At The Core
APA Annual Meeting Has Hint Of Optimism by Rich Donnell
Bernard Markstein III, Vice President, forecasting and analysis at National Assn. of Home Builders (NAHB), pointed to poor lending practices that led to overbuilding, leading to a mild recession and tighter lending standards, but said, given government intervention, “Housing should bottom in the next three to six months.”
He said the inventory of new homes was at 400,000 and continues to shrink slowly. He said it would take 10 months to sell off the current inventory at the current level of sales, but that the pace could be quicker and that Congress, the Federal Reserve and Treasury seem to be taking the right course.
Clippings
Industry Developments
Danzer Group is expanding its customer service with a new Virtual Veneer Warehouse that simplifies the purchase of veneer. Customers browsing danzerveneer.com can sample and choose veneer 24 hours a day.
“The Virtual Veneer Warehouse offers our customers an extensive information platform,” says Malte Herrmann, head of marketing. “The selection process is standardized and customized at the same time. It shortens decision times and simplifies the purchasing procedure.”
Feature
ATC Panels For The Future At Franklin P'Board Plant by Jennifer McCary
When ATC Panels purchased the Franklin particleboard plant in 2004, it also bought a lot of history. Franklin is the birthplace of Camp Manufacturing Co. Founded by the Camp brothers in 1887 and forerunner to Union Camp Corp., the company grew to a formidable enterprise with lumber, plywood, paper and particleboard plants in the Eastern and Southern states. In 1999 Union Camp became part of International Paper. But in Franklin, the legacy of the Camp family is still evident with a college, library, children’s center and a YMCA all bearing the Camp name.
Along with a rich history, ATC Panels inherited a stable and dedicated workforce with an average tenure of 23 years. Management is composed of industry veterans, most with 30 years experience, led by Plant Manager Tom Garrahan, who began his career in the particleboard business 21 years ago. Key managers include Bill Cummings, production and technical; Steve Hodges, finishing; Eddie Baines, warehouse; Terrell Switzer, procur
CECO Environmental Companies Offer 'Take One' Turnkey Capabilities by Tad Heath
Can there be a worse headache than being charged with a plant construction project—especially for a labyrinth of duct work, dust collectors, ventilation systems and other air pollution control devices? You’re tasked to reduce energy costs, meet tight and evolving environmental regulations, and get the project done on shorter schedules, with no staff and at reduced cost. You need to solicit bids from an army of specialty contractors and somehow decide which ones will be the best value between quality of work, sense of responsibility, cooperativeness and affordability—and somehow do this vetting despite reductions in purchasing staff. Equally nerve wracking is using a general contractor who still subs all the work out. The project starts and every night you go to bed worried about delays, failed deliveries, components that don’t fit, workers who don’t show up, work that fails inspection, all the myriad things that can knock your schedule into next week or next month and your career into
Con-Vey Delivers Custom Panel Plant Solutions by Dan Shell
From its humble beginnings as a small fabrication shop in the 1940s, Con-Vey has evolved into a major panel and lumber manufacturing machinery producer, known for developing custom solutions for sawmills, panel mills and engineered wood facilities around the world.
Con-Vey provides a full range of panel and lumber handling and manufacturing solutions, both as standard machines and custom products. A good example is Con-Vey’s work with nearby Roseburg Forest Products and its LVL and engineered wood products plant in Riddle. When the plant initially opened in 2002, Con-Vey worked with them on an innovative I-joist assembly machine that was installed there. Now, as Roseburg looks at a significant EWP plant expansion, Con-Vey is supplying conveyors and transfers for a large fingerjointed lumber system, plus LVL billet handling equipment to enhance the lines’ diversification.
Green Circle Passes Half-Year Mark Operation World's Largest Pellet Plant by Dan Shell
Globalization of the forest products industry and the integration of economies around the world are ongoing issues. These dynamics—when decisions made and demand created halfway across the globe lead to new products and plants in North America—are readily apparent at the new Green Circle Bio Energy wood fuel pellet plant in the north Florida Panhandle.
The greenfield facility, which broke ground in early 2007 and began production in April 2008, is on a 225 acre site just south of Cottondale, located at the intersection of I-10 and U.S. 231. With a rated capacity of more than 500,000 metric tons annually, the Green Circle plant is currently the world’s largest wood fuel pellet manufacturing operation.
Murphy Transforms Into Cutting Edge Veneer, Panel, EWP Producer by Dan Shell
Little more than three years since a devastating fire forced Murphy Company officials to re-evaluate every business and operating philosophy they had, the longtime western Oregon veneer and plywood producer has recovered from a disastrous fire in 2005 and transformed itself again—this time as a softwood veneer and hardwood plywood manufacturer that’s also on the leading edge of engineered wood technology with the nation’s newest LVL plant.
Today, Murphy Company operates veneer mills at White City, Ore. and Elma, Wash., along with a hardwood plywood plant in Eugene, Ore. And where its former plywood mill’s ashes covered the ground in Sutherlin, Ore. three years ago, Murphy Company’s new, state-of-the-art LVL plant, started up in January this year with a production capacity of 4.5 million cu. ft.
Projects
Recent Mill Orders, Installations & Startups
Scheuch supplied ventilation and environmental technology to the Fiberboard GmbH (Classen) MDF manufacturing complex in Baruth, Germany.
Along with the implementation of all the required extraction, dedusting and conveyor equipment, the scope of delivery included the installation of two fiber sifters, which promote homogenous distribution of air and materials and ensures reliable flow and separation. Particularly in the case of HDF and thin MDF, homogenous fibrous material, especially material free of clumping and foreign matter, is critically important for high product quality and a long service life for the steel belt of the press.
Supply Lines
Equipment & Supplier News
Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Inc., Columbus, Oh., reports that its lab in Springfield, Ore. has been accredited for emission testing under the new CARB requirements and will now operate as an independent entity under the name, Advanced Testing Services.
The facility will offer contract testing for third party certifiers looking to verify manufacturers’ compliance with low emitting product regulations. The lab is currently outfitted with two large-scale chambers for ASTM E1333 testing, four small-scale chambers for ASTM D6007-02 testing and an HPLC and UV/VIS detector for analysis.
Taking Stock
Murphy Sees Positive Industry Future by Dan Shell
The cover story on Murphy Company’s new LVL plant in Oregon highlights one of the industry’s top independent West Coast veneer and panel producers. President John Murphy is a third-generation family business leader for a company his grandfather started as a lumber operation in 1909.
Along with many others, the company boomed as a logging and veneer and plywood concern in postwar markets, all the way up until the 1980s. With the dramatic downsizing of federal timber sale programs in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the company repositioned itself as a panel producer using open market veneer and producing quality products at a modern, low-cost plywood manufacturing plant in Sutherlin, Ore. Murphy’s move from relying on public timber for logging work and veneer mill logs to using open-market veneer to produce panels was a success.
Update
Breaking News
Uniboard purchased ATC Panel’s Moncure, NC facility, which will now operate as Uniboard USA LLC, Moncure Plant. The particleboard and thermofused melamine (TFM) plant, which employs close to 160 and produces annually more than 156MMSF of particleboard and value-added melamine, will serve as the base to expand Uniboard’s market position in the Southern and Midwestern U.S.
Uniboard reports it will be investing more than $120 million in the upcoming year to install a medium density fiberboard and high density fiberboard (MDF/HDF) mill, which will be transplanted from its plant site at LaBaie, Quebec, and then enhanced at Moncure. A fall 2009 startup is planned. Uniboard states that with the installation it will be in a favorable position to supply its sister company, laminate flooring producer Pergo, located in Raleigh. NC.
What's New
New Products & Technologies
Airstar Inc. has recently installed several of its high performance blow detector systems with laser thickness gages at forest products companies. Airstar systems provide consistent defect classification, reducing “mis-mark” rejects while ensuring on-grade quality products. The machinery provides exceptional sensitivity for thick panels achieved with a digital signal processing and very low noise receivers.
Other features include durable, low maintenance transducers, a variety of defect classification options and a user-friendly interface that makes for easy operation and diagnostics.