high productivity, automatic knife changer, full sheet stacking by moisture sort and automated

TECH SESSIONS In addition to offering industry-leading keynote speakers who share operational, organizational and market insights, PELICE also provides nuts and bolts technical information and background detail on a variety of topics covering everything from mill floor equipment and manufacturing systems to basic research and industry trends: l During a presentation on production technology and lathe and dryer developments, USNR Vice President Alan Knokey noted that the average plywood lathe in North America is 45 years old and has been rebuilt repeatedly. He also reported that USNR’s latest plywood xy scanning system produces 491,500 data points—and that will only increase.

Looking to 2020, Knokey said as scanners improve so will density pro-

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random veneer clipping with in-line green veneer composing. l “Bacteria is amazing in what it can do, and we’re using it to make the environment better,” said Nathan Hess of Process Combustion Corp. (PPC) during a presentation on dual bio-phase bio-oxidation as an efficient approach to VOC and HAP emissions control.

Using Level 1 naturally occurring bacteria, new PPC technology at the pilot plant stage offers a smaller footprint, synthetic media that never needs replacing, metered, auto delivery of nutrients, lower operating temps and no natural gas usage, Hess said. l Chris Whelan, senior business development manager for Henkel Corp., noted that advanced adhesives are making better versions of products such as cross laminated timber possible. Early generation adhesives had long open and press times and used RF presses that were expensive and costly to operate, Whelan noted. New adhesives have lower open and cycle times, and “This has opened up the ability to produce mass wood products economically and ecologically,” he added. l Dr. W. Ernest Hsu, principal of Hsu

Scott Stamey

Consulting, addressed OSB prospects in China, noting product applications in the domestic market for packaging, furniture, core stocks for truck and container flooring, building material for houses, and specialty items such as siding for housing and partition walls for ships.

The challenges for OSB producers in China, he said, include needing to have a high product-to-log input ratio due to

high wood cost in China; versatility to produce various products having different properties to meet the requirements for various applications; and producing low cost, quality product to compete with blockboard or MDF or particleboard in price and performance.

The opportunities for OSB producers in China include a huge demand for industrial panels and engineered strand lumber; and the potential variety of products and applications, he said.

“The main applications of engineered stand products in China are different from those in North America,” he said.

“The products for the China market must be designed to match their applications. Otherwise, the products may be too expensive to compete with other products.”

Dr. Hui Wan, Associate Professor in Forest Composite Products at Mississippi State University, also addressed the engineered wood panel industry in China. He said with only 5% of the world’s forest resource, China produces 60% of the world’s bio-based panels. More than 10,000 wood-based panel enterprises employ more than 3 million workers, yielding 0.25 billion m3 of panels and a pro-

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Mike Clark

Janice Chow

John Robinson

duction value of 1000 billion yuan.

He noted that last year the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information published a notice to promote green building materials production and application, so that by 2018 green building material sales should increase to 20% of all building material sold. In 2030, Chinese CO2 emission should decrease 6065% as compared to 2005.

Heikki Vidgren, principal, Pöyry Management Consulting, addressed engineered wood trends in Europe. He said cross laminated timber is still in the early stage of development and represents a major growth opportunity in North America and Europe. It can also have a significant impact on sawnwood demand. For example, a 10% market share gain in residential construction in Germany would increase the demand of sawnwood by 1.5-2 million m3 or by 300-400 million. EUR.

l During the Heat Energy & Emission Issues & Technologies technical breakout session, Wes Younger with Trinity Consultants said a development facing panel and engineered lumber facilities in regards to air quality control is startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM). In 2011, The Sierra Club petitioned the EPA to correct actions States take regarding the regulation of emissions—following SSM events, regardless of SSM status.

The petition pointed out that the SSM provisions of 39 states were inconsistent with the wording of the Clean Air Act. EPA largely agreed and proposed in 2013 to require 36 states to make amends by late next year.

What does this mean for most facilities? Younger said to watch out as almost all emission standards will be considered to apply at all times now. regardless of any SSM condition. Rethinking

startup and shutdown procedures can help combat air emission concerns.

“Your compliance inspector is now your best friend,” Younger said. “There may be some value in saving up some ‘points’ in their eyes by over-complying in most regards—you may need those points later.”

Brian Valley, Director of Industrial Solutions for Spraying Systems Co., spoke on optimizing resin, wax and release agent effectiveness. Referring to the company’s suite of products, he said they will allow precise control of surface moisture; precise application of release agents; even and accurate application of resin; hydraulic application of waxes requiring heating; and reliable and accurate line marking of boards.

Jim Griswold, New Business Development Manager for Hexion, spoke on the maze of adhesive standards and regulations. He said building code revisions, environmental standards—state and federal—and “green” building standards combine to drive continually changing standards and regulations.

Griswold said the EPA deadline for final formaldehyde emission standards for composite wood products is in May 2016, and that the global trend seems to follow CARB II type requirements.

Scott Stamey, Senior Project Manager, Mid-South Engineering, spoke on creating value through engineering. Citing ways to save during preliminary design, Stamey listed: eliminate conveying; smaller equipment footprint; utilize existing structures; minimize detailed engineering design changes; allow the pace of the project to pick the outage date. PW

Hui Wan went in-depth on China

(Look for continuing coverage of PELICE 2016 sessions in future issues of Panel World.)

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NORTH AMERICAN PLYWOOD & VENEER BASED INDUSTRY: THE REINVENTION CONTINUES Fewer mills, larger capacities, increasing automation and management tools.

BY DR. RICHARD BALDWIN

orth American softwood plywood and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) capacity has trended downward as the economy struggled during the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and afterward. Eighty-six active softwood plywood mills in North America in 2006 steadily declined until only 60 mills remained operational in 2015. LVL production facility count fared similarly with 23 operating mills in 2006 declining to 17 in 2015 (see Exhibits A and B).

The economic recovery subsequent to the Great Recession has been anything but robust and even less so for those plywood manufacturers that directly compete with oriented strandboard (OSB). Overall production of both softwood plywood and LVL is again modestly growing, but with greater output from fewer mills. However, neither product has yet regained the volume produced by the North American industry during the years of near-record residential construction prior to the mortgage crisis of the Great Recession (see Exhibits C and D).

The restructuring and reinvention of the veneer based industry is far from over, and further North American mill closures may occur. While commodity softwood plywood prices improved through mid-2014, these same prices then trended downward through 2015 (see Exhibit E). Causes of weak veneer demand include less than expected increases in housing starts (see Exhibit F) and flat industrial demand. Higher imports of soft-

N

Number of plywood mills took a hit during 2006-2012.

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wood plywood from Brazilian, Canadian and Chilean producers have increased supply, with the strong U.S. dollar acting as the impetus for these lower cost imports (see Exhibit G). Wells Fargo forecasts further strengthening of the U.S. dollar in 2016 relative to a basket of foreign currencies because the U.S., even with its challenges, will perform better than most other advanced economies. Similarly, recent year-over-year LVL volume and price increases have been modest at best.

The lackluster industry performance should provoke soulsearching. The answers can provide important clues to the industry’s future. For example, what changes have occurred, or are on the horizon, that will improve the prospects for the veneer based industry participant? How can the mill operator use this analysis to improve business prospects in 2016 and later?

The search begins by reexamining several key landmark events and considering their continuing relevance in driving change. Five historic landmark events continue to shape the future of the veneer based industry.

#1: INVENTION OF LVL The first “needle mover” was the invention of laminated veneer lumber. By the early 1970s it had become increasingly difficult to source high quality lumber and timbers in longlengths. Art Troutner and Harold (Red) Thomas had earlier organized a company to manufacture and market open web trusses which utilized specified lengths and widths of lumber.

Troutner, a talented engineer, solved the supply problem by laminating veneer in a manner somewhat akin to the plywood assembly process.

However, rather than using cross bands with alternate layers at right angles typical for most plywood constructions, his in-

novation was to assemble a recipe of parallel laminated veneers based upon prescribed structural values. He then cured the loose assembly under heat and pressure to create a billet that had the aesthetic and structural characteristics of wide, long length lumber. Select structural veneers, heretofore utilized in plywood, now had a higher value when assembled and glued into wide widths and long lengths. The resulting veneer based “lumber” often had strength and aesthetic characteristics superior to comparably sized lumber sawn from old-growth timber.

The resulting LVL concept solved the specific problem identified by Thomas and Troutner, and also developed a new approach to creating products for other structural applications with a defined need of prescribed values and dimensions. Besides effectively solving engineering dilemmas, the wood based LVL concept also created an alternate market for the plywood sheathing producer. Certain veneers, previously used only in CDX plywood, could now be upgraded into a higher value structural dry veneer product. As the market for LVL has grown, so has veneer volume sold by plywood plants and the independent veneer producer.

#2: INVENTION OF OSB Louisiana-Pacific was essentially a lumber based company before the invention of oriented strandboard, a structural sheathing panel comparable in physical properties to conventional CDX plywood. During the late 1970s Harry Merlo and his LP team began replacing equipment to convert unprofitable particleboard plants into OSB production. The lower cost OSB structural panel utilizes lower cost species and a variety of timber types. The raw logs are debarked at the plant,

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milled into flakes, coated with glue and wax, and then layers of prepared flakes are aligned in an approach similar to plywood cross banding. The resulting mat is bonded under heat and pressure.

OSB as a structural product has three potential advantages relative to plywood. First, the use of comparatively cheap wood fiber allows a lower cost to the consumer. Initially marketed as the “poor man’s” equivalent to plywood, its marketing message has continued to focus on its comparative value as a competitive product to plywood. Second, the flake layers can be tailored to replicate the strength characteristics of different plywood grades. Finally, the labor content of OSB is lower. More efficient labor utilization is achieved through a relatively automated production process compared to plywood. OSB’s steadily increasing panel share is a sign of its market acceptance (see Exhibit H).

supply of these logs and an increasing demand for plywood sheathing provided the impetus for change. A transformation in log processing occurred during the mid 1960s as the plywood industry expanded into the relatively small diameter timberlands in the Intermountain West and the Southeastern states. The key to change was, and continues to be, the improved capability to peel useable veneer from progressively smaller and more diverse species.

For example, during the mid-1980s Charles Schmidt discovered that useable veneer could be peeled using a centerless lathe from initial diameters as small as 7 in., with a resulting peeler core dropout of about 2 in. In another example, in 1988 two Coe model 244 lathes were converted in Springfield, Ore. to a spindle configuration that allowed peeling a #3 sawlog (Northwest Log Rules, 6-11 in. small end scaling cylinder) down to a 2 ½ in. peeler core. The latter example was particularly noteworthy because a large fraction of the resulting full veneer sheets was transformed into LVL. These two singular events, plus a continuing stream of incremental mechanical and electronic innovations, are unlocking access to an enlarged resource base in North America and worldwide. A more variable resource base is further motivating “out-of-the-box” thinking in process creativity.

#5: RIGHT-SIZING THE NA VENEER-BASED INDUSTRY

#3: TIMBER—A STAND-ALONE ASSET During the early to mid 1980s, forest industry outsider Sir James Goldsmith realized that company owned timberlands represent something more than a captive timber supply; these lands could have stand-alone value as an appealing asset class for investors. Forest products producers, including public company Boards pressured by Wall Street analysts, followed the pattern Goldsmith established with his acquisitions of Crown Zellerbach and other timber rich companies. Goldsmith unlocked incremental value by splitting the timberland asset from the manufacturing assets, and then selling the timberland as an income producing asset class to insurance companies, timber investment management organizations, and other institutional investors typically with a long-term investment horizon.

Wood products manufacturers, including plywood and veneer makers, could no longer rely on cheap fee timber to support the income statement or to act as a tool to buffer market declines. Plywood plants, heretofore one of several conversion options by vertically integrated public companies, were subsequently closed or divested to others as underperforming assets.

To afford market priced logs on an ongoing basis, the surviving plywood operators have increasingly focused on customer specific products that rely less on the volatile housing industry.

#4: SOURCING VERSATILITY OF WOOD FIBER Early plywood manufacturers focused upon large diameter #1 and #2 peeler log grades obtained from Pacific Northwest old-growth stands of fir and hemlock timber. A diminishing

GP plywood mill in Prosperity, SC

As the Twentieth Century came to a close, 101 operating mills remained after decades of attrition; seven additional mills closed during the next year (2000). And there was still too much plywood capacity chasing too few orders as the traumatic ordeal of the Great Recession (2008-2009) began. As previously mentioned, current mill count is about 40% lower than 15 years ago.

Privately-owned Koch Industries established the model, method and means for matching capacity with consumption when it purchased publicly-traded Georgia-Pacific, including 17 plywood mills, in 2004. Koch purchased several more facilities over the following few years to increase mill count to 21. However, Georgia-Pacific has liquidated or mothballed 12 of those mills starting in 2008. The company now operates nine mills. The nine survivors are typically larger, more efficient, and better positioned in the marketplace relative to the closed mills. The GP/Koch mill attrition, combined with

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widespread downsizing by smaller operators, right-sized the industry to better balance supply and demand.

ACTION STEPS History teaches the dangers of failing to continually improve the efficiency of mill operations and of becoming complacent in marketing, and the very staying power of the plywood business continues to be at stake. Periodic economic downturns over the past 50 years, the most severe being the Great Recession, have joined with the five above described Landmark events to create significant challenges for surviving mill owners and operators. Greater understanding of the plywood industry’s heritage is crucial to the process that proactively drives change and will ensure survival.

Wood fiber, the raw material of dry veneer, is the most important component in terms of cost for both plywood and LVL. OSB and dry lumber have an inherent cost advantage in the sourcing and preparation of raw material, with OSB using a cheaper log similar to the lower quality stem used in paper mills and commodity lumber producers enjoying lower processing costs from sawlogs. Given that the majority of LVL producers obtain the bulk of their dry veneer from “captive” plywood plants, the savvy veneer producer will focus investment and retooling on the green end and dryers to help their customer to narrow the cost differential between ply wood/LVL and competing products.

A variety of sources reveal what is currently happening within the industry. The industry is trending (both plywood and LVL) toward greater capacity within a smaller mill “footprint.” It is now possible to double the volume of dry veneer produced in similar or smaller processing space. However, this can be done only through using state-of-the-art technologies and transformative leadership processes that engage the mill crew, in contrast to the 20th Century technology and management practices of the 1980s that continue to be typical for many operating mills. A recent multiyear survey used on-site visits, interviews of knowledgeable and trusted industry participants, and an extensive literature search to yield the following four lessons:

#1: IMPROVING VENEER QUALITY AND DOUBLING LATHE LINE OUTPUT Four distinct Tiers of performance become evident when evaluating and ranking North American lathe lines (see Exhibit I), with lathe line production in the top tier double earlier industry norms. There are three crucial interwoven elements in achieving this quest for far greater lathe line performance such as installing the newer electronic innovations, reengineering equipment and processes for greater systems functionality, and redesigning the people processes with the emphasis on involvement and engagement to take full advantage of the considerable capital investment. Getting the “just right” combination of the three is the key to success.

From evaluating lathe lines in the West and Southeast using the four tier classification model, the author observed comparably equipped green ends that have widely disparate production and cost efficiencies. One successful western Oregon operation averages production in the mid-50s MSF (3⁄8 in. basis) per operating hour while peeling a nominal 1⁄8 in. peel. On the day of the author’s visit, the mill was on pace to set a record with hourly production well into the 60s. Another mill in the same region produces at half that rate; the latter is an inferior

EXHIBIT I: GREEN-END PRODUCTIVITY TIER M 3/8s per Optg Hour

TIER

Description

I

60s to 80s vintage lathe with original controls, charger, clipper and trays.

20 to 30

II

60 to 80s vintage lathe with upgraded controls and original charger, clipper and trays.

30 to 40

III

60 to 80s vintage lathe with upgraded controls, charger, clipper and trays.

40 to 50

IV

State-of-the-art lathe with modern controls, charger, clipper and trays.

50 and above

and likely less profitable operation. The empirical observation is that probably not more than 10-15% of operating lathe lines fit into the top Tier IV ranking, a somewhat higher percentage likely comprise the bottom Tier I, and the majority are clustered in the middle Tier II and Tier III performance levels.

A “silver bullet” has not been developed that automatically improves operating performance, and it may be more comfortable to settle for a mediocre lower Tier than to take a bet-thecompany risk of moving to a more efficient and profitable Tier. A successful journey requires a unique mixture and application of the three crucial elements previously described.

Successfully transitioning to a higher tier hinges on an appropriate combination of retooling efforts and operational excellence that is achieved by recognizing and treating team members as a valued resource.

#2: ELIMINATING THE VENEER DRYING BOTTLENECK

Dual drying lines at Boise in Medford, Ore.

Current veneer drying process technology within the North American industry can be categorized into three performance PanelWorld • MAY 2016 • 31

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EXHIBIT J: DRY-END PRODUCTIVITY TIER M 3/8s per Optg Hour

TIER

Description

I

60s to 80s vintage jet dryers with 4+ decks.

less than 12

II

Updated Tier I Dryers with stackers.

16 to 18

III

State-of-the-art 6-deck dryer with high-speed stacker.

33 to 41

Tiers (see Exhibit J). The older longitudinal flow dryers such Moore Oregon and Coe dryers of an earlier era typically fall into Tier I, the lowest level of performance. These dryers are usually steam heated, 6 deck dryers of an earlier vintage. Even the first jet dryers developed in the mid-sixties and subsequently poorly maintained will fall into this lowest level. This class of dryers was the industry standard for decades.

Tier II veneer drying performance is represented by well maintained four deck jet-tube dryers of the 70s and later years that were installed by both domestic and offshore equipment suppliers. These dryers have typically been upgraded though floor conversions, fan reconfiguration, heat source modifications, and other enhancements.

More than a decade into the 21st Century, the relatively high labor utilization of veneer drying operations with 20th Century technology is making way for highly automated Tier III dryers. The newest generation of veneer dryers has raised the bar in production efficiency, energy utilization, and dry veneer moisture uniformity. For example, the USNR Model 208 six deck veneer dryer is setting new cost and operating efficiencies at Boise Cascade in Medford, Oregon and Martco in Louisiana. One “latest generation” veneer dryer can equal the production capacity of three older veneer dryers.

#3: TRANSFORMING MARKETING There is an old and revered Southern social/religious practice called a brush arbor revival; the local folks, led by an ardent preacher, gather to regenerate their faith. The plywood industry, as well as the LVL industry, is long overdue for a wood products equivalent. Plywood can be a product of 10,000 uses, yet we have allowed it to live in the shadow created by its most formidable competitor OSB. Unfortunately, we current practitioners are not following the legacies left by industry pioneers such as W. E. Difford, of DFPA and Lawrence Ottinger, the plywood marketing genius who founded U.S. Plywood and subsequently pioneered a network of plywood plants and distribution centers across North America. For an engaging discussion of the early industry see Robert M Cour, The Plywood Age, A History of the Fir Plywood Industry’s First Fifty Years. Douglas Fir Plywood Association, 1955.

Both OSB and plywood panels are characteristically considered as structural panels. The majority of third party price reporters, forecasters and industry trade organizations broadcast the common message that plywood is a structural panel just like OSB. Therefore, their analyses treat softwood and OSB as fungible commodity products.

This common impression does not reflect that modern ply-

wood (as we know it) was invented more than a century ago, and its relative prosperity during the first half of the 20th Century was anchored on the ability to meet customer requirements for specific end uses. Fast forward more than 50 years and plywood is perceived by many as nothing more than a CDX (or CCX in Canada) panel equivalent to OSB sheathing.

The Big Box building products retailers typically feature OSB in prominent locations, with plywood relegated to the further reaches of the store.

There are at least 10 ways in which softwood plywood outperforms competitive products in terms of weight, strength, versatility and other characteristics (see Richard F. Baldwin.

Plywood and Veneer-Based Products. Donnell Group, 2016).

Important attributes include durability required for concrete forming or preservative treating, dimensional stability, and integrity under extreme stress. The marketing challenge is to overcome the incorrect perceptions that now define plywood for many potential users.

LVL has nearly the opposite marketing message; namely, it justifies its higher cost by presenting itself as the smart man’s replacement for ordinary lumber with a high level of customer service. Two things must happen to expand the LVL market.

First, dry veneer costs must be reduced without adversely affecting appearance and performance attributes. This will allow additional market penetration in applications where lumber and other competing products continue to dominate. Secondly, just as plywood went through an era of standardization during its formative years in the Difford/DFPA Era, LVL must broaden its product offering. Standardization and cost reduction will aid in growing demand for LVL. In the end, the fortunes of both LVL and plywood rest upon the common foundations of identifying unique customer needs and cost effectively delivering a solution.

#4: ADJUSTING THE MINDSET OF THE LEADER The quest for competitiveness and market growth begins with an understanding of the relationship between manufacturing processes and market development for plywood, LVL and other veneer based products. Optimizing that linkage will facilitate innovative solutions by decision makers. This begins with dispelling the myth that high-quality and high-production are mutually exclusive. Or accepting that simply duplicating the actions of others is a viable solution.

The ideal answers will come from tapping into innovative “thinking and doing” best practices of leading customers and peers, and then adapting the lessons learned to select and develop the operating team and manufacturing components appropriate for each mill’s unique circumstance. The resurgence of this process is more important than ever as the survivors renew their commitments to reinventing the process of making and marketing veneer based products. Continual evolution to a sounder business model is a continuing tradition and legacy of the plywood and veneer based industry.

Current trends will yield more automated, more efficient manufacturing facilities. Profitable business plans will heavily depend on successfully recapturing old markets and identifying additional uses for veneer based products. On balance, the industry likely will evolve to fewer, larger and more capital intensive mills.

PW Dr. Richard Baldwin is the president of Winston Plywood & Veneer LLC and has written seven books on various aspects of plywood and veneer-based products.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies are advertising in this issue and submitted the following materials as exhibitors in Xylexpo 2016, the 25th biennial world exhibition for woodworking technology and components for the furniture industry. All statements and claims are attributable to the companies.

BIELE

plastic banding and vertical stretch wrapping and connecting the end of these lines with the automatic storage system.

Regarding door manufacturing operations, Biele manufactures turnkey lines, which include fully automated layup operation. These sections include high speed frame assembly machines (up to 8 frames/min) for the building of wooden/fiber frames for different sizes and combinations of stiles, rails and lock blocks, but also the automatic feeding of the stiles Once the door is built out of its components, then the prepressing and pressing operations take place for the final construction of the doors by means of multi-opening hydraulic presses manufactured by Marzola.

Along with these type of lines, Biele is building turnkey press lines for manufacturing lightboard panels using different type of glues—PVAC, UF, PUR, etc.

“Every single turnkey project includes innovations that are developed with our customers, making each line different from the previous one.”

Hall 2, Stand Q07-R06

IMAL-PAL

Biele provides state-of-the-art turnkey projects for several domains related to the woodworking industry including its own manufactured hydraulic presses under the brand of Marzola. Biele is orientated to provide innovative solutions that advance existing technologies and reduce labor cost, while improving the final quality of the products.

For furniture manufacturers, Biele is developing high performance lines focused in the following areas: —High speed feeding and stacking getting up to 30 cycles/min for high speed panel processing lines, but also for high speed painting lines running up to 50 mt/min as working speed.

—Fully automated outsorting and insorting systems for high speed lines running at 50 mt/min related to the painting operation where several pieces are covering the width of the transport wide belt. These systems combined with Artificial Vision provide a solution where no labor is required and where the quality of the final product is guaranteed.

—Turnkey fully automated packing lines organized in a modular way in order to fit with the customer requirements and in order to be completed in different stages, as follows: box erector machine, feeding of the cardboards and folding operation reaching an output of 15 boxes/min; filling the boxes by means of robots and/or portals especially for the heavy parts; closing the boxes at a maximum rate of 15 boxes/min; printing and labeling with the ERP system; palletizing by means of robots and combining different type of boxes per stack (A+B+C); packing the stacks by means of

IMAL-PAL group is a leading manufacturer and provider of equipment and engineering for plants and complete lines, with an extensive reference list for the production of OSB, MDF, particleboard, wood fiber insulation board, pressed pallets, pallet blocks and special production lines for pellets.

In addition to offering a full range of products for wood cleaning and screening processes, the group offers wood sizereduction machinery, a vast selection of flakers, hammermills, refiners, OSB stranders and extractors, where the added value is the Kwh savings.

With regard to wood preparation, more than 20 EVO4 Globus knife ring flakers with wobble spreader disk have been sold over the last six months. The latest centrifugal mills are equipped with either Conidur screens or slotted hole screens that are rapidly changed over to produce the right particle size in relation to board thickness.

The continued focus on innovation and development has led to the creation of the “new cleaning tower,” which derives from the basic principle to remove all pollutants from the material, exploiting height and gravity in order to reduce the number of conveyors required to convey the material from one machine to the other.

The group has recently designed and invested in technology for the DynaSteamPress and the Dynasteam, a system which injects dry steam into the mat prior to the press, without creat-

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ing condensation. More than 60 Dynasteam units have been sold since it was launched three years ago, four of which are installed on OSB production lines and the remainder between MDF and PB lines.

Another of the group’s core technology is the newly designed high pressure resination system for PB, MDF and OSB, the application of which can reduce resin addition percentages by 10% to 20%. The group has 80 plus systems currently in operation around the world.

Hall 2, Stand N13/Q10/Q12

INSTALMEC

gravimetric-cleaning system for core and surface layers, installed after the wind sifters in the dry area of the particleboard plant. The purpose of this cleaning system is to recover up to 85% of good wood that gets discarded through cleaning, because it is mixed up with pollutants. This waste wood after being processed with this system can be re-used in production instead of being disposed of.

This gravimetric cleaning system is installed after the existing wind-sifter. It cleans the discarded material (from 4 up to 5 t/h) recovering approximately 85% of wood good for production, from a material flow of 2.5 up to 3 tons for the core layer and 1.5 up to 2 tons for the surface layer.

The system is suitable for both virgin and recycled wood. Thanks to this procedure at the end of the process, cleaned-recycled wood resembles virgin wood in its mechanical properties and contains a very low percentage of silica.

The accuracy of cleaning that can be achieved today allows panel manufacturers to use up to 80% of recycled wood in wood panels. This percentage could be hardly envisioned 20 years ago. “Plants producing panels with 80% of recycled wood are already a fact and we hope to see them spreading soon all over the world!”

Hall 2, Stand L19

LIMAB

A remarkable amount of wood material discarded through cleaning can now be recovered, becoming readily available for production.

Instalmec is a leading company in the manufacturing of machinery and plants for manufacturers of MDF, particleboard and OSB. “The key words that distinguish the company are: cutting-edge technology, high quality standards, fast running execution, delivery and assembly times.”

Instalmec understood several years ago the great potential of recycled wood and developing a system that could clean it as much as possible, separating foreign substance from wood chips. Due to the rising cost of virgin wood and its narrow availability in certain regions Instalmec felt the urge to solve this serious problem, specializing in the cleaning of recycling wood used in panel production.

Today Instalmec, after many years dedicated to studies, research and tests, has conceived an unbeatable solution to clean recycled wood in the wet and dry areas of the plant. Its system is called the waste-wood mineral cleaner and basically is a

An increasing number of companies are choosing the LIMAB PanelProfiler system for accurate in-line quality control of panel thickness, with many installations in single, multi-opening and continuous press lines as well as sanding and finishing lines. The PanelProfiler measures all types of wood panels from thin MDF/HDF, particleboard, plywood, OSB, hardboard up to big size glulam panels.

The system works non-contact with laser-based measurement technology. This gives many advantages. The careful design and material selection of sensor frames gives both temperature and mechanical stability, and this means there’s no need for constant calibrations between panels. The PanelProfiler maintains its high accuracy over the long time and changing ambient temperature, especially important in high speed and continuous/endless production lines. The high measurement frequency, 2000 measurements/sec, enables thickness control already from the very front edge of panels. No panel contact eliminates dirt and scratch marks on sanded panels.

With no moving system, parts maintenance costs are low.

The PanelProfiler fits various process lines. A system can have a selectable number of fixed measurement tracks; the outer measurement tracks can automatically adapt to different PanelWorld • MAY 2016 • 39

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product widths. For endless/continuous press lines, a traversing system provides complete thickness cross profiles.

All systems are supplied with mechanical dimensions to fit each production line and have powerful air cleaning and sensor protection boxes to work free of maintenance even in harsh production environments.

The system software has an easy to understand real time graphical and numerical display of each produced panel. All out-of-tolerance conditions will immediately alert the operators. Database logging of panels, with thickess varaitions for each track, recipe handling, remote systems diagnosis and more is included as standard in the PanelProfiler.

Hall 2, Stand T13

SIEMPELKAMP Siempelkamp is once again seizing the opportunity to present innovations for reducing costs and saving energy in wood-based panel production to an international industry audience: the Ecodrive drive system to power the ContiRoll continuous press line discharge drums.

Consisting of an energy-efficient electric motor and twostage gearbox, the powerful system is suitable for all ContiRoll models. An original version of the drive system will be presented in Milan. In addition to this new drive technology, glue blending and metering systems, mat formers and preheaters, special emphasis is being placed on the topic of “In-

dustry 4.0" with the further development of the proven Siempelkamp process control system Prod-IQ. Reducing production costs, improving product quality and increasing plant output are the parameters that plant owners have to manage in order to maintain or even enhance the economic efficiency of their production plants. Siempelkamp summarizes these customer requirements under the mission statement “Cut your cost!” and develops machines and components to help wood-based panel producers reach this goal.

Siempelkamp is presenting both new concepts and marketready systems to the industry audience, making it possible to get the most out of plants for the production of wood-based panels.

Hall 2, Stand S01/S05-T02/T04

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies are advertising in this issue and submitted the following materials as exhibitors in WMF 2016, the 16th international exhibition on woodworking machinery in Beijing, PR China. All statements and claims are attributable to the companies.

BERNDORF BAND

Berndorf Band has always worked in China, supplying high quality steel belts, technical support and service. These basic principles are a key factor for customers being highly competitive in market prices, delivery times and quality of wood based panels. Although customers sometimes reduce their requirements, accepting lower quality results in negative consequences very soon.

Berndorf Band steel belts are produced according to the continuous press manufacturer requirements and according to the highest European standards. This guarantees customers high quality wood based panels during the entire belt life.

Technical support is a decisive and important factor in China, especially because the contact to the customer needs to be constantly alive. This ensures the use of the full capacity of the presses with continuously high quality products. Therefore Berndorf Band has its specialists situated locally in Beijing in order to offer quick and excellent support at any time.

To test its design, CFMC invested in one continuous press MDF line with 9 ft. in width and capacity of 600cbm/d in China. CFMC made some mistakes in its experimental continuous press line in terms of design, processing, etc. But its learned a lot and did a modification on the line twice. This is stepping-stone project enabled CFMC to start the marketing of its continuous press production line for the manufacturing in 2013. And today, it has received two orders from the market.

The first commercial project, which is an 8 ft. MDF continuous press production line, was built in 2015, and now it is running smoothly with daily capacity of 1000cbm. Multi-size boards can be easily achieved from this line. The second commercial project is now under erection and is expected to be in production in August. Currently CFMC has multiple projects under discussion in China and worldwide.

CFMC is now becoming a one-stop supplier for this industry, as it provides the design and manufacture of all key machines and can give its customers a better controlled quality product along with profound service.

IMAL-PAL

CHINA FOMA China Foma (Group) Co., Ltd (CFMC) was established in 1979 with business activity covering R&D, manufacturing and marketing of China’s wood based panel machinery. In 2007, CFMC joined China National Machinery Industry Corporation.

With deployment of processing facilities in its two fullyowned subsidaries, Sufoma and Zhongfoma, CFMC can produce all of the key machines in the industry, such as the drum chipper, strander, knife-ring flaker, passage dryer, refiner, forming machine, continuous press, sanding machine, CTS line, etc.

With more than 20 years of experience in multi-opening press production, CFMC started research and experiment in continuous presses in 2007. Under the close cooperation with its employed experts in Europe, CFMC spent nearly three years to complete the design of its continuous press. The major issue was to design the system in a more efficient way without any patent trouble in the future.

IMAL-PAL group is a leading manufacturer and provider of equipment and engineering for plants and complete lines, with an extensive reference list for the production of OSB, MDF, particleboard, wood fiber insulation board, pressed pallets, pallet blocks and special production lines for pellets.

In addition to offering a full range of products for wood cleaning and screening processes, the group offers wood sizereduction machinery, a vast selection of flakers, hammermills,

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refiners, OSB stranders and extractors, where the added value is the Kwh savings.

With regard to wood preparation, more than 20 EVO4 Globus knife ring flakers with wobble spreader disk have been sold over the last six months.The latest centrifugal mills are equipped with either Conidur screens or slotted hole screens that are rapidly changed over to produce the right particle size in relation to board thickness.

The continued focus on innovation and development has led to the creation of the “new cleaning tower,” which derives from the basic principle to remove all pollutants from the material, exploiting height and gravity in order to reduce the number of conveyors required to convey the material from one machine to the other.

The group has recently designed and invested in technology for the DynaSteamPress and the Dynasteam, a system which injects dry steam into the mat prior to the press, without creating condensation. More than 60 Dynasteam units have been sold since it was launched three years ago, four of which are installed on OSB production lines and the remainder between MDF and PB lines.

Another of the group’s core technology is the newly designed high pressure resination system for PB, MDF and OSB, the application of which can reduce resin addition percentages by 10% to 20%. The group has 80 plus systems currently in operation around the world.

SANDVIK

Press belt manufacturer Sandvik will focus on the support infrastructure that enables producers to achieve premium product quality while at the same time maximizing productivity.

Examples of this include tools and techniques for achieving “invisible” repairs and tighter tolerances for welds in regard to thickness and flatness deviation.

Sandvik is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality steel press belts for the production of particlebo-

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ard, MDF, OSB and coated boards. The company supplies belts in four main steel grades to suit different requirements— 1300C, 1320C, 1500SM and 1650SM—and can deliver belts in thicknesses from 1.0 to 3.5 mm, and in widths of up to 4,620 mm.

Sandvik has announced the roll-out of a new global service organization that will see a more than 50% increase in the number of service engineers available to support customers worldwide. This will help customers achieve maximum product quality—an important differentiating factor in what is an increasingly competitive market—while at the same time maximizing press productivity.

The company will also highlight the benefits of its QuickTool family of field service tools including the new QuickAnnealer. Designed to complement its existing QuickDisc cutand-replace repair tool, the QuickAnnealer heats up the area of the weld. This improves and hardens the micro-structure of the weld, making it closer to that of the original material and therefore eliminating the ring marking that can sometimes be seen on sensitive products after a repair.

SIEMPELKAMP Siempelkamp is once again seizing the opportunity to present innovations for reducing costs and saving energy in wood-based panel production to an international industry audi-

ence: the Ecodrive drive system to power the ContiRoll continuous press line discharge drums.

Consisting of an energy-efficient electric motor and twostage gearbox, the powerful system is suitable for all ContiRoll models. In addition to this new drive technology, glue blending and metering systems, mat formers—like the ecoformer SL from CMC Texpan—and preheaters, special emphasis is being placed on the topic of “Industry 4.0” with the further development of the proven Siempelkamp process control system Prod-IQ. Reducing production costs, improving product quality and

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increasing plant output are the parameters that plant owners have to manage in order to maintain or even enhance the economic efficiency of their production plants. Siempelkamp summarizes these customer requirements under the mission statement “Cut your cost!” and develops machines and components to help wood-based panel producers reach this goal.

Siempelkamp is presenting both new concepts and marketready systems to the industry audience, making it possible to get the most out of plants for the production of wood-based panels.

VALMET MDF producers who select or consider Valmet as their supplier understand the importance of implementing Best Available Technology (BAT).

Countries in Asia have been a major market in recent years for Valmet’s Evolution Defibrator System technology. The orders received from Qixiang Forestry and the Baishida MDF mill in China in 2015 were a result of the Valmet success story there in 2014 when the company received eight orders while starting up six installations. Baishida was a repeat order, this time choosing an EVO 46, the first of its kind from Valmet.

This new EVO 46 will replace a refiner in an existing line.

The repeat order at Qixiang included an EVO 46 Defibrator system and two PeriVapor – mechanical steam separator systems for steam recovery. ➤ 50

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48 ➤ Vanachai MDF mill in Sura Thani, Thailand ordered an EVO 56 Defibrator System for production of 35 tons per hour. VRG Dongwha MDF mill in Vietnam bought a chip washing system and EVO 56 Defibrator System for production of 34 tons per hour. Each contract includes an EvoThrottle, the latest in blow-valve technology from Valmet. l The Evolution Defibrator System technology offers MDF manufacturers a multitude of benefits such as low operating cost due to the long lifetime of the machine’s components. But that’s not all. An EVO Defibrator System stands for superior fiber quality, low energy consumption, excellent dewatering capacity, low steam, minimal water and resin consumption as well as easy operation and maintenance. l PeriVapor is a mechanical steam separator for MDF specially designed for positioning in the blow line after the Defibrator. This mechanical steam separator can divert up to 50% of the generated steam from the fiber flow for recycling in the pre-steaming bin. This steam replaces a corresponding amount of fresh steam making great savings possible. l The Valmet EvoThrottle blow valve significantly increases blow valve service life. All component subject to wear because of contact with the fiber flow are made of extremely durable, wear-resistant materials. All electronics are designed for high temperatures and it’s easy to maintain. What’s more, it fits on any make of refiner and Defibrator on the market.

WEMHÖNER Wemhöner (Changzhou) Machinery Manufactory Co. Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wemhöner group in Germany.

Technology, quality, innovation—these are the three columns of the success story of Wemhöner. Wemhöner provides complete

system solutions which guarantee optimal production processes and reliable production, due to the perfect combination of technology and the company’s decades of engineering experience.

With its innovative developments, Wemhöner has become a world leader in surface technologies. Wemhöner sets standards with its short-cycle and throughfeed press lines.

Wemhöner short-cycle presses are used exclusively for value adding of wood based panels, primarily with melamine resin-impregnated decorative papers for the production of laminate flooring and/or furniture elements.

Wemhöner 3D Variopress equipment range covers all the current 3D surface upgrading options for furniture elements.

Wemhöner throughfeed presses are ideal for pressing veneers on wood based panels in the single-opening version. Multiopening presses are used to produce doors, panels and parquet.

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PROJECTS ROSEBURG FP BRINGS DATA OPTIMIZATION TO LIFE amily-owned Roseburg Forest Products (RFP) has operated for more than 80 years and is a prominent force in the Northwest veneer and plywood business, operating Riddle Plywood, Riddle EWP, Coquille Plywood, and Dillard Plywood plus the Weed Veneer mill in northern California. All of the Oregon mills are located within an 80 mile radius and have the ability to ship veneer to other Roseburg facilities as well as to outside customers; in addition, RFP supplements internal veneer production with purchased veneer from a number of outside sources.

The business utilizes softwood veneer in several species including Douglas fir, hemlock, white fir and pine as well as a number of hardwood and decorative veneers. Softwood veneer lengths range from 8 ft. to 10 ft., widths range from 4-5 ft. and thicknesses range from 1⁄10 in. to 7⁄32 in. RFP manufactures a broad range of plywood products including traditional siding, sanded, sheathing, underlayment, concrete form as well as many specialty items including hardwood overlay panels.

RFP also makes quality LVL and I-Joist products in the EWP plant at Riddle.

It’s no secret that Roseburg has a history of investing in its operations to improve efficiency, productivity and reduce waste, and so it was no surprise when management determined that the veneer and plywood business was fertile ground for improvements due to its inherent complexity. The company, which had some history with the use of linear programming technology, determined that Optware Solutions of Beaverton, Ore. provided an innovative technology and expertise to take RFP to the next level of business optimization. Grady Mulberry,

F

Left to right at Roseburg, Steve Killgore, Vice President-Solid Wood; Andreas Buers, Optimization Manager-Solid Wood; Matt Killgore, Linear Program Analyst; Jim Ployhar, Linear Program Manager

President of Roseburg, signed a contract with Optware in early 2013 for a multiphase project to optimize the veneer and plywood business employing the latest Optware-x technology.

Steve Killgore, Vice President of Solid Wood, played a significant role in bringing profit optimization technology into the company along with Plywood Business Director Pat Lynch, Manufacturing Director Bob Jewell, Plant Manager Ted Downs and Division Controller Mike Carr. Killgore had a very positive experience with Optware Solutions when he managed McKenzie Forest Products in Springfield, Ore. before joining Roseburg. In his prior experience, Killgore developed a strong appreciation for the complexities of the plywood manufacturing business and how optimization brings value, and that traditional spreadsheet solutions and cost accounting fall far short of what is needed for optimized profit guidance.

Adding linear programming to the tool kit ensures that product mix (and the related impacts on revenue and costs) is fully considered.

Some operators focus on recovery, some emphasize production volume, and others focus on sales realization. At the end of the day, profit maximization must be the key objective. RFP recognizes that optimization modeling is an essential tool to help managers find the best possible blend of business variables.

Roseburg’s multi-mill environment and shared wood supply included many complexities. The management team hoped to answer the following questions: l Are we making the optimum product mix to maximize profitability? l Can we streamline product mix and reduce changeovers and reduce

inventories? l Can we better utilize veneer to improve recovery? l Are we producing the best combination of peels? l Are we spending too much effort moving veneers between plants? l Are we manufacturing panels and veneers at the most efficient mill?

Optware Solutions kicked off the linear programming project in spring 2013. Project coordinators from each manufacturing plant were selected to collect data for the optimization system.

Optware consultants worked with Roseburg staff to determine the depth and quality of data systems including the JD Edwards ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system (E1). The objective was to obtain the best planning data possible. While it became apparent early on that there were a lack of comprehensive data systems at the mills and a lack of standardization in the process, the project team was able to glean adequate data for initial modeling. Roseburg now has several efforts under way to address ongoing data quality and to improve compatibility across various data systems.

In early 2014, Andreas Buers took charge of optimization at Roseburg’s Solid Wood Div. to guide the initial implementation efforts. Early optimization results demonstrated that selected panels were not constructed in the optimum manner. The management team reviewed peels and panel constructions in a more comprehensive manner to ensure that best practices are used across the company. A good bit of effort was also spent in streamlining the product mix to gain production efficiencies and reduce inventories.

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PROJECTS Buers comments, “Roseburg operates in the highest priced log market in the USA. We use the Optware System like a compass pointing out areas of opportunity. Changes to peels and constructions as well as streamlining product mix will bring significant cost savings to the company. We still have some opportunity to reduce freight costs and gain manufacturing efficiencies related to the allocation of orders between mills. We also need to expand our understanding related to the Roseburg’s mill complex at Dillard, Ore. leverage of product mix.”

Each week, Buers and Linear Proremain objective. We are working to gram Manager Jim Ployhar work with improve decision processes. Every decithe Roseburg team to complete a cycle sion is supported by the numbers. We of updating market pricing, production have found that the treatment of costs, rates and order information. Given the as to whether they are fixed or variable, seasonality of plywood markets, the really influences the optimum solution.” order file sometimes does not reach full Moving forward, RFP expects to exproduction levels. The Optware System pand the use of the Optware System to is then used to determine order placedirect the wood procurement effort for ment as well as the target product mix logs in addition to its current use for vethat complements orders, resources and neer planning. It is important to get the market realities. right log to the right mill at the right “Our focus is profitability not protime for the right peel. The business has duction,” Buers adds. At each step, the a lot of moving parts. The majority of planning team communicates with prothe veneer is peeled in-house; a portion curement, production and sales personof veneer is purchased from the outside nel. They plan the work so that the mills and there is a lot of interplant veneer may then “work the plan”. Ployhar obflow. The Optware System is very beneserves, “The mills run a lot better when ficial in managing the ripple effects. we plan ahead. The model helps us to Buers is pleased with the progress

Roseburg has made implementing the Optware System, but wants his team to keep pushing forward. “We’ve made some great strides in focusing our veneer and product mix strategy. I’m encouraged by the fact that procurement, production and sales are experiencing a much greater level of cooperation. We now have a tool that can effectively communicate the consequences of variPW ous operating strategies.”

This article was submitted by Optware Solutions, LLC, which partners with companies to increase their bottom line through profit optimization technology.

Since 1991, Optware Solutions has worked with a number of companies in the paper and forest products industry to improve profitability with optimization technology.

Visit www.optware.com or e-mail info@ optware.com or call 503-645-2390.

SWANSON COMPLETES RAUTE DRYER INSTALL Constructed of heavy-duty stainless steel, a brand new Raute Smart 6-deck dryer just finished completion at the new Swanson Group plywood mill in Springfield, Ore. Arriving in modular components, the dryer was set up in less than 10 weeks. “A flawless installation, with no major issues, ahead of schedule, and even below budget,” says Mike Poropat, Engineering Manager, Raute.

It is easy to dismiss these massive veneer drying workhorses that are fired all day and night as simply hot boxes, but mastering the subtle details is what produces high quality veneer.

Just look at the dryer at Weyerhaeuser in Evergreen, Ala. It is not as

shiny and new as the one at Swanson, and it doesn’t have as many bells and whistles either, but that hasn’t stopped it from performing reliably during the past 30 years.

Murphy Plywood relies on Raute dryers for its facilities in the Northwest.

“Raute is reliable, and our dryers have been excellent performers from day one,” says John Murphy, President. It’s why Murphy Plywood purchased two exact dryer lines in recent years.

Being intimate with every aspect of the engineered wood process from start to finish is something Raute has been cultivating over the last 100 years. Raute says not a lot has needed to change since

it “installed the first 6-deck dryer in North America, in 2003, after Finland had introduced it years earlier.” Except that automation has become a necessity as human resources available to operate machinery dwindles.

Raute’s focus has been to improve the energy consumption of dryers due to their high energy demands to produce such precise and consistent heat levels.

This has been prevalent in Europe for a long time, and becoming more important recently in North America.

Most drying systems use energy inefficiently, exhausting heat without understanding how to use it most effectively. When heat is the only fac- ➤ 63 PanelWorld • MAY 2016 • 53

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WMF BEIJING FAIR SET JUNE 1-4

try 4.0. Panel board production and he 16th International Exhibition the latest trends of “Industry 4.0” and equipment manufacturing experts from on Woodworking Machinery and “sustainable development.”

China will introduce the latest panel deFurniture Manufacturing Equipl Industry 4.0 & “Made in China velopment across the globe. Major topment and The International Exhibition 2025 Conference—a macro perspective ics include: 1) particleboard production on Woodworking Machinery Supplies on global trends in woodworking indusequipment and new technologies, 2) deand Accessories (WMF) will once again try, and analysis of how China cements sign concepts & practices of abrasive showcase the latest market intelligence her place among the world’s leading grinding machines, and 3) the expanand technological innovation at China manufacturing players will be covered. sion of green panel production and new International Exhibition Center (CIEC) While Industry 4.0 has become an imsources of raw materials. in Beijing, PR China June 1-4. portant trend for China’s manufacturing l Chinese Furniture Water-Based While the manufacturing world is industry in the next 30 years, China has Paint Production Forum—adjustments embracing “Industry 4.0,” the woodpromulgated the “Made in China 2025” and opportunities brought by VOCs and working and furniture manufacturing strategic plan focusing on intelligent latest water-based paint technology will industry has been facing huge environproduction. Citing the example of Gerbe introduced. In China, the strict envimental challenges and surging labor man’s Industry 4.0 experience, Chinese ronmental law that came costs. WMF 2016 is set to into effect in January 2015 focus on intelligent and has imposed tightened sugreen manufacturing solupervision and punishment tions and to assist woodon high-emission factories. working and furniture enThe furniture enterprises terprises in achieving eneralso bear higher business gy-efficient, fully digitalcosts because of the new ized and sustainable pro“Paint Consumption Tax” duction. and “VOC Sewage WMF 2016 is expected Charges.” According to the to cover an exhibiting area “2015 Chinese furniture of more than 60,000 sq. m. consumer market research across all exhibition halls report,” 90% of consumers in CIEC, featuring more than 600 machinery and Seminars during WMF will explore market opportunities brought by the are willing to pay more for the water-based painted equipment suppliers from latest trends of “Industry 4.0” and “Sustainable Development.” furniture. As a result, it is around the globe. WMF crucial for the furniture industry to and international digitized machinery 2016 is expected to attract more than choose the right coating production proexperts will gather to address the chal30,000 local and overseas visitors incess and reduce VOC emissions. Chilenges and explore smart production socluding distributors and end-customers. nese furniture market leaders will share lutions for the woodworking and furni“Automation and CNC Machinery their “Oil to Water” successful experiture manufacturing industry.

Zone” is once again the focus of WMF l Green Furniture Future – Sustainences.

2016 and its scale will be upgraded in able Development Conference—a WMF is organized by China National response to the dramatic surge in deguideline for Chinese furniture manuForestry Machinery Assn. (CNFMA), mand for green and digitalized machinfacturing industry to achieve long-term Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd., China ery. In response to buyers’ sourcing sustainable development will be sugBuilding Decoration Assn., as well as needs, the exhibition will feature six gested. Customization, Internet Plus and honorary supported by State Forestry themed zones: l Automation and CNC Machinery Green production have become key deAdministration, P.R. China, China velopment trends of the furniture indusCouncil for the Promotion of Internal Furniture Making and Wooden try. How to apply latest woodworking tional Trade and China International Products Machinery l Machinery for Green Production technology and innovative design to atExhibition Center Group Corporation. and Energy Saving/Machinery for the tain the goal of sustainable development WMF is supported by international First Time Processing, Drying, Coating is an important issue faced by the indusprestigious associations like European and Material Making try chain. International designers and Federation of Woodworking Machinery intelligent equipment experts will shed Manufacturers (EUMABOIS) and Gerl Panel Board Machinery l Knives, Blades and Machinery Aclights on this hot topic. man Woodworking Machinery Manucessories / Hand Tools l China Plywood Machinery Develfacturers Assn. (VDMA). opment & Technology Innovation ConAll registered visitors will enjoy addil Engraving Machinery ference—an in-depth discussion will be tional privileges including a free show A series of concurrent events will held on panel board regarding industry directory and priority to participate in gather international industry experts to transformation under the trend of Indussymposia. Visit woodworkfair.com. PW explore market opportunities brought by 54 • MAY 2016 • PanelWorld

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DIEFFENBACHER EXPANDS MANAGEMENT BOARD WITH ADDITION OF C. DIEFFENBACHER, KITZELMANN, REORGANIZES WOOD BUSINESS

Dieffenbacher, accounting for the international growth of the company and looking to the future, has expanded its Management Board. Alongside the two existing executive officers Wolf-Gerd Dieffenbacher and Dr. Günter Kuhn, Christian Dieffenbacher and Volker Kitzelmann have now joined the Management Board with responsibility for the entire company. The entry of Christian Dieffenbacher into the management also ensures the future of Dieffenbacher as a family-run company. “Allin-all, the expansion makes it easier to realize a well planned generational change,” the company states.

Christian Dieffenbacher, a former member of the Business Unit Wood management team, has taken over responsibility for the Wood Business Unit, Purchasing, Process and Information Technology, and Marketing as part of his new role on the Management Board. His responsibilities also include the strategic alignment of Dieffenbacher's Chinese subsidiary.

Kitzelmann, previously Head of the Business Unit Wood, takes over as CFO for the entire Group, with responsibility for the Finance and Controlling, Auditing, Legal, Personnel and Logistics divisions.

CEO and Chairman of the Management Board is Wolf-Gerd Dieffenbacher, who is also responsible for the Composites Business Unit. As CTO, Kuhn is responsible for technology across all divisions. The Business Unit Automation, Global Production and the new Recycling division also fall within Kuhn’s sphere of responsibility.

The management team for the Business Unit Wood has also been reorganized. The new Head of the Business Unit Wood is Bernd Bielfeldt, who also heads up the Sales, Technology and Project Realization divisions within the business unit. Bielfeldt is assisted by Stefan Zipf, who is responsible for the Product Development, Detail Design and After Sales divisions, as well as for Modifications and Modernizations.

SIEMPELKAMP ALTERS COURSE IN CERTAIN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, ADJUSTS BUSINESS PLAN, DOWNSIZES PERSONNEL AT KREFELD Siempelkamp Group is positioning itself with a stronger international focus and will make greater use of its foreign production locations, according to the Krefeld, Germany-based company. With this move, Siempelkamp states it is reacting to new competitive situations, and to the weakening of originally strong markets such as Russia and Brazil. “The Krefeld location remains the ‘heart and mind’ of Siempelkamp,” the company says.

In recent years Siempelkamp has been expanding its manufacturing facilities in the Czech Republic and China. The global network of sales and service companies is also a component of this internationalization process.

The new large-scale manufacturing site in Qingdao, China, which went operational in October 2015, will be used much more intensively for producing largescale parts for press manufacturing. “We will produce where our customers are,” emphasizes Dr Hans Fechner, Spokesperson of the Executive Management. “FurtherSiempelkamp exhibit more, we will significantly during Ligna 2015 expand our production faciliPanelWorld • MAY 2016 • 55

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LINES ty in Blatnice, Czech Republic, in order to continue being able to produce at competitive prices in future.”

With these actions, Siempelkamp states it will “consolidate and expand its market position and technological leadership in the future, particularly in the wood-based panel and metal forming industry.” This includes in particular the

expansion of business activities in the future market of China.

Siempelkamp will eliminate 350 jobs in Germany in 2016 and 2017.

“Complex technologies and business secrets will remain here in Krefeld, and at other locations in Germany,” Fechner adds.

Siempelkamp will additionally be

sustainably strengthening the German location: at the Bad Kreuznach location, a modern logistics and service center is being created for supplying replacement parts globally to Siempelkamp customers.

In the Foundry Technology business unit, necessary structural adjustments are being made to the current competition situation. The foundry is suffering under the embargo policy against Russia, and the Russian counter-embargo, the company states. Furthermore, drastic drops in the prices of raw materials have led to a decrease in business in the mining sector. The general weakness of the BRIC countries has led to customers postponing investments indefinitely, says Siempelkamp, and these developments have immediate consequences for the foundry business. “We expect no improvement of the situation in the foreseeable future, and therefore have to react now,” says Fechner. This unfavorable development in the foundry business has directly affected Siempelkamp Maschinenfabrik, where personnel numbers will be reduced.

In the Engineering and Service business unit, further adjustments will be required. The decision of the German Federal Government to phase out nuclear energy and the associated tasks have resulted in fewer employees being required at locations in Germany. The production of large-scale storage casks in Mülheim an der Ruhr has stabilized – but at a lower level.

In the U.S., business relating to the dismantling of nuclear power plants is going considerably better: only recently, Siempelkamp completed the largest dismantling project in the history of the American nuclear energy industry, with the successful disassembly of the reactor pressure vessel at the Zion nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan. Following this success, Siempelkamp NIS-Ingenieursgesellschaft in Alzenau is expecting further dismantling follow-up orders from the U.S. “This now represents the implementation of the strategy that we have long been announcing—the internationalization of the Siempelkamp technology group. The general conditions in the global economy have confirmed the necessity of this step. Siempelkamp is still technology leader in many key markets, and will remain so,” Fechner states.

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CLIPPINGS INDUSTRY SUFFERS LOSS WITH HARRIGAN DEATH

William Dwight Harrigan II, a longtime producer and leader in the southern pine lumber and plywood industry, died at his home in Fulton, Ala. on February 28. He was 78.

Harrigan grew up in the long-established, already legendary family lumber business at Scotch Lumber Co. in Fulton.

He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and became mill manager, then president and CEO, and played a key role in the expansion of the company with the addition of Scotch Plywood, then Scotch Forestry and Land Management.

He also formed with his father, William (Billy), another lumber operation, Harrigan Lumber Co. in Monroeville, Ala., and became president for many years. The sawmill continues to operate with Harrigan’s son, Patrick, as president.

Harrigan’s dedication to the forest industry led to years of volunteer service.

He was president and treasurer of Alabama Forestry Assn. as well as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award.

He was chairman of Southern Forest Products Assn., and a director of Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Assn. He served on the Forest Industries Council of Timber Valuation and Taxation, National Forest Products Assn. Board and Auburn Forestry Advisory Committee.

STEARNS LOVED WOOD PRODUCTS EQUIPMENT The recent death of a great innovator, Clyde W. Stearns, shocked the wood bioenergy and wood products industries recently. Stearns died February 18 due to an undiagnosed heart condition. He was 66.

Stearns’ career spanned more than 40 years in sales, design, manufacture, installation and plant startup, with his most recent years devoted to the wood-to-energy industry.

Stearns was president of his consulting firm, Bio-Green Engineering in Houston, Texas, upon his death, and prior to that, from 2011-2015, was vice president of engineering for Zilkha Biomass. He was instrumental in the engineering and startup of the Zilkha “black pellets” manufacturing plant in Selma, Ala., which implemented new

steam explosion (thermal treatment) technology.

Stearns was also sales manager over biomass and wood pelleting machinery for Bühler.

He served the wood products industry as an engineering manager at Teal Sales Inc. (TSI), as general manager at WPS Industries, and as operations manager at Globe Machine Manufacturing. He shared patents for an end dogging feeding device and board edger optimization in the sawmill industry.

A celebration of his life will be held in the Flathead Valley this summer.

MURPHY ADDS RETTIG, PROMOTES MURPHY JR. Murphy Company announced that Jeff Rettig is joining the company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, where he will be accountable for the profitable sales growth of all products.

John Murphy Jr.’s role will be expanded to Executive Vice President.

Rettig is a senior sales leader with more than 20 years of experience in the wood products industry. Most recently he was the director of Sales for Weyerhaeuser’s EWP business, where he led the sales and marketing efforts for the Trus Joist product line. He has also held previous management roles in distribution and lumber retail operations.

“Murphy Company is fortunate to have attracted Jeff Rettig. His proven sales leadership, coupled with his deep understanding of our industry, makes him ideally suited to lead our sales teams,” comments John Murphy, Murphy Company President and CEO. Rettig us relocating to Eugene, Ore. where Murphy Company is headquartered.

John Murphy Jr.’s role is expanded to include executive leadership for sales, as well as veneer, product supply and replenishment. He will also work closely with Murphy Company’s senior management team to strengthen the company’s managing processes and disciplines.

“John Jr.’s broad knowledge of our company and the industry will serve him well in this new role as he works with the management team to strengthen our capabilities so we can continue the path of growing our business,” John Murphy notes. “These are important changes for Murphy Company as they will deepen our EWP capabilities.”

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PROJECTS

53 ➤ tor used to design a dryer, you can expect that the veneer it produces will be over-dried and warped due to cellular damage. This utilizes far more energy to produce the same volume of veneer, with low profitability due to a lower grade product.

What sets Raute dryers apart at the very core is the understanding and application of thermodynamics, which maximizes energy output to maintain optimal temperatures. “Our dryers are the most effective and efficient dryers with the smallest energy footprint in the industry,” claims Martin Murphy, Senior Vice President, North America.

Heat is only one aspect of the equation.

The second, and equally important part, involves sensitive controls that monitor all the vital aspects of the drying process.

Variables like wood species, density and moisture content are analyzed, while conditions and climate are automatically altered to garner the best quality veneer that costs less to produce.

Raute pioneered this technology by being the first to integrate sophisticated cameras and computers into dryers in 1995, according to the company.

The evolution of the veneer dryer started out of necessity, in parts of the world where the cost of energy has been steadily rising for decades. Now, with energy costs in North America and the rest of the world on a steep incline, energy consumption is becoming an important factor when it comes to drying veneer. With some of the highest energy costs in Europe, Raute has already been

producing energy efficient smart dryers for more than 20 years. “No one in the industry has the same culmination of expertise and experience,” adds Raute.

Article and photo submitted by Raute.

ALTEC MOVES TO NEW SITE Altec Integrated Solutions, suppliers of green end machinery and green end controls and a solutions provider, has moved to new custom built office and shop facilities. The facilities are twice the size of the previous ones to accommodate the company’s growing work force and expanding customer base.

While phone, fax and web details remain the same, the new address is: Altec Integrated Solutions Ltd, # 120 – 185 Golden Drive, Coquitlam, BC V3K 6T1, Canada. Phone 604-529-1991; visit alteconline.com.

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6 DECK VENEER DRYING SYSTEM Hashimoto, serving the global plywood industry, provides labor saving systems to improve productivity.

Hashimoto orginates from Japan “where we have been limited in natural resources.” From such an environment, it has focused its design to maximize output and recovery while maintaining the quality of the veneer. This design concept is implemented in its lathe line design, veneer drying system and other machinery.

Hashimoto has delivered its dry veneer com-

poser to the U.S. market since the early 1980s. It reports that it has recently started up several lathe lines in the U.S. Its drying system is a fully automated

system requiring a minimum numbers of operators. The veneer streams from the dryer infeed up to the composing or the grade stacking system.

Section A: Random veneer is easily fed by a combination of nail and suction feeder. The lower 3 or 4 decks are fed at the favor of the daily production.

Drying speed can be changed if the

thickness of the random veneer differs from the full sheet. This stream is synchronized to the dryer outfeed for minimizing gaps in the veneer flow.

Section B: At the veneer composer is the detection of moisture content, thickness and defects by the desired specification. The veneer is constantly fed by minimum gap stream to take the full advantage of the veneer composer’s capacity. If there is a need to separate a full size core with a random veneer, an additional stacker can be placed to divert the full size core. The latest veneer composer functions at 45 or 55m/min (3x6) throughout Japanese plywood mills.

This is the desired automation system in the plywood industry in Japan, which can be introduced in the American plywood industry upon request. Hashimoto can link its veneer composers to any major dryer manufacturer.

Section C: Full sheets are fed by an automatic suction feeder. It feeds the upper 3 or 4 decks or the whole 6 decks at the favor of daily production. This stream is

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synchronized with the dryer outfeed. The stream will go through a moisture meter and a scanning system for grading purpose. Any major moisture meter and scanner system can be adopted upon the user’s request. Visit hdk-co.com.

CCI PROCESS IS LEADING EDGE

Clear quality differences can be seen on structured and non-structured lacquer surfaces in kitchens, living rooms and offices. Contaminations due to dust or not entirely even surfaces or lacquer cracks may cause irregular surface structures.

These production risks are avoided by the machine and plant manufacturer Hymmen with its Calander Coating Inert (CCI) technology. The special inert process ensures the production of high-end surfaces with outstanding brilliance and resistance in various degrees of gloss—from mirror-finish high gloss to super matt optics.

Any material can be used as carrier material for the CCI process as long as

it can be lacquered and fulfills DIN standards with minor tolerances with regard to uniform thickness over the whole board. Thanks to the latest process developments, materials from roll to roll can be finished with the CCI process. This is of particular interest for the production of lacquer laminate since it allows a direct connection to the industrial digital printing technology or the double belt press technology.

During the CCI process, the boards will receive a primer coat first and then the lacquer will be applied. In a continuous process without any intermediate dwell time, the boards which have been coated with liquid lacquer before are directly entering the calander. There the surfaces are being cured under inert conditions, i.e. an “encapsulated drying” takes place. By using an additional contact medium during the drying process, a smoothness of almost any kind of gloss degree up to mirror-finish high gloss can be produced.

CCI is an extremely safe process

without flash-off time, whereby the surface is never unprotected and consequently the danger of contamination due to dust is avoided. Furthermore, the inert process makes the surfaces very scratch-resistant.

The length of the CCI line is dependent on the customer’s quality demands: The higher the requested surface quality, the thinner the individually applied lacquer layers have to be and the more intermediate steps are necessary before the board is finished. The length of the CCI line is comparable with the length of lines with a classical lacquer application process with the same quality demand. The coating calender makes the only difference, with its modest length of 10-12 m.

The completely coated board leaving the calender can be processed further directly after the application without any further drying time or intermediate storage. With a line designed for a speed of currently 15 m/minute and a maximum width of 2.10 m, industrial capacities can be realized. Visit hymmen.com.

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VENEER/PANEL SUPPLIERS

DIRECTORY ASIA

AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA

■ Poland

■ China KAOCHUAN

WOODWORK CO., LTD. Taiwanese Enterprise in China

• FANCY: On Plywood/MDF/PB/BB • VENEER: Custom-cut, Layon, Parquet • PLYWOOD: Hardwood, Poplar, LVL, Marine • Musical Instruments Plywood: Drum, Piano • Fire Retardance Veneered panel • Others: 4'x12', CARB, NAUF, FSC, UV

kaochuan@kaochuanwoodwork.com

SPECIALISTS IN AUSTRALIAN & PACIFIC VENEERS FSC & PEFC ECO-CERT Veneers from around the world Over 150 species in stock Reconstituted veneer/spliced faces/rotary veneers Website: Email: Tel: Fax:

www.briggs.com.au admin@briggs.com.au +61 2 9732-7888 +61 2 9732-7800

www.fsc.org FSC™ C004099 The mark of responsible forestry

EUROPE

www.kaochuanwoodwork.com

■ India

■ Spain

■ Germany M P VENEERS, INDIA “Teak People”

PRODUCERS OF SLICED AND ROTARY CUT VENEERS

Recognized Export House by Govt. of INDIA Recognized Environmentally Friendly An ISO 9001-2008 Co. Enterprise by Chamber of Commerce, FMPCCI Manufacturer of TEAK sliced veneers • In clipped and Bundled 0.5 to 2.5 mm • Spliced Faces 0.5 to 1.4 mm • Panel Size : 50” x 99”/123” and Counter front or any size required.

FEQ TEAK LUMBER – Rough & Random Sawn OR Even Qtr Sawn on Edge or Face Teak Decking S4S - QTR - 9mmx36mm; 10mm x 48mm or any size required Thickness 3/4 to 12/4 Phone: +91 755 246 1243 • Fax: +91 755 246 8197 Website: www.mpveneers.com Email: exports@mpveneers.com

SUPPLIERS OF FSC SPECIES • All figured species (Eucalyptus, Anegre, Sycamore...)

• All pommeles and African species • All burls (Ash, Elm, Olive, Walnut, Oak...)

• Bookmatched jointed burl faces.

We supply furniture, panel and architectural grades.

VALENCIA – SPAIN Tel: +34-96126 5400 Fax: +34-96126 5144 timbercom@timbercom.com

■ Switzerland

■ Italy

■ Taiwan

GREAT GIANT INC. VENEER AND VENEERED PRODUCTS

260 Dachang Road Niao Song District Kaohsiung, Taiwan 833 Tel: 886 7 3790270 Fax: 886 7 3790275 E Mail: jc.giant@msa.hinet.net

www.timbercom.com

LEGNOQUATTRO S.P.A.

WOOD VENEER DYEING FACTORY Bird’s Eye Maple, Movingui, Similpear, Carbalho, Wengé, Cherry, Burls, Anegré, Kotó, American Walnut, Lacewood, Etimoé, Poplar Head Office & Factory: Factory: Via Brunati, 7 Via Provinciale, 19 20833 Birone 22060 Novedrate (CO) di Giussano (MB) ITALY tel. 0039-31-790246 fax 0039-31-791705 Email: legnoquattro@legnoquattro.it Web site: www.legnoquattro.it

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VENEER/PANEL SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY ■ United Kingdom

■ United States ■ Georgia

CURRY VENEER SALES

1014 EAST SIXTH STREET NEW ALBANY, IN 47150 Email: bradblcveneer@gmail.com “Hands On Personalized Relationships” SUPPLIERS OF: HARDWOOD DOMESTIC VENEERS Carrying a diverse line of Cherry and Walnut to supply your every need Imported Veneers Including Recon Veneer (Veneer Style) and Rotary Okume FSC Species Available

NORTH AMERICA

Reserve your space today.

Call Melissa McKenzie 800-669-5613

■ Idaho

■ Canada ■ British Columbia

6670 - 144th Street, Surrey, BC V3W 5R5 Plant: (604) 572-8968 Fax: (604) 572-6608

Producers of high quality fine face veneers.

Specializing in species indigenous to the West Coast. We manufacture Music grade solids and veneers. We also offer custom slicing, cut-to-size and log breakdown.

Fir • Hemlock • Spruce • Pacific Maple (Figured and Plain) • Alder Western Red Cedar

Knotty Idaho White Pine Western Red Cedar Red Alder Clear White Pine & Ponderosa Pine Clear Vertical Grain Douglas Fir, Hemlock, & Cedar

P.O. Box 339 Post Falls, Id. 83877 208-773-4511 FAX 208-773-1107 email: info@idahoveneer.com

■ Indiana

■ Ontario

A new “Dimension” in Veneer & Plywood

Dimension Hardwood Veneers, Inc.

Rotary & Sliced Veneers 509 Woodville Street • Edon, Ohio 43518 Main Office - Tel: 419-272-2245 • Fax: 419-272-2406

Dimension Plywood Inc.

Custom Architectural Plywood & Face Veneers 415 Industrial Blvd. • New Albany, IN 47150 Tel: 812-944-6491 • Fax: 812-944-7421 www.dimensionhardwoods.com FSC-C041275

Amos-Hill Associates, Inc.

A FULL SERVICE PLYWOOD & VENEER COMPANY WE OFFER: Short turnaround time, In-house veneer mill—ROTARY, FLAT CUT, RIFT and QUARTERS, Custom pressing capabilities, Architectural specified plywood jobs, Huge veneer and core inventory, Over 100 natural species and engineer veneers in stock, All sizes and thicknesses–6'x4' to 5'x12', Internal logistics for fast on-time deliveries Contact us: Birchland Plywood-Veneer Ltd. TeL: 705-842-2430 • Fax: 705-842-2496 Visit www.birchlandplywood.com to view our “Live Log Program”

Reserve your space today.

Call Melissa McKenzie 800-669-5613

Quality Veneers Manufacturers of Decorative Hardwood Veneer Domestic and International Markets Species include: Walnut, White Oak, Red Oak, Hard Maple, Cherry and Birch “Quality is the Lifeblood of our Business” 112 Shelby Ave. ◆ P.O. Box 7 Edinburgh, IN 46124 Phone: 812-526-2671 ◆ Fax: 812-526-5865 E-mail: info@amoshill.com Website: www.amoshill.com The mark of responsible forestry FSC Supplier: SCS-COC-002445 * SCS-CW-002445

Producers of fine veneer for the global market, since 1892

Cherry Maple White Oak Walnut Hickory Red Oak Exotics Indiana Veneers Corporation

1121 East 24th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205 Tel: [317] 926-2458 Fax: [317] 926-8569 Url: www.indianaveneers.com Email: sales@indianaveneers.com

Manufacturers of Fine Face Veneer Machinery 2801 Roosevelt Ave. P.O. Box 18310 Indianapolis, IN 46218 Email: capital@capitalmachineco.com Website: www.capitalmachineco.com 5/16

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VENEER/PANEL SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY RSVP is proud to offer a full line of imported and domestic veneer that includes burls, crotches and highly figured woods. If you would like more information pertaining to these products or others we offer please contact us directly or visit our website.

4920 N. Warren Dr. • Columbus, IN 47203 Ph: 812-375-1178 • Fax: 812-375-1179 www.RSVPveneer.com

MAGNOLIA FOREST PRODUCTS, INC. DISTRIBUTORS OF SYP Plywood & Lumber OSB Cut to size

1-800-366-6374

www.magnoliaforest.com Terry, MS J.I.T. & P.I.T. Nationwide

Locate veneer & plywood products and services w o r l d w i d e .

■ Oregon

Architectural Paneling, Door Skins, Custom Cabinet Package and Furniture Plywood ● Panel sizes up to 5' x 12' ● 4', 5' and cross-grain sanding capability ● Veneer manufacturing to 14' lengths ® ● FSC Certified ● NAUF products available ●

2323 Cross Street ● Eugene, Oregon 97402 Sales: (541) 461-0767 ● Fax: (541) 461-0738 Email: sales@westernpanel.com web site: westernpanel.com

■ Pennsylvania

■ Ohio

Locate veneer & plywood products and services w o r l d w i d e .

■ Vermont

■ Kentucky

North America’s largest manufacturer of fancy face rotary veneer.

A new “Dimension” in Veneer & Plywood

Dimension Hardwood Veneers, Inc.

Rotary & Sliced Veneers 509 Woodville Street • Edon, Ohio 43518 Main Office - Tel: 419-272-2245 • Fax: 419-272-2406

Dimension Plywood Inc.

■ Mississippi

Custom Architectural Plywood & Face Veneers 415 Industrial Blvd. • New Albany, IN 47150 Tel: 812-944-6491 • Fax: 812-944-7421 www.dimensionhardwoods.com FSC-C041275

Universal Veneer Mill Corp.

Manufacturing and Sales Sliced Harwood Veneers Custom Cutting Available 1776 Tamarack Road Newark, OH 43055 Ph: (740) 522-2000 Email: info@universalveneer.com

Offering FSC certified veneer products in Red Oak, Hard Maple, Birch, Ash, Tulip Poplar, Basswood and Soft Maple in Stock Panel & Cut-to-Size Lay-ons as well as unspliced veneer .4mm thru 1.6mm thickness

Plain sliced Alder and Aromatic Cedar faces and flitch stock are regularly available.

Also offering domestically produced FSC Mixed Credit/CARB Phase II Compliant Aspen platforms - both long grain & cross grain dimensions in a variety of thicknesses.

Contact Sales at 802-334-3600 • Fax: 802-334-5149

www.cfpwood.com • 324 Bluff Rd. • Newport, VT 05855

LOCATE VENEER & PLYWOOD PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WORLDWIDE. Reserve your space today.

Call Melissa McKenzie 800-669-5613

5/16

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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORY The Feltham-McClure Co., Inc. 2151 Wembley Place • Oviedo, Florida 32765 407-366-9333 Office • 407-366-4900 Fax www.thefeltham-mcclurecompany.com

www.cmaeng.com • info@cmaeng.com

9237 5394

Veneer Lathe Service - All makes, models and peripherals for all end products.

Installation, Laser Alignments, Retrofits, Rebuilds and Troubleshooting Peel Problem Troubleshooting and Rectification Lathe Training Seminars - Operational and Maintenance Representing: DEMCO Manufacturing, Inc. 9926

5515 S.E. Milwaukie Ave, Portland, Oregon 97202 503-230-9348 Fax: 503-233-2051 www.kh2aengineering.com Email: kh2a@kh2aengineering.com CONSULTANTS & ENGINEERS FOR THE FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY Feasibility Studies, Cost Estimates, Complete Project Design, Structural, Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Design

1009

60 Wilson Ave., Suite 101 Timmins, Ontario, Canada P4N 2S7 Tel: 705.360.5525

1635

Complete Engineering Services for the OSB, Particleboard, MDF, Plywood, LVL, Sawmilling and Biomass Industries.

Offering Services in: • Conceptual Design • Budget Preparation • Feasibility Studies • Procurement • Detail Engineering – Civil/Structural – Mechanical – Electrical • PLC / HMI Programming • Project Management • Construction Management • Startup Assistance

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES 2200

Specializing in confidential career opportunities in the Forest Products industry

SEARCH NORTH AMERICA, INC. IT'S YOUR MOVE...

FOREST PRODUCTS RECRUITING SINCE 1978

gcopeland@mrihouston.com • www.mrihouston.com

CONTACT CARL JANSEN AT 541-593-2777 OR Carlj@SearchNA.com

MICHAEL STRICKLAND & ASSOCIATES LLC Executive Recruiters Wood Products/Building Materials Industries Mike Strickland mike@woodproductjobs.com 601-529-2157 • www.woodproductjobs.com

Recruiting Services

Gates Copeland 281-359-7940 • fax 866-253-7032

Fees paid by employer

The Jobs You Want — The People You Need

1615

Management Recruiters of Houston Northeast

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

WWW.SEARCHNA.COM

8187

Executive – Managerial – Technical - Sales

JOHN GANDEE

& ASSOCIATES, INC Contingency or Retainer

Depending on Circumstances / Needs

“Your Success Is Our Business”

THE Forest Products Group

Jon Olson

Serving the Wood Products and Building Materials Industries For more than 21 years.

Tel: (800) 985-5191

Custom search & recruitment services for the complete range of composite panel and related careers in the U.S., Canada and Europe. www.olsonsearch.com

4231

jon@olsonsearch.com

13249

Toll Free 1-800-536-3884 www.johngandee.com Austin, Texas

3220

Top Wood Jobs Recruiting and Staffing George Meek geo@TopWoodJobs.com www.TopWoodJobs.com (360) 263-3371

Visit us online: panelworldmag.com 3779

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EVENTS MAY 19-20 • Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Assn. Spring Conference, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Two Poydras Street, New Orleans, La. Call 703-435-2900; visit hpva.org.

24-28 • Xylexpo 2016, Fiera Milano Rho Fairgrounds, Milan, Italy. Phone +39-02-89210200; Visit xylexpo.com.

7-9 • WoodMac China 2017, Shanghai New International Expo Center, Shanghai, PR China. Call +44 (0) 20 7840 2104; visit woodmacchina.net.

MAY 2017 22-26 • Ligna: World Fair For The Forestry And Wood Industries, Hannover, Germany. Call +49 511 89-0; fax +49 511 89-32626; visit ligna.de.

JUNE

Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

1-4 • WMF 2016—The 16th International Exhibition on Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Manufacturing Equipment, China International Exhibition Center, Beijing, China.

Call (852) 2516 3518; visit chinaexhibition.com.

panelworldmag.com

AUGUST 24-27 • International Woodworking Fair, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Visit iwfatlanta.com.

SEPTEMBER 28-30 • Timber Processing & Energy Expo, Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center, Portland, Ore. Visit timberprocessingandenergyexpo.com.

OCTOBER 2-4 • Composite Panel Assn. Fall meeting, Marriott World Ctr., Orlando, Fla. Call 703-724-1128; visit compositepanel.org.

8-12 • Wood Processing Machinery & Intermob Fair, Tüyap Fair Convention and Congress Center, Istanbul, Turkey.

Call +90 212 867 11 00; visit intermobistanbul.com/en.

24-27 • Lesdrevmash 2016, 16th International Exhibition for Machinery, Equipment and Technology for Logging, Woodworking and Furniture Industries, Expocentre Fairgrounds, Moscow, Russia. Call 8 (800) 707-37-99; visit lesdrevmash-expo.com.

NOVEMBER 5-8 • APA-Engineered Wood Assn. annual meeting and Engineered Wood Technology Assn. Info Fair, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa, Bonita Springs, Fla. Call 253565-6600; visit apawood.org.

MARCH 2017 1-4 • Delhiwood 2017, India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida, India. Call+91-80-4250 5000; visit delhi-wood.com.

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This issue of Panel World is brought to you in part by the following companies, which will gladly supply additional information about their products.

ADVERTISER Acrowood Altec Integrated Solutions Argos Solutions Berndorf Band GmbH Biele Automation Process Chemtrend China Foma Group Corvallis Tool Custom Engineering Dieffenbacher GmbH East Coast Sawmill Expo Hashimoto Denki Hexion Hymmen Industrieanlagen GmbH Imal S.R.L Instalmec Kuper Heinrich GmbH Les Drev Mash 2016 Limab Lundberg Matthews International Meinan Machinery Works Metal Detectors Pal S.R.L Progressive Systems R & S Cutterhead Manufacturing Raute Wood Samuel Strapping System Sandvik Surface Solutions Scheuch GmbH Sherdil Precision SIA Abrasives Industries Siempelkamp Gmbh Spraying Systems Sweed Machinery Taihei Machinery Works Team Safe Trucking U S Metal Works UBM Sinoexpo USNR Valmet Wemhoner Surface Technologies Westmill Industries WMF 2016 China Woodtech Measurement Solutions

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PH.NO. 425.258.3555 604.529.1991 +47 916 694 25 +43 2672 800 00 +34 629 429 620 517.546.4520 +86 10 6354 0820 541.929.2234 814.898.2800 +49 0 7262 65 103 804.737.5625 281.741.0410 888.443.9466 +49 521 5806 516 +39 059 465 500 +39 0431 626311 +49 5244 984 0 +49 9 795 27 24 +46 31 58 44 00 425.283.5070 888.622.7183 +81 562 47 2211 541.345.7454 +39 0422 852 300 612.788.8081 815.678.2611 604 524 6611 800.667.1264 +46 26 26 56 00 +43 7752 905 0 519.727.4010 704 587 7355 +49 2151 92 4636 800.957.7729 866.507.3660 +81 568 73 6421 843.761.3999 800.523.5287 +86 21 64371178 800.289.8767 +46 60165000 +49 5221 7702 0 877.607.7010 +852 2516 3519 503.720.2361

ADLINK is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

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