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Panel World's 2008 Directory Buyer's Guide

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Debarker, Lathe Upgrades Lead to Significant Increase in Production by David Abbott

Based in Gladstone, Mich., Besse Forest Products Group manufactures northern hardwood veneer, lumber and specialty plywood. The company began in September 1966 when John Besse began production at Northern Michigan Spliced Veneers with 12 employees. Before four months had gone by, the mill was splicing over 1MMSF of veneer a month, a number that more than doubled by the end of that first year. John’s son Greg Besse joined the privately owned company full time in 1983, eventually succeeding his father as President. In 2006 Greg Besse became the sole owner of the Besse Forest Products Group.

GreenHouse Gas Emissions: Positioning Today for the Future Regulations by Chad Darby and Danielle Lenzini

Climate change. Is it really happening? If so, is it a man-made problem? Whether you would answer “yes” to these questions or not, one thing is certain: Climate change has become a hot political topic. In the current absence of federal policy, many states have begun developing either voluntary or mandatory registries for facilities to report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The follow-up to the registries is expected to be policy that will require emission caps or reductions in greenhouse gas emissions based on verifiable accounting and reporting. If the U.S. adopts regulations similar to the European countries, in the next few years there may be a required market-based trading system in which emission reductions must be achieved or offsets must be purchased or created.

School Furniture Supplier Tackles Challenging Production

Melsur Corp., a worldwide leading supplier of hard plastic melamine school furniture, molds components from a mixture of resin, wood flour and pigments. Each of the 32 color variations, 30 products and custom designs must be blended individually, a process that can take up to four hours, depending on product. Anything less than empirically defined cycle times alters the final color and produces blemishes in the finished product.

Melsur wanted to reduce blending times, but high mixing speed was not an option because it created friction and heat, causing the resin to degrade. The solution proved to be a Munson ribbon blender with an integral “intensifier bar” that cuts blending time by 25%, according to Brad Lockwood, Melsur General Manager.

Specialty Products Paint Bright Picture for Great Lakes by Jennifer McCary

When completed next year, Bank of America Tower in Manhattan will become the second tallest building in New York City, second only to the Empire State Building. More importantly, it is expected to make history as the first “eco-friendly” skyscraper to earn the U.S. Green Building Council’s esteemed LEED Platinum designation. The tower will also mark a significant milestone for Great Lakes MDF, LLC because the complex is utilizing Great Lakes’ newest specialty product—Cleantech, a green MDF panel that can contribute up to five LEED points to a building project. Boards are tinted light green for easy identification on the construction site.

WMF Equipment EXPO Scheduled for March in Beijing

The biennial event WMF—the International Exhibition on Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Manufacturing Equipment and International Exhibition on Furniture Accessories, Materials and Wood Products—will be staged again at China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC), Beijing, P.R. China this March 7-10.

Recent Mill Orders, Installations & Startups

Weyerhaeuser Co. is installing a MEGTEC Cleanswitch RCO (regenerative catalytic oxidizer) at its veneer plant in Pine Hill, Ala. The Cleanswitch offers 97+ % VOC removal and exceptional operating economy, according to the participants. In many applications, the unit will run in a self-sustaining mode, whereby no additional fuel is required to destroy VOC and achieve clean air compliance.

“Weyerhaeuser’s decision to select the MEGTEC RCO was the result of a detailed analysis of multiple equipment suppliers,” says Rodney Schwartz, business director with MEGTEC. “The simplicity of the valve and the energy savings provided by structured media were two advantages of MEGTEC identified by Weyerhaeuser.”

Equipment & Supplier News

Caterpillar has purchased Blount International’s Forestry Div., home to some of the logging industry’s most popular equipment lines, including Prentice, which also produces log yard machinery.

With 300-plus employees, Blount’s Forestry Div. operated plants in Owatonna, Minn., Prentice, Wis. and a small facility in Sweden, along with administrative offices, parts depot and training facility in Zebulon, NC.

Panel World Conference & EXPO Is an Opportunity

Most companies in the North America forest products industry are doing their best to hang on during the ongoing housing slowdown. The better companies are not merely hanging on, however. They’re following the old guideline: let’s turn adversity into opportunity.

You might say that’s what we at Panel World magazine are doing as we prepare to host the first Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo, February 7-9, at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. When we first discussed the idea of a new panel conference in the Southeastern U.S., it’s not like we didn’t speculate how the North America wood products markets would be faring come conference time. Our consensus back then was: the domestic market will still be in the tank for the most part, but bits of sun may be visible at times between the clouds.

Breaking News

Chapman Forest Products Inc. is the new owner of the International Paper sawmill and plywood mill complex in Chapman, Ala. The new company and the purchase transaction was spearheaded by Philip Smith, CEO of Smith Family Companies, one of the largest cut-to-size panel processors in the U.S., based in Pelham, Ala. The deal is effective at the beginning of the year.