But in February 2021, after seeing the market turn around in 2020 with record-high prices and demand for wood products, the company decided to reopen the mill. In June, LP Peace Valley pressed its first board since the curtailment, and the mill is now moving full-steam ahead with plans to add an additional shift to boost production capacity. 

 ‘A quick turnaround’

The mill first began operating in November 2005, when it pressed its first board for commercial sale, explains LP Peace Valley plant manager Kelly Head. At the time, it was a joint venture between two companies, Louisiana-Pacific and Canfor. In 2012, LP acquired a full stake in the mill and became the sole owner. 

When LP decided to curtail the mill in August 2019, they kept it in a “ready state,” Head says, with the “intention to reopen it when we were confident that sustainable market demand would be back and it would be sufficient to absorb the capacity of this mill.”

So, the company kept a small team of 20 employees at the mill to take care of the facility and the equipment. 

“It’s because of their efforts that this mill was actually in a very good position to reopen when that announcement was finally made,” Head says. “They maintained the facility, doing things like rotating shafts and making sure that what could be run was run, just to make sure it was in a ready state. That really enabled a quick turnaround from curtailment to operations.”

In fact, when LP announced its plans to reopen the mill in February 2021, the goal was to press the first board in July. But, the mill actually beat that timeline, with operations starting in June. 

Photo courtesy Louisiana-Pacific.

Despite this success, Head says there was one challenge to restarting production, something that is common to all mills across the country: hiring. 

“The labour market – not only for the wood products manufacturing industry but for many industries – is very tight across all of North America right now. We went from that small group of 20 employees to 140 in just a handful of months. In that labour market, it’s not a very small feat,” Head says. 

A few managers on-site at the mill were in charge of recruiting, and they did an “outstanding job,” Head says, with very little turnover in that time. 

Now, LP Peace Valley is operating at planned capacity. At full capacity, it can produce approximately 800 msf on a three-eighths of an inch basis. The mill primarily manufactures its products from aspen, as well as some balsam poplar, taking around 20-foot-long logs. 

The majority of fibre for those products comes from LP Peace Valley’s non-replaceable forest licenses in the Fort St. John timber supply area (TSA). The company hires logging contractors to harvest the logs, and also purchases wood supply from private landowners and other sources in the region, Head says. 

The mill is now running three shifts, and LP is in the midst of hiring for a fourth one. This will help the mill meet demand for its three core product families, which are delivered to customers in western Canada and the U.S. – commodity products, such as sheathing and building envelope products; long-length OSB (greater than eight feet); and LP’s TechShield Radiant Barrier product. 

According to Head, the TechShield Radiant Barrier product was pioneered by LP in the 1990s, and has since been installed in approximately two million homes. 

“It blocks up to 97 per cent of the radiant heat in roof panels, and it can actually lower temperatures by about 30 degrees Fahrenheit,” he explains. “That’s a big deal in our southern markets.” 

From logs to OSB

To produce those products, logs from the Fort St. John TSA are first brought in via truck. The majority are then put into inventory. Once they’re taken out of inventory, they go to the mill’s conditioning ponds, which serve two purposes, Head says. 

“The first is, it’s very easy to transport a large volume and a large weight of wood in water. It’s a lot easier in water than it is using chain conveyors,” he explains. 

The second reason is because the mill operates in an extremely cold climate for most of the year. Conditioning ponds help thaw the wood out in the winter, which results in longer, better-quality strands in the OSB process. Head compares it to cutting two blocks of cheese – one that has been kept out at room temperature overnight, and one that has been kept in the freezer. 

“The difference in results is dramatic. With the room-temperature one, you get a nice slice; the frozen one just breaks and shatters into small pieces. And wood is no different,” he explains. “If you go to strand wood…and that wood is frozen, you’re going to shatter it, and you’re going to end up with a much smaller strand. That, in the end, will result in lower-strength properties of your final product because you don’t have the advantage of longer fibres.” 

Once the logs come out of the conditioning ponds, they go through a debarker. Then, the manufacturing process begins. The logs are broken down into strands, and then dried to a low moisture content. 

Once the strands are dry, they are classified by size and then blended with wax and a combination of resins, depending on if they are going into the surface or the core of the board, Head says. The strands are then sent to the mill’s forming line. 

“All of our board is made up of a series of levels. We don’t simply lay down one layer of strands, we’ll lay down several layers because as the name oriented strand board suggests, we orient the direction of the strand and we’ll offset them by 90 degrees, depending on which layer they’re in, to enhance the overall strength of our process,” Head says. 

From there, the mill creates what they call a continuous mat, which is then cut to fit the length of the press. The mats – now known as master panels – are then put into a loading cage, to be put into the press where they are cured. Once cured, they move into an unloading cage while the next load enters the press. Each load is heated for a certain amount of time, depending on the product the mill is producing. Once that is done, the master panels begin their finishing process, starting with sizing the product by width and length. 

“From there, we’ll do a number of things – again, depending on which product we are producing – that’s going to add value; some to fit requirements for building codes and things of that nature, and others are value-add for our customers, whether that be adding a tongue and groove, applying a wax-based edge seal to reduce the amount of moisture uptake within the wood fibre, or adding the foil in our Radiant Barrier system for our TechShield,” Head explains. 

Finally, the individual boards are stacked into a bundle and packaged, tagged with a bar code, and then inventoried for a period of time before being transported by rail or truck. 

A green opportunity

Throughout this process, LP Peace Valley makes sure to use as much of the log as possible, using any leftover residuals for heating. 

“We consume approximately 99 per cent of the log that comes on site,” Head says. “We have what we call our energy systems, and the residuals heat a thermal oil system. That thermal oil is used to heat up the press, which in turn presses our boards. We also use it in the winter months to heat our building and our conditioning ponds as well.” 

This emphasis on sustainability, using as much fibre as possible, is something that Head believes will help address the ongoing labour shortage facing the industry. 

“In today’s carbon-conscious environment, LP is making several carbon-neutral and even carbon-negative products. Personally, I find that incredible,” he says. “Younger people looking for a career, so many of them are more aware of the environmental concerns that we have, so we’re a great industry for that. I’m excited for the wood products industry; I think we have an outstanding future.”

The company’s new, larger remanufacturing facility in Agassiz, B.C., has them prepped to double their workforce in a year and more than double their output soon after.

CFI visited Jake Power, co-owner of PowerWood Corp, at their new facility as assembly and installation of equipment neared its finish, to talk about the move from Surrey, B.C., their production process, and how they are setting up to make the most of the B.C. government’s reduction in raw-log exports.

 The move
Power and co-owner Dustin Elliott had been leasing a five-acre piece of land in Surrey since June 2011, where they were able to grow PowerWood into the specialty manufacturing company it is today. But, over the last few years, the company had grown right up to the edge of what that property could handle.

“We kind of looked around and said, ‘There’s just not enough room here. The buildings aren’t adequate. We are going to have to sink a bunch of money into this property here. The land is super expensive,’” says Power.

“So, a few years ago, we made the decision to let that piece of land go.”

Integral to making the leap to Agassiz was a change in B.C. government policy aimed at promoting the production of value-added forestry products and getting B.C. mills greater access to trees and fibre.

The two orders-in-council amending the Manufactured Forest Products Regulation (MFPR) were passed in January and June 2020, after Power had participated in an industry committee that pushed for the changes.

“We knew that manufacturing in B.C. was going to be an integral part of the provincial government’s plan,” he says. “That really did give us that little bit of a boost to take that decision to invest here [in Agassiz],” with PowerWood closing the deal in December of 2020.

“I think our eyes would have looked south of the border without [those policy changes],” Power says. “Our hearts have always been in B.C., and we’ve wanted to be here. But, without a bit of support, there is just too great of a cost advantage to remanufacturers in the United States with softwood lumber duties.”

The total cost of the move, including installation and new equipment, was $25 million.

Power and Elliott received a big boost to make the move a reality when long-time employees Brian Helem and Stewart Clark agreed to buy into the business. “It wouldn’t have been a reality without Brian and Stew being all in,” says Power.

Power says he is happy with how they’ve executed the move, which took about three months, starting at the end of June 2021.

There have been some let-downs, with some equipment not able to come online as soon as was hoped, and some equipment damaged in the move, costing between $4,000 and $5,000. But, overall, Power says, “You can’t really complain about that as a business owner, and without any major catastrophes along the way.”

All staff are now at the new facility. As of Aug. 26, 2021, most equipment was either running or on the verge of running, with all lumber now stored at the new Agassiz facility.

“So far – knock-on-wood – we are pretty well on budget [and] we’re going to be up and running within 60 days of our original plans,” says Power.

From wholesaler to manufacturer
This new move expands on Power and Elliott’s vision of transitioning PowerWood into manufacturing, after the company’s earlier incarnation under Power’s father, Steve Power, as a wholesaler.

Steve founded the company in 1995, purchasing lumber from mills and selling to American customers, mostly in California, and working out of the family basement. Power was 12 at the time.

“He would turn product over from the mills,” explains Power. “Sometimes he would do his own kiln-drying and some of his own small re-manufacturing, but it was always done through contractors. And then he’d ship it to the U.S. He really built the business on relationships, on treating the product as a service. He really instilled those values on us as the future stewards of the business.”

Purchased in 2003, PowerWood’s Surrey site was meant only to be used as a distribution yard, says Power. “[Steve] never had desires to be a manufacturer,” he says.

However, staff, including Power and Elliott, wanted to start making products. And, with Steve’s blessing, the company slowly started to acquire equipment.

“We’d add a saw here, and then we’d add a little piece of surfacing equipment,” recalls Power. “Eventually, I wanted to start adding lumber dry kilns, and at that point…I wanted to grow and add more equipment, as did Dustin and some of the other members of the company.”

The company was ultimately sold in 2011 to Power and Elliott as a result of the financial crisis in 2008 and Steve’s disinterest in manufacturing.

“[Steve] supported us by maintaining the land and the lease, and some financing to make the sale happen. But really, beyond that, he was very happy to give us the keys and let us run it our way,” says Power.

Since then, the company’s focus has been adding value to B.C.’s fibre resource.

“What drives us is that passion to turn the resource into something that will look spectacular and be a special building product and last 100 years. That resonates from top to bottom of the company,” Power says.

“The thing I always say is, ‘You can tell some companies make decisions that an accountant makes.’ At PowerWood, we’ve never made accountant-based decisions. We’ve always had passion-driven decisions. And that passion is to enhance the resource. And so that kind of brought us to this point this year.”

Co-owner of PowerWood, Jake Power, takes a careful look at some recently planed lumber.

Specialty and commodity products
Now, Power, Elliott, Helem and Clark produce a combination of specialty and commodity products.

That process begins by buying dimensional lumber from mills across B.C. Working primarily with red and yellow cedar, PowerWood sources lumber from major sawmills and small, family-owned mills alike. Material comes from woodlots, recovery operations like blow-down lumber or salvaged logs, open market custom-cutters, publicly traded large companies and elsewhere.

Once it arrives on-site, quality control staff do an inspection and lumber goes through a rough breakout line on a green chain with double-end trim and sort. Yard equipment includes five Hyster forklifts (three H110FT’s and two H155FT’s), and a truck scale.

Lumber then gets sticker-stacked and placed in one of four kilns. Two are Nyle Systems dehumidification dry kilns, built for PowerWood in 2016. They have 40 mbf capacity each. Two are newly-purchased Mühlböck Custom Side Load kilns with 80 mbf capacity each, which will likely be expanded to four, Power says.

Dried lumber is then stored in a large storage tent until the right order comes in, he says.

“That’s really one of the keys with PowerWood…the manufacturing process generally doesn’t start until we have a customer who has basically called that action.

“So, we try not to do too much with the product to pigeon-hole it in one direction.”

Once an order is received, lumber heads to one of two Weinig moulders (either a Hydromat 23 or a Unimat), a Pinheiro Planer Matcher 1000/4, a Cantek resaw and/or chop saw, before being packaged and shipped out.

New equipment to PowerWood’s Agassiz mill includes a fully automated Stetson-Ross 612 planer. This will be key for the company’s more commodity-focused line of products, helping to keep prices competitive as it eliminates processing steps. Their Weinig Hydromat 23 with infeed and outfeed also allows for faster production, while the smaller Weinig and the Pinheiro planer (the latter having a 16- by 34-inch capacity) allow for more custom orders.

PowerWood supplies sauna and hot-tub manufacturing companies, high-end greenhouse manufacturers with tight specifications, standard cedar products from 4x4s for architectural or landscape use, tongue-and-groove-patterned 1×6 and much more, including more specialty products.

This includes supplying the cedar for the London 2012 Olympics velodrome and louvers for the exterior of a New York University building.

In Surrey, PowerWood was producing approximately 10-12 mmbf annually, but they’re planning to increase that output to 25 mmbf annually in the next few years.

The majority of PowerWood’s products are shipped to the U.S., but that makes up a far lower percentage of the company’s output than earlier in its history. Now, customers are also located across Canada, in the UK, mainland Europe, China, southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

PowerWood’s new facility in Agassiz is allowing the company to expand its custom re-manufacturing business.

Lessons learned
Over the course of PowerWood’s growth and move to their new facility, Power says he feels the company has made the right decisions. But, if he had to do it again, he’d extend the overlapping time where both facilities were running simultaneously for another month or two.

One key to their successful move was having enough confidence in staff to parcel-out responsibilities and not micro-manage their work, Power says.

“If I had done it five years ago, I don’t think I would have been mature enough to pass a lot of that responsibility off, and I would have been involved in managing sales, managing purchasing, managing production…[That confidence] comes from being, as a professional, secure in yourself enough to let go and let those other people do their job.”

Core to that, of course, if having passionate people around you who want to grow and learn.

“We want everyone to grow as an individual and a professional, even if it takes them beyond PowerWood,” he says. “We want people in the industry to know that this is a place to grow and learn.”

With about 36 employees currently, with plans to expand to 60 by this time next year, PowerWood foresees plenty of growth to come – for the company, and for their staff.

But, the future of the mill was not always certain. Tolko began construction on the mill in Slave Lake, Alta., in 2006. Production began in 2008, but the financial crisis forced the closure of the mill in 2009.

However, five years later, Tolko reopened the mill, and it’s been running at full-speed ever since.

“It’s a world-class asset, and we were excited to get it back into operation,” Trevor Brander, area manager for Tolko, says when asked about the motivation behind restarting the mill in 2014. “We wanted the economics to be right so that it could be sustainable from a profits perspective.”

Today, the mill has a production capacity of 830 million square feet on a 7/16-inch basis, and produces a wide range of products, from 3/8-inches-thick to 1.75-inches-thick, Brander explains, in lengths from 4×8 to 8×24. They produce residential sheathing, value-added panels, specialty industrial panels and laminated strand lumber.

The mill gets its fibre mix – which is primarily aspen, plus some black poplar, birch, pine and spruce – from the surrounding area, where Tolko has their own license. They also trade fibre with softwood lumber mills in the area and buy some fibre from private woodlots.

Unlike many wood products producers in B.C., the Athabasca mill is not struggling with fibre supply. “We’re well-supplied with good, high-quality aspen around here,” Brander says.

That’s good news for the mill, as demand for OSB products has skyrocketed in the past year, thanks to the strong housing and repair and remodeling markets in North America.

To meet that increased demand, four crews of workers – 188 people total – keep the mill running 24/7, 365 days a year. And, last year, Tolko decided to install a new ripline to increase their capacity, flexibility and product availability.

A fully integrated ripline
The ripline, which allows the mill to run widths down to 3.5 inches and lengths up to 24 feet long, is fully integrated with the mill’s continuous LSL press from Siempelkamp. To get to that point, logs first start out in two 16-foot-wide ponds, where the mill can ensure they develop uniform moisture and control their temperature. The logs are then lifted by a rail-mounted Tanguay PL350HD grapple loader that pulls the logs into two Andritz rotary debarkers.

Tolko, like many other wood product producers, tries to use as much fibre from each log as possible – the Athabasca mill produces all of its heat internally using the bark removed by the debarkers. That bark goes through a hog and then into furnaces from GTS, supplied by Sigma Thermal. The furnaces also direct-fire the dryers at the mill.

After debarking, the logs go to two Kadant Carmanah stranders, where they are broken down into seven-inch strands. Those strands are conveyed through a Unifab conveyor system – consisting of 10 conveyors – to wet bins that hold the strands before they are screened through IMAL-PAL green screens. The strands then go through one of two Buttner dryers and then to one of three Coil Manufacturing blenders. From there, the product goes into the Siempelkamp forming line and press.

“We’ve got six formers and then we’ve got the big Siempelkamp continuous press that has a steam pre-heater on it as well,” Brander explains.

The press is approximately 71 metres long by 2.5 metres wide – the largest of its kind in North America. After the press, the boards go through Siempelkamp sawing, cooling and stacking lines. The finished boards then go to two packaging lines, featuring a Samuel Strapping system, and are then shipped to market by truck or rail.

However, products that will be ripped are piled into “master billets,” instead of going to the packaging lines. A bridge crane moves them into the mill’s automated warehouse system, where they can be stored until they are fed to the ripline via a Con-Vey feeder.

The ripline features an eight-foot-wide rip saw from Progressive Saw, supplied by Con-Vey, which enables the mill to deliver the entire suite of ripped product widths.

“From there, the ripped product gets stacked into columns, painted in columns, and then the columns are formed into a master package, which is then strapped. We have the opportunity after our strapper to segment the stacked packages into shorter ones,” Brander explains. “So, for example, one of our popular products is a 12-foot-long 11-and-7/8ths rim board. On that product, we’ll take a 24-foot long 11-and-7/8ths master package, and strap it so it can be segmented into two 12-foot packages and then painted, wrapped and out the door.”

So far, Brander says the ripline is working well.

LEFT: After passing through the debarker, the logs move to the stranders to be precision cut into strand.

Challenges posed by COVID
But, the process for installing the ripline was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The commissioning straddled the pandemic. So, it was difficult to meet our timelines,” Brander says. “We purchased the majority of the equipment from Con-Vey, which is out of Roseburg, Ore., and, of course, when the border’s closed, that becomes difficult. So, we ended up installing a lot of cameras around the line and doing a combination of remote installation and commissioning with them and some local firms.”

COVID-19 has also impacted Tolko Athabasca’s ability to work with other suppliers. Much of the mill’s equipment comes from suppliers outside of Canada, which means that it has been difficult to get experts to the mill to help them audit and maintain their equipment, Brander explains. As a result, the mill has had to push back their annual maintenance shutdown.

But, the pandemic did not cause the mill to temporarily curtail or halt production last spring, as other sawmills did.

“We’ve been full-out since the on-set of the pandemic. Our employees remain safe and healthy, and we haven’t had any outbreaks in the plant, so that’s been really great as far as our employees’ commitment to their own health and safety,” Brander says.

Looking ahead
Although the mill is still in the final phases of commissioning the new ripline, Brander says they are already looking at new upgrades.

“We really like the LSL product that comes out of this plant. We’d like to make it so we can increase our capacity and our performance on these products,” he says. “So, we’d like to look at some dry screening, because right now we just have green screening.”

But, for now, with the strong demand for lumber and OSB products, Brander says Tolko is happy with how the mill is running. He expects market conditions will continue to be good in the immediate future, although the record-high prices are unlikely to last.

Consequently, the future for the Athabasca mill looks bright, he says.

“With this plant, with its flexibility and its capabilities, I don’t foresee many challenges. We’re keeping safety as a top priority and the future looks great for the Athabasca division.”

With the total cost of the project estimated at $224 million, the new museum building will preserve millions of historical objects and archival records currently housed at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. The new site in nearby Colwood, B.C., will include state-of-the-art environmental controls, as well as make more of the collection open to the public.

Site preparation on a 3.2-acre property started last year and will clear the way for construction on the building to start in 2022. The new facility will cover approximately 167,000 sq. ft. (15,500 square-metres), and integrate mass timber elements while meeting CleanBC energy efficiency standards.

Prospective bidders have until Sept. 8 to respond to the RFQ. After shortlisting teams and releasing a request for proposals, the province expects to pick a winning bidder for the project by spring 2022. Construction is scheduled to last three years.

This article was originally published on CFI’s sister magazine’s website, On-Site.

Monterra was founded by Claudio Tersigni, who continues to run the mill today under Weston Forest. The mill has a long history of partnering with different industry players, including Weyerhaeuser and Green Forest, explains Steve Rhone, CEO of Weston Forest. But, for the last 10 years or so, Tersigni was the sole owner of the business.

As demand for lumber products rose dramatically in the summer last year, Weston Forest began looking for additional production capacity to add to their existing business. Given its proximity to the company’s Toronto locations, Monterra was the perfect fit, Rhone explains.

“In addition to that, we think remanufacturing lumber, adding value, is generally a very good opportunity and an area focus for us,” he says.

Monterra Lumber Mills runs SPF lumber purchased from sawmills across North America, predominantly in Ontario and Quebec, Rhone says. Most of the wood is economy grade and No. 3 SPF kiln-dried lumber.

The mill slices and dices the lumber into as many value-added products as they can, including 1×2, 1×3, 1×4 and 2×2 material for retail distribution yards in Ontario and the U.S., along with fence boards. The byproducts are made into industrial components, including bridging stakes, pallet and industrial lumber components.

Products are shipped throughout Canada and the U.S., as far south as Georgia, with an emphasis on the Great Lakes states and Ontario due to geographic proximity.

Since acquiring the mill, Weston has boosted its production capacity from 15 million feet of finished product per year to 20 million feet.

Adding value
To produce these different products, the mill runs multiple lines.

“Primarily, our goal is to bring something in that will either end up being ripped or resawn as a first step. So, we’ll take a wide piece and make narrower strips out of it. For instance, we might split a 2×6 into two pieces of 2×3 or three pieces of 2×2, depending on what our order file calls for. Then, we’ll take it again and split it on the other dimension,” Rhone explains.

For a 2×6 that’s being turned into 2x3s, Monterra will split them into 1x3s to make strappings, he elaborates.

At each stage in the process, the lumber is culled for pieces that will not make the intended output. Those pieces are then retrimmed into lengths that will provide more value for the mill.

The mill also has a Weinig moulder line set up to produce fence boards. For this process, Monterra uses multiple 1×6 materials, in different grades, lengths and qualities, Rhone says. Those products go through the moulder, are sized and then trimmed in a trim line, mainly to five-, six- and eight-foot lengths for fence boards.

The trimsaws are supplied by a local manufacturer, while all of the mill’s ripsaws are from TOS, based in Czechoslovakia. The mill also produces bridging components and stakes using a custom-designed bridging and stake machine manufactured by Todd Engineering.

The end products are packaged based on the grade of the wood.

“With every dimension that we’re running, we target a number of different grades,” Rhone explains. “We make a superstrip (which is an almost perfect piece of wood), a premium grade, a utility-and-better grade and then an economy grade. So, we’re pulling at least four grades out of the line as we’re running material through.”

All of the wood waste, including sawdust, shavings and trimmings, is recovered and repurposed as animal bedding and mulch.

Upgrading capacity
Since Weston Forest acquired the mill, the company has added a new trim line and upgraded one of the ripsaws. They are also finalizing the installation of a new moulder, but there have been some delays.

“The biggest challenge has been getting the electrical components in on time,” Rhone explains. “Everything that we go to do seems to have some part delayed somewhere in the supply chain. So, we’re waiting on a couple of pieces, but we’re almost there and should be up and running in the next couple of weeks.”

Weston also optimized the layout of the plant, moving equipment around to make room for new machinery. Thanks to the upgrades and optimization, the mill’s production capacity has improved by five million feet per year, to 20 million feet.

To meet the high demand, the company has hired an additional 14 employees, for a total of 32 people working a day shift and an afternoon shift. The company is also looking to upgrade their resaw line, which currently uses a Baker saw, in order to further increase production capacity.

Increasing the mill’s capacity will be critical to meeting the increased demand for lumber products used in construction projects.

“We’ve been calling the demand levels crazy, insane, hard-to-believe, difficult to comprehend for almost six months now,” Rhone says. “I’ve been doing this for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything remotely like it. The things that have driven it to this stage aren’t going away quickly, so I think while nothing goes straight up or straight down, we’re in for more of the same for at least the next four to six months.”

The increased demand means a tighter fibre supply for all lumber producers, including remanufacturers such as Monterra and Weston’s other facilities.

However, “Weston has an excellent relationship with all of the mills in North America, and we’ve been a long-term, well-established customer, so I think we get at least our fair share of what’s available,” Rhone says. “We haven’t run out of anything, but it has certainly been a very tight market for the last six months or so.”

A disproportionate impact
The bigger concern for Monterra Lumber Mills, and for Weston Forest as a whole, is the softwood lumber duty levied by the U.S. While the duty was revised in late 2020 from around 20 per cent to around nine per cent, “it remains pretty harsh,” Rhone says.

Lumber remanufacturers like Monterra feel the impact of the duty disproportionately, he adds. This is because they purchase lumber from sawmills as if the mills were selling that lumber directly to the U.S. Consequently, the duties those sawmills would pay on the material is added to the value of the lumber before it is loaded onto a truck. Freight costs are then added on top of that.

So, when Monterra purchases lumber, the cost is already higher than normal. Then, Monterra remanufactures the lumber into value-added products, which means they add the cost of milling and manufacturing to the price. Once that process is finished, the products are sold to customers in the U.S. and Canada. Monterra has to pay the softwood lumber duty on top of that finished price.

“So, we’re paying duty on all of our manufacturing, all of our processing, transportation and profits, which disproportionately impacts remanufacturers – not just us, but anybody who’s manufacturing lumber in Canada,” Rhone explains.

“It’s a surtax for the benefit of a very few on a commodity that is in tight supply. I think it’s a bad policy,” he continues. “Unfortunately, it’s American-driven, so we’ve got to wait for an opportunity to resolve the situation when the Americans want to come back to the table and have a conversation.”

Rhone is hopeful that the new Biden administration in the U.S. will be motivated to level the playing field and lower or remove the softwood lumber duty. He notes that, at the end of the day, it is customers – including American customers – that pay a disproportionately higher price.

Expanding footprint
Consequently, Rhone believes Canada needs to reach a long-term arrangement with the U.S. with regards to softwood lumber distribution between the two countries.

“The consistent interruptions or changes in policy every five to seven years as we go through a different lumber file is disruptive for the long-term planning of the business,” he says.

He also believes that the forest sector needs to do a better job explaining how environmentally friendly the industry is and how lumber represents a carbon capture solution.

“I think our industry doesn’t do a great job of telling that story. But, I think mass timber and the opportunity to use timber for tall wood buildings is going to be a great opportunity that we need to capitalize on as a country and as a civilization in general,” Rhone says.

Looking ahead five to 10 years down the road, Rhone believes the industry is likely to strengthen as more people realize the environmental benefits of forestry and wood products.

“I think the industry is sustainable, I think it’s on good footing, and as long as we keep our economy grinding forward, the industry should remain very strong,” he says.

This spells good news for Monterra Lumber Mills and for Weston Forest as a whole.

“We’re committed to growth. We’ve been a relatively high-growth company for the last decade, growing at about 15 per cent a year,” Rhone says. “We recently entered into a deal with a private equity company out of Boston called Watermill, who acquired our shares at the beginning of January, and our ambition is to accelerate our growth.

“We’re looking to expand our geographical footprint, both in Canada and the U.S.,” he continues. “We currently have four facilities that we own and would like to expand that in the coming years.”

This article was originally published in CFI‘s March/April 2021 issue.

Patrick Chouinard, founder and vice-president of business development of mass timber manufacturer Element5 Limited Partnership, recognized the potential of prefabricated off-site mass timber manufacturing for the commercial construction industry early on. And now with Element5’s new mass timber facility in St. Thomas, Ont., up and running, the company is well-positioned to capitalize on this shift towards building with wood.

Chouinard founded Element5 in 2015. In 2016, the company purchased the assets of a small cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing company in Ripon, Que., and began producing CLT, nail laminated timber (NLT), and other wood building components, explains Sarah Hicks, Element5’s marketing and communications officer. Over the past few years, the company has built up experience in the industry, delivering more than 40 projects.

In 2019, the company decided to expand its operations, announcing plans to construct a $50 million mass timber facility in Ontario.

“The Ontario expansion was always part of the plan,” Hicks says. “Patrick had identified the Ontario market, which is responsible for nearly 40 per cent of all construction in Canada, as the natural location for a mass timber facility. With the growing demand for mass timber, an abundant and sustainable fibre supply from northern Ontario, close proximity to key Canadian and U.S. markets, and no other CLT and glulam manufacturer in the region, the real question wasn’t, ‘Why?’ but, ‘When?’”

Construction on the factory began in November 2019, and was completed a year later, with all equipment installed.

Despite the pandemic, the company did not run in to any issues during construction. Installing the equipment was also a smooth process, as Ledinek – who supplied the majority of the equipment – had a team on-site throughout the commissioning process, Hicks explains.

Ramping up
In December 2020, the St. Thomas factory produced its first test panel. Now, the plant is ramping up production with the intention to run two full shifts. At this level of production, the plant is capable of producing 45,000 cubic metres of CLT and 5,000 cubic metres of glulam per year, for a combined output of 50,000 cubic metres.

To produce these products, the company sources SPF lumber from mills in northern Ontario, the main one being White River Forest Products, based in White River, Ont. White River Forest Products is a community-based venture between the Netamisakomik Anishnabek, the White River Economic Development Corporation and private investors, Hicks says (read more about the mill in CFI’s Jan/Feb 2021 issue).

But, Element5 doesn’t just manufacture CLT, glulam and NLT.

“Using these primary mass timber products, we are able to fabricate several other value-added components and systems, including lightweight, long-span, hollow core floor and roof cassettes that we call BOXX Panels, and our CLT-based building envelope solution called CLIPS (short for cross-laminated insulated panels),” Hicks explains.

“From a building type perspective, our focus is on buildings that can benefit the most from a prefabricated, mass timber structural solution,” she adds. “Structures with an optimized, repeatable grid, such as offices and multi-unit residential buildings, can save a lot of time and money by pursuing mass timber construction.”

The products are destined for the construction markets in Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec and states in the central and northeast U.S.

Once the St. Thomas plant is fully operational, it will employ 25 people for just the production process. According to Hicks, after six months, Element5 plans to employ closer to 50 people at the facility.

Element5’s high-performance CLT “X-Press” from Ledinek can create panels up to 3.5 metres wide x 16 metres long at varying thicknesses in three-, five-, seven- or nine-layer configurations.

State-of-the-art
The St. Thomas factory features state-of-the-art CLT and glulam production lines from Ledinek.

“Our manufacturing team toured several European facilities and conducted extensive research before selecting the Ledinek line,” Hicks says.

The plant now is the most fully automated mass timber manufacturing plant in the world, Chouinard tells CFI.

To produce the CLT and glulam products, SPF lumber is first received and sorted. The lumber then spends approximately three days in the Cathild conditioning kiln in order to bring all the lumber to a consistent moisture content (MC) of 12 per cent, the optimal level for CLT and glulam manufacturing.

Once the lumber reaches 12 per cent MC, it is loaded into the production line, and then enters the finger jointing station to create longer lamella for the CLT panels, Hicks explains. The finger-jointed lumber rests while the adhesive cures, and then lumber is planed to square edges and uniform thickness. After that, the lamella are edge-glued at the glue press to create a layer. The CLT panels are assembled in three, five, seven or nine layers, with adhesive applied between each layer.

The assembled panels then move into the pneumatic press to be cured. Once cured, the panels proceed to the sander for finishing. Finally, the panels go to a CMS North America CNC machine, commissioned by CncTech+, where service channels, window openings and other cut-outs are made.

To help move the 3.5 x 16 metre CLT panels in and out of the CNC machine and onto trucks to be shipped, the plant recently bought two 10,000-kilogram-capacity Zelus cranes.

Growth opportunities
Although Element5 is still ramping up production at their St. Thomas plant, they are already considering adding a third shift if demand warrants it, Hicks says.

“We see huge growth opportunities,” Chouinard adds. “In all likelihood, we will build another plant in the St. Thomas area. The current plant will take the major components that we manufacture in CLT and glulam, and the second plant will be a prefabrication plant that takes those core components and adds value to them. So, we will start to design and prefabricate our own solutions.”

In fact, this is something that Element5 has already started doing. The company has developed a way to provide affordable housing with prefabricated mass timber components. They are providing affordable housing options to First Nations, and also recently won their first affordable housing project in Ontario, Chouinard says.

Chouinard and Hicks believe demand for mass timber will increase as more and more people recognize its benefits.

While mass timber buildings taller than 12 stories have not yet made their way into the National Building Code of Canada, mass timber buildings under that height limit can be made more cheaply and quickly than with other materials, Chouinard explains.

“There’s no question that the wave of using these materials in construction is upon us,” he says. “It makes sense to build in this way for so many reasons – there are really no negatives for anybody.”

But, there are some barriers to expanding the use of mass timber in Canada. One such barrier is public misperceptions about the strength and durability of wood, as well as fire safety.

“A general need for more education and experience amongst construction professionals is a limiting factor,” Hicks says. “Although the landscape is changing, at this moment in time, there aren’t enough architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, building officials and contractors that know how to design, engineer, price, evaluate and assemble mass timber buildings.”

Leading the way
Despite this, mass timber represents a big opportunity for the wood products industry.

“Supplying lumber for mass timber production can help insulate primary producers from extreme fluctuations in the price of lumber,” Hicks explains. “Additionally, by having a strong forestry value chain, with strategic ties between the northern mills and southern manufacturing facilities, we can capitalize on our natural resources and advanced manufacturing capabilities to turn this industry into a major economic engine for the province and a key pillar of a new green economy.”

And, thanks to Canada’s strong forestry supply chain and its mass timber manufacturing capacity, “Canada is in a fantastic position to be able to lead the industry,” Chouinard says.

“Whereas Europe had an advantage in that they had these really evolved manufacturing facilities to be able to produce mass timber efficiently, we now have, here in Ontario, the most fully automated mass timber manufacturing plant in the world,” he adds. “So, we’re no longer at a disadvantage.”

As such, Chouinard believes that Element5 will continue to be one of the leaders in the industry.

“We believe in innovation and leadership. We’re not just a commodity supplier in the traditional way that the wood products industry has been. We believe in innovation, research development, and testing and certification of new products,” he says. “We’re constantly trying to introduce new products into our overall scope of what we do, and that’s going to put us in a leadership role.”

Kalesnikoff has a long history of focusing on value-added products, so moving into mass timber was the next logical step for them, Andrew Stiffman, Kalesnikoff’s senior business development manager, tells CFI.

The company got its start in 1939 when brothers Koozma, Peter and Sam Kalesnikoff began logging on the mountain-side. In the late 1960s, the company grew into a custom sawmill, and then added dry kiln and planing capacities. Kalesnikoff expanded again in the late 1990s with a remanufacturing plant that today produces lineal pattern products such as moulding, siding and interior paneling.

Then in 2014, Chris Kalesnikoff, COO of Kalesnikoff Lumber, and the family began looking to expand the business into mass timber.

Like many other sawmills in B.C., they were looking to do more with the available fibre supply.

“Timber supply is one of the biggest issues that we deal with on an ongoing basis, and that’s part of the reason why it was so important for us to continue to grow our business downstream,” Chris explains. “We have a comfort level with the amount of timber that we can harvest every year, and for us to continue to grow and stabilize our business, we needed to do more with the timber supply that we had.”

But choosing to get into mass timber was not something they took lightly. First, they visited mass timber facilities and equipment manufacturers across Europe to get a better understanding of the process and how to manufacture different mass timber products. They also researched the state of the North American market to understand what opportunities were available to them.

“Then, we took a step back to try to understand what was important for us,” Chris says. “We wanted to embrace technology; we wanted to look at new ways to produce mass timber products and we wanted to make sure that we were bringing product to the marketplace to help mass timber growth in North America. This meant ensuring that we were bringing new sizes and species to the market, and understanding some of the limitations around the building code and fire regulations.”

‘Leading-edge technology’
After developing a business plan and finding suppliers for the equipment, construction on the mass timber facility began in 2019. This allowed Kalesnikoff to take full advantage of the change in the 2020 National Building Code allowing 12-storey mass timber buildings.

Kalesnikoff acted as their own general contractor on the project. The state-of-the-art equipment is housed in a prefabricated steel building – a Behlen building – from NorSteel Building Systems. Local contractors provided the different building materials and did the electrical work.

The 110,000 square-foot building houses both the glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) product lines. In designing the two core product lines, Kalesnikoff identified six European equipment suppliers who they felt were “really specialized in a certain piece of equipment and brought the expertise we were looking for,” Chris says.

This allowed Kalesnikoff to order the pieces of equipment that would work best for them.

Denmark-based Kallesoe Machinery was the main equipment supplier. The company supplied the high-frequency (radio frequency) press, which can handle pieces up to 18 metres long and is able to produce a large number of products in a short amount of pressing time.

Kalesnikoff turned to Ledenick, based in Slovenia, for their lamella and beam planers, and Microtec supplied a Goldeneye 501 Quality scanner with vision defect scanning and optimization. Two CNC machines came from Uniteam/Biesse, based in Italy. A 12-foot-wide sander was supplied by Costa, also out of Italy. Kalesnikoff’s glue applications systems were provided by German company Oest, while Finnish company Konecranes supplied a 15-tonne overhead crane.

Kalesnikoff chose these suppliers based on their experience touring mass timber facilities and visiting equipment manufacturers across Europe in 2014, Chris explains.

“We felt that these groups were on the leading-edge of the technology that we were looking for, and relationship-based – that was a big part for us,” he says. “Kallesoe is a third-generation family-owned business out of Denmark, so right away there were lots of strong ties. It was really about making sure we were investing in leading-edge technology and that we felt we were going to be supported and partnering with the right groups.”

Installation and commissioning of the new equipment went well since much of the machinery is factory test-run, which means it’s already operational before it arrives on site, Chris adds.

For the rest of the installation, Kalesnikoff once again turned to local contractors. Vernon, B.C.-based Westwood Engineering did the electrical work and Castlegar, B.C.-based Martech Electrical Systems did the high-voltage installation. West Kelowna, B.C.-based Vortex Pneumatics provided the bag house and dust extraction equipment.

Of course, COVID-19 posed a challenge for Kalesnikoff during the equipment installation and commissioning process. But, “we were able to work with government and work with our suppliers to ensure that we were able to continue on with our installation and commission as needed, following all COVID protocols,” Chris says.

Product goes through Kalesnikoff’s glue applications systems provided by German company Oest.

Step-by-step
Now that the facility is complete, the company has begun producing a range of mass timber products.

“We’re producing three primary products off of two production lines,” Andrew explains. “We make a cross-laminated timber (CLT), as well as glulam beams and columns, and some glulam-laminated timber (GLT) panels. We’re also doing some specialty cold-pressing of our glulam beams to create oversized, large columns, say six feet by six feet squared, to support the highest mass timber towers being proposed in the world.”

But how exactly does the lumber from Kalesnikoff’s sawmill turn into these products?

At the sawmill, the lumber is strength-graded and sorted by species. The lumber then goes to the mass timber facility, where it first goes through the finger joint line. Microtec vision scanning technology scans the products for defects and an automated cross-cut line cuts out the defects. Then the product is finger-jointed to the required lengths, up to 60 feet.

The wood then goes to four curing trays, which provide up to 100 metres in total storage. There, the product is sorted by grades and sizes, and allowed to cure.

From there, the product goes to one of two lines, depending on whether Kalesnikoff is producing CLT or glulam.

For CLT, the products are stored in cross-layer storage and long-layer storage. They’re then cut to length and prepped for assembly. The long layers are then placed on what is essentially a large plastic plate and glue is applied. The cross layers are applied on top, glue is applied again, and so on.

“It’s just a continuous process where you’re applying your long lamellas and your cross lamellas to build whatever panel thickness you’re trying to achieve,” Chris explains.

After that, the panels travel to the high-frequency press from Kallesoe, where they are cured in segments in a lineal fashion. Depending on the specifics of the project, a panel might then go to the 12-foot-wide Costa sander to be sanded on both faces and then packaged for delivery, or in-house fabrication or coatings are applied first.

For the glulam products, it’s a pretty similar process, Chris says. The product is stored in the curing trays and then goes into a high-frequency glulam press. Once the beams come out cured, they are cut to length and planed on all four sides. A visual grade is then done and any necessary repairs are made. The beams then go to a CNC machine for further detailing, sanding, or coatings as needed. They’re then packaged and ready to go to the job site.

The glulam products are produced for both Canada and the U.S. Kalesnikoff is also in the process of certifying their glulam for export to Japan, Chris says. Meanwhile, the company’s CLT products are certified for PRG 320 standards in spruce grades, and are in the process of certifying their hemlock and Douglas fir grades as well.

Once the plant is fully operational, Chris expects the facility will be able to produce 50,000 cubic metres of finished product a year, with the capacity to expand upon that.

“That’s the equivalent of 20-plus Brock Commons-type buildings a year,” he says.

The company plans to add a second shift to the facility by the end of the year, so Chris expects they will be fully operational by the middle of next year.

Currently, Kalesnikoff employs 170 people at both their sawmill and mass timber facility, and is “continuing to grow at a pretty rapid pace,” Chris says. The sawmill runs two shifts, although they are not at full capacity.

Panels travel to the high-frequency press from Kallesoe Machinery, where they are cured in segments in a lineal fashion.

Sawmill integration
But how does the company’s sawmill work with the new mass timber facility?

The sawmill, which consumes around 300,000 cubic metres of logs annually, has been upgraded multiple times over the years to prepare for the new facility.

“We made some key investments starting in 2012. We did a large sawmill upgrade modernization where we included more vision scanning that allowed us to cut more skews and different sizes,” Chris says.

“We’ve also invested in more dry kilns capacity. Dry kilns are probably the thing that’s most valuable to us in our timber, so we invested in additional hot water kilns. Then we invested in more technology in our planer, again around vision scanning, that allowed us to create new custom grades that we’d be able to utilize at our mass timber plant.”

For the sawmill modernization, Kalesnikoff turned to USNR. Muhlbock did the dry kiln upgrades, and Springer-Microtec did the planer upgrades.

The sawmill itself consumes more than 10 different species of trees, primarily Douglas fir, large spruce, lodgepole pine, white fir and hemlock. Logs range in size from four-and-a-half inches to 40 inches, although the average is around 12 inches.

Japan is Kalesnikoff’s biggest solid wood market, followed by North America. The company has been producing lamstock for domestic and export markets for more than 20 years. The sawmill also produces dimensional lumber, ranging in size from 2×4 to 2×12, along with one-inch products.

An evolving market
Overall, the response to Kalesnikoff’s entrance into mass timber has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Andrew says.

“We knew that it would be exciting, that people would be excited about it, but we couldn’t possibly have predicted how great and successful it’s been already.”

In fact, Kalesnikoff already has multiple projects set to be delivered at the end of the year and the first half of 2021, such as a multi-family residential building in Vancouver and a student residence in Toronto.

And Kalesnikoff does not plan on stopping anytime soon.

“We’re going to continue to evolve,” Chris says. “We’re value-added, it’s in our bloodlines, and we’re entrepreneurs, so I think we’re going to continue to look at ways we can help the mass timber industry grow as well as just look at general opportunities on how we can continue to utilize the timber to the best of our ability.”

Chris also believes that the mass timber industry in Canada will continue to evolve.

For this to happen, however, the market needs to grow. With the supply currently available in B.C., there is enough capacity between Kalesnikoff and fellow B.C.-mass timber producer Structurlam to handle the projects, Chris says.

“There needs to be some continuous growth for mass timber to really take on more of the B.C. timber availability,” he says.

But both Chris and Andrew see the mass timber market growing in the coming years, which will bring multiple new opportunities.

“It seems like there’s an incredible amount of interest in the market,” Andrew says. “We would love to see the growth and the actual uptake just be exponential for the next five to 10 years.”

Investing in the future

Louis Brassard, CEO of Tafisa Canada, explained that the company has invested in a new, cutting-edge facility in Lac-Mégantic exclusively for the manufacture of the LUMMIA line to meet growing industry demand for high-end lacquered panels. “Our new plant, on North American soil, is excellent news for manufacturers and distributors as it will significantly shorten product delivery times and strengthen the local supply chain,” he said.

The City of Lac-Mégantic has contributed financially to the project through its program to help build and expand businesses in the industrial park. “I am proud to note that the program launched in February 2020 is already generating concrete benefits on the ground, thus positioning Lac-Mégantic as a fertile territory for innovation and growth. The investment allows us to achieve some of our priority objectives, which is to consolidate the wood cluster and encourage the expansion and diversification of our businesses,” said Mayor Julie Morin, specifying that the program offers industries a subsidy of up to 15 per cent of the property value of the building added to the valuation roll.

First-of-its kind technology in North America

High gloss and matt surfaces are two looks that are hot trends in North America and that are forecasted to stand the test of time. Made using superior coating technology, LUMMIA is available in two long-lasting finishes: High Gloss and Perfect Matt. LUMMIA High Gloss strikingly reflects light for maximum shine and LUMMIA Perfect Matt delivers exceptional visual depth.

“This superior lacquering technology on decorative panels exists in Europe for a few years now, Tafisa made the decision to adopt this know-how to fill a gap in the North American industry and bring technologically superior decorative innovations to the local market,” Brassard explained, adding that LUMMIA’s performance promises to greatly exceed that of imported panels in this category, at a very competitive price.

Tafisa a one-stop shop

“With the launch of LUMMIA, Tafisa continues to solidify its position as the North American manufacturer offering the most comprehensive range of particle boards, decorative panels (TFL) and laminate panels (HPL) available to industry professionals under one roof,” explained Christine Couture, LUMMIA business unit manager at Tafisa Canada.

Tafisa is also presenting an extensive complementary line of products perfectly matching to the new collection. LUMMIA offerings are designed to make it easier for architects, designers and consumers to harmoniously coordinate interiors, Couture said. With LUMMIA, a world of enlightened possibilities is now available to all!

Adding shifts and expanding its portfolio, San Group is in the midst of a $100-million project to reinvigorate the City of Port Alberni as a major player in the Canadian lumber industry.

San Group purchased a large-diameter sawmill from Coulson Forest Products (located just outside of urban Port Alberni) in 2017, and is spending millions on new equipment and construction to build a small-diameter mill and a remanufacturing facility nearby.

San Group’s CEO Kamal Sanghera plans for their Port Alberni project to be an example of the sort of thinking that he feels can revitalize B.C.’s lumber industry. But it requires an important shift in thought.

“With our natural resources, we should be a booming country,” he says in an interview with CFI at the site of their in-progress remanufacturing plant in Port Alberni next to Catalyst Paper – a paper mill now owned by Paper Excellence Canada.

But companies have become accustomed to getting a “fat cheque” for selling logs to the export market and not doing anything with them, he says.

“We go against the grain,” Sanghera says.

They do that by facing up to the problem that every business in the industry is dealing with: trees available to the industry are getting smaller and lumber companies are allowed to harvest fewer and fewer cubic meters. So, to survive, mills must find a way to do more with the available fibre.

That is what San Group is positioning itself to do in Port Alberni.

Sawmill specifics

Since purchasing the Coulson mill, San Group has been busy making changes and adapting equipment to process smaller logs and a wider range of species.

While the Coulson mill specialized in processing large-diameter, high-value logs, San Group’s changes now allow it to process logs as small as 12 inches in diameter, down from a minimum of 18 inches. Also, where the Coulson mill had only been processing western red cedar, it now processes any available B.C. lumber species, from hemlock, balsam, Douglas fir, sitka spruce and yellow cedar. What’s more, the mill can switch from one species to another in a few hours, and routinely does.

The Coulson Mill in Port Alberni, purchased by San Group in 2017, sits next to a deep-water port.

Otherwise, the Coulson sawmill follows a similar process to many other mills on B.C.’s coast, with logs first being dewatered and brought to the infeed, then sent through a debarker on the way to a headrig, explains San Group’s vice-president of business development, Bob Bortolin.

Lumber then goes through a gang saw, trimmer and grading, with final products ranging from 2×2 through to 6×20. After being wrapped, lumber is ready to be sent to world markets.

However, San Group is continuing to make changes to its Coulson mill, with some machinery being modified or replaced entirely. “A lot of things are in flux right now,” Bortolin says.

The mill currently runs three shifts with a maintenance crew on hand. It produces about 100 million board feet a year, and employs more than 250 people.

More pieces to the puzzle

San Group’s plans for Port Alberni extend far beyond their Coulson mill. An important factor in San Group’s success is being versatile, Sanghera says. Where other mills look to specialize, San Group aims to make use of as much fibre as possible.

The next piece in that puzzle is a second mill the company is building next to the Coulson mill. It will process smaller, lower-grade timber down to three inches in diameter. “An important factor to remember is that this line processes logs that are currently being left in the bush or chipped,” Bortolin says.

This HewSaw R200 line will see the logs go to a bucking line, Valon Kone debarker, scanner and then fed into the HewSaw. Lumber is then sorted by dimension in an automated 60-bin sorter and packaged for either further processing at the remanufacturing site or shipping to world markets.

While San Group hoped to have this mill cutting wood by the summer of 2019, community concern convinced the company to make a major change in its plans, which slowed progress.

This second mill was originally planned for a 25-acre site beside Catalyst Paper. After the community grew concerned over possible noise in nearby neighbourhoods, San Group chose to move construction of the mill to its Coulson site, and instead build the remanufacturing facility next to Catalyst.

“What we are looking for is community,” Sanghera says. “We want to be part of the community, we want to grow with the community.”

In addition to providing new jobs and helping to lift the local economy, part of that is responding to and working with the community, he says. Where the sawmill may have created noise, the remanufacturing facility will not, with all machinery, except for kilns, being indoors.

Though the change did cost a lot of money, San Group intends to be a good community partner, Sanghera says.

A history in remanufacturing

The third piece of San Group’s $100 million-plus puzzle is the remanufacturing facility, which harkens back to the company’s roots.

San Group’s history in the lumber industry starts in 1979 with a small-lumber remanufacturing facility in Langley, B.C. It expanded into sawmill operations and lumber harvesting as a way to support manufacturing, Sanghera says.

Now, in addition to doing its own harvesting, the company supplements volume with trading, agreements with Island Timberlands, and also purchasing logs through BC Timber Sales and private sales.

In Port Alberni, the remanufacturing facility’s lumber will primarily come from the Coulson mill, where the fibre will be turned into a variety of manufactured products, from cross-laminated timber to tongue-and-groove clear engineered veneer.

From left: San Group owners Paul Deol (vice-president, manufacturing), Kamal Sanghera (CEO) and Suki Sanghera (president) stand next to a Conception finger jointer – one of the machines that will fill San Group’s Port Alberni remanufacturing facility, where construction and testing was underway in mid-October.

The facility will include six dry kilns: two small specialty Porta Kilns from Ontario’s Innovated Control Systems, as well as larger Brunner Hildebrand kilns. The process planned for the facility will see a portion of the lumber conditioned and then sliced into face veneer for the engineered wood division. The veneer will then go through a Fezer Slicer and be processed through an Omeco veneer drier to bring down the moisture content before laminating.

Lumber will then run through a Microtec Goldeneye 502 Quality scanner, which utilizes multiple cameras as well as X-ray to size and locate each defect on the board, and optimize for the highest amount of useable lumber. The solution for the board is then sent to the high-speed chopsaw line, which produces the finger-jointed products.

Finger-joint blocks will then be sent to the Conception finger jointer. Then the finger-jointed lumber and veneer will be processed through one of two RF laminating lines.

Products include interior paneling, siding and soffits, and five Weinig moulders on site will be able to manufacture a number of standard and custom profiles, Bortolin says.

Doing more with less

One of San Group’s project aims is to show how to get as much as they can out of the fibre they have, while being environmentally efficient.

Part of the location appeal for San Group is having Catalyst Paper as a neighbour. A deal between the two companies sees San Group purchase pulp logs from Catalyst, while waste fibre from the remanufacturing facility goes to Catalyst and will be used as hog fuel, Sanghera says.

In October, machine testing at the plant was conducted via generators, with Sanghera noting red tape and slow bureaucracy have been some of the challenges the company has had.

“We are working with BC Hydro and Fortis BC,” Sanghera says. “We are still waiting on some approvals on the environmental side… everything was sent to them almost eight months to a year ago. That’s why we’re almost a year behind… [but] those are the typical things anybody is going to have.”

Sanghera says he’s excited by some of the efficiencies the company has created in its remanufacturing plant. These include slicing veneer instead of cutting it; purchasing specialty, small dry kilns that save on energy by drying lower volumes of lumber in a smaller space; and a high-speed finger joint, scanning and chopping system. In addition, the proximity of the mills, manufacturing plant and Catalyst will reduce transportation costs and emissions.

The company also strives for efficiencies in its sales. By creating products that customers are asking for, San Group sells up to 90 per cent of its product before it’s cut.

With regards to reducing their carbon footprint and providing a value-added product, Sanghera says, “In reality, whatever the government, federal and provincial are saying, we are already doing.”

Sanghera, his brother and president of the company, Suki Sanghera, as well as the company’s third owner, Paul Deol, say their Port Alberni project is a result of learning from best practices in other countries, their shared commitment to the success of the Canadian lumber industry, and a desire to show communities, governments and the industry itself that better use can be made of B.C.’s lumber.

“Our approach is completely different and that’s why we’re keeping our head above water,” Sanghera says. He adds that, if a company like San Group (which holds no timber licenses and has to buy lumber on the open market) can make this work, why can’t tree farm license-holders work this way as well?

“Canada was built on manufacturing,” he says. But now, logs are being sent oversees to be processed and manufactured, then bought back by Canadian customers. He hopes to see manufacturing return to Canada.

Though processing costs may be lower elsewhere, San Group is managing to compete with advanced technology, know-how, product versatility and efficient use of fibre. The company is already looking to other B.C. communities where it can duplicate this project. Hopefully, Sanghera says, other companies will start doing the same.

A guiding philosophy for San Group is that survival isn’t only dependent on strength or intelligence, but also on adaptability to change. The company strives to learn from the past, live in the present and challenge the future.

ATCO’s veneer plant, and the sawmill that preceded it, have been welcome fixtures of the Fruitvale community for more than 60 years. Atle Nelson Sr. started the company in 1958. ATCO is a combination of ‘Atle’ and ‘company’. Nelson had six children and several of them ran the company at various times. In 1992, Ted Nelson became president and when he retired in 2007, he sold it to his daughter, Rebecca Weatherford. She renamed the company ATCO Wood Products Ltd. and took over as president. Rebecca’s husband, Scott, joined the team as the company’s CEO and they were off and running.

Although neither of the Weatherfords had sawmilling backgrounds when they took over, Rebecca’s experience in the hospitality industry working for several large hotel chains and Scott’s engineering background and knowledge of the trucking and equipment industry have served them well. Understanding and respecting people and managing the orderly flow of materials and machinery is universal to any manufacturing business, and a veneer plant is no exception. Unfortunately for the Weatherfords, 2008 was the beginning of a difficult time for Canada’s forest industry. ATCO weathered the downturn by making chips for a local pulp mill while running the plant at a reduced pace.

In 2011, ATCO purchased a short-line railroad to the nearby community of Trail, B.C. The rails were laid in the 1890s as a conduit for minerals and lumber from the West Kootenays to Pacific Northwest markets. The line shifted hands several times and the section from Fruitvale to Nelson was closed altogether until ATCO purchased the tracks as a vital part of their transportation strategy. With the addition of a reload facility at Columbia Gardens in Trail, ATCO offers others the opportunity to take advantage of one of the few locations on the Canadian/U.S. border crossed by an American rail line.

Since the Weatherfords became involved in the company, the well-being of their employees has been a priority. Safety is always No. 1 and ATCO is justifiably proud of its safe work climate. Every work station features iPads that contain all of the safety procedures for every job, a recent innovation to a safety program that is being constantly upgraded, leading to significant reductions in the number of reportable first aid incidents.

Dan Farias looks after landscape supply and firewood sales for ATCO Wood Products.

The plant employs 65 people directly and contracts another 60. More than 75 per cent of the production and maintenance materials are locally sourced, keeping employment and money in the surrounding community.

Perhaps it’s a little cliché to say that a company values its employees as family, but in ATCO’s case, that is absolutely true. In return, employees are expected to treat each other with respect and honesty, and to work together as a team. The employees take pride in what they do and it shows in the smiling faces you encounter while touring the facility.

Plant rundown

ATCO’s primary product is softwood veneer, but that is far from all they do. The company uses what I like to call the “full buffalo” approach to manufacturing. Every bit of every tree that enters the facility is used to generate income. Cores left over once the veneer has been stripped from the logs are used for landscaping ties. They are shaved on the top and bottom and are sometimes stained per customers’ requests. Bark becomes high-grade ground cover. Logs that are not used are turned into firewood. Wood chips go to the pulp mill for paper production. Forest resources are paid proper respect as nothing is wasted.

The mill uses approximately 200,000 cubic meters of fibre per year and produces about 130 million square feet of veneer. Sixty per cent of production is sold into the U.S. while 40 per cent is used domestically. Logs retained for production are primarily Douglas fir, larch and spruce, depending on customers’ requirements. The lathe can handle logs from nine to 30 inches in diameter, while off-size and unsuitable species are horse traded with other mills.

After the logs are brought into the building, they pass through a VK Kodiak double ring 36-inch debarker. They are trimmed into blocks of 103.5 inches and fed into peeler bins, which are then moved to the conditioning chests. In addition to the older chests, which use hot water to soften the logs, ATCO is experimenting with new chests that use technology from Windsor Engineering in New Zealand. The Windsor tanks use clean atmospheric-pressure steam inside an insulated chamber to condition the logs in preparation for peeling. The new equipment is said to be cheaper to run and uses less water. A test unit is being installed that will handle 30 per cent of ATCO’s current capacity. If the project works out, the rest of the chests will be converted.

Logs are trimmed into blocks of 103.5 inches and fed into peeler bins, which are then moved to the conditioning chests.

After softening, blocks are sent to a Raute X-Y charger and then peeled into veneer by a Premier Gear lathe with Elite Automation controls. A very quick trip through a Ventek scanner accurately plots out the perfect cuts to be performed by the Raute clipper, which trims it to size before it goes through the Altec thickness monitor. From there, sheets are sorted by the Raute stacker into four bins where they are prepared for strapping and shipment to customers.

A Ventek scanner accurately plots out the perfect veneer cuts for the Raute clipper.

Another new project that is starting to pay off is a new dust collection two-stage cyclone purchased from and installed by B.C.’s Corbilt Welding and Fabrication and Wrangler Engineering.

Sustainable company

These days all of the best forest companies take the environment very seriously and ATCO is no exception. In fact, ATCO has been known to turn down offers of timber where the harvesting methods or the location didn’t meet their standards. Much of their fibre comes from tenure, while some is privately purchased, and some sourced from their own land managed by ATCO’s company Voran Skoog, which is Swedish for “our forest.” Voran Skoog doesn’t just refer to ATCO’s own land – it represents what they know to be true of all trees in that they belong to all of us; they are quite literally rooted in our communities and as such must be respected and used responsibly.

ATCO works closely with user groups such as watershed custodians and recreational groups to determine how to best use the resource and how to harvest sustainably and responsibly while minimizing impact. ATCO plants over one million seedlings every year and its foresters are adept at bringing the young trees to a point where they are self-sustaining.

ATCO Wood Products in Fruitvale, B.C., uses approximately 200,000 cubic meters of fibre per year and produces about 130 million square feet of veneer as well as other specialty products.

But there are challenges the company has to overcome in order to continue receiving the log diet they need. Land is constantly being removed from the working forest for private property expansion, new parks, and other infrastructure associated with a growing population. Fibre demand keeps increasing, but the supply is never going to meet demand, so companies like ATCO must add value to the logs they harvest. Scott is closely involved with the Interior Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, which works tirelessly to ensure the right logs go to the right mills, so they will be used to their full potential, rather than feeding high-value logs into low-value products.

The current lumber downturn has affected ATCO, as it has most B.C. forest companies. The slowdown started in the fall of 2018, but really took hold in December, when falling prices and increased stumpage fees combined to create a difficult environment for Scott and his team. While it’s difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel, “hope is not a strategy,” Scott says. “A responsible mill owner reacts to market changes by examining their business model, making adjustments as required and using the increased pressure as motivation to add value to their existing products and services.”

Along with respecting the trees, forest companies must respect the community they live in, and, for ATCO, there was never any question of doing otherwise. They are active in forestry education through schools and community events. They donate firewood to local groups for fundraising and provide bark and woodchips for playgrounds. They also support charities such as the local hospital, food bank, and Girl Guides of Canada and Scouts Canada groups. Every year, ATCO offers Santa-themed Christmas train rides down the short-line, which has become a seasonal favourite in the community. Activities such as this, and their success in business, led to ATCO Wood Products being presented with the 2018 Canadian Family Enterprise of the Year by the Family Enterprise Exchange.

The future looks bright for this family-run veneer plant tucked away in a quiet corner of B.C. Constant research and development and a commitment to modernization mean that incremental upgrades are always ongoing.

The possibilities are endless: a veneer drying plant would increase the value of their product and isn’t out of the question down the road; a larger machine shop is on the drawing board; and new mobile equipment is always on the wish list. ATCO has become well known for the quality of their veneer and it seems certain that the company will continue to be a West Kootenay feature for many years to come.

The key design intent of this project was to fuse contrasting materials to enhance the inherent warmth of an exposed wood structure comprised of composite mass timber, concrete and steel structural assemblies. Unlike the construction of 20th century post and beam buildings, construction of 77 Wade optimizes the use of a mass timber hybrid structural system by way of pre-fabricated components and just-in-time delivery and construction practices to achieve spans akin to traditional concrete and steel superstructure projects for modern commercial office buildings.

The overall design celebrates the advanced use of mass-timber construction within the ever-evolving architecture of Canada. The development and design of 77 Wade maximizes and streamlines the inherent structural and aesthetic qualities of exposed wood construction in a new and modern way; ultimately showcasing both our Canadian talent pool and our renewable wood resource. The building’s envelope will predominately be clad in a folded plain curtain wall to expose the innovative structure within, while also adding a dynamic form to the streetscape. The approach to the building is unified with an origami based geometric soft and organic front entrance, retail and flexible collaboration spaces.

Perched above the form is a wood canopy that creates shading for the outdoor amenity and social space. The rear of the building has a sunken parking area as well as a unique bike storage feature, connecting pedestrians and cyclists though the site, from the adjacent and elevated GO Barrie line corridor to be constructed complete with a linear park and Multi-Use Trail below (aka Metrolinx’s ‘Davenport Diamond’ project).

Today, tech-oriented and innovative companies desire work environments that hum with architectural character. 77 Wade achieves this with the use of wood construction and the fusion of contrasting materials. The provision of communal spaces for both the building’s users and the public, paralleled with the use of appropriate landscape design and softer and transparent cladding materials, makes 77 Wade Avenue a state-of-the-art contemporary office building that addresses the City and its urban citizens with a unique and innovative architectural language.

Structurlam – North America’s first manufacturer of CLT – knows it’s about much more than that. Mass timber, they say, is a smarter way to build, and they are ramping up production to meet the growing demand. This year the B.C. company expanded yet again by adding another manufacturing facility, increasing their capacity by one third.

Mass timber is defined as large prefabricated engineered wood building products comprising glulam, CLT, dowel-laminated timber, laminated veneer lumber, and nail-laminated timber. An expanding body of research shows, when compared to concrete or steel, mass timber products are lighter, cheaper, easier to construct, react better during fire events, and are significantly more environmentally friendly.

All this adds up to a better building material. But, as with any disruption to the marketplace, mass timber will take time to adopt, explains Structurlam CEO Hardy Wentzel. But he thinks it’s happening faster than usual.

“It’s a massive, exciting opportunity. In my career I’ve actually seen developers put weight on the importance of sustainability and environment. Consumers are driving this growing demand,” Wentzel says.

Structurlam’s origins date back to 1962 when local Okanagan construction company Greyback ventured into the world of glulam beams. They started up a head office and manufacturing wing in Penticton, B.C. Adera Group purchased Structurlam in 2007 and built the company’s first Okanagan Falls manufacturing facility, tripling its glulam capacity. In 2011, with funding support from the provincial government, Structurlam opened North America’s first CLT plant and began manufacturing its trademark Crosslam CLT.

“Seven years ago the company made a bet that CLT would be a winner,” Wentzel says. “It was quite a significant bet. Nobody would have expected that CLT would be on the trajectory it is on today. It was impressive vision from the former premier, Gordon Campbell, to support the development of new wood products.”

From left, Structurlam CEO Hardy Wentzel, Nicholas Sills, mass timber design manager, and Stephen Tolnai, vice-president of sales and marketing, at Structurlam’s head office in Penticton, B.C.

Structurlam’s current owners, the Kingfish Group, purchased the company in December 2018. Last fall they expanded once again, opening a third manufacturing facility a stone’s throw from the current one in Okanagan Falls. The new facility has the latest in CNC machining.

CFI toured Structurlam’s facilities shortly after the new opening to learn how this mass timber leader turns 2x6s into beautiful pre-fabricated masterpieces.

Process

Structurlam is more comparable to an auto manufacturer than a wood panels producer, explains Stephen Tolnai, vice-president of sales and marketing.

“We are not a typical manufacturer. We are custom, so our buildings are completely designed down to the individual screw connections before we make anything. That’s a critical part of it,” he says.

All of Structurlam’s projects begin in the company’s CADD (computer-aided design and drafting) studio. There, drafters transform architect or engineer specifications into 3D models to execute the manufacturing process. A host of robotic machines then glue, join and press the wood, and cut the panels or beams to size. Some final components are added by hand. The finished structure is assembled on site and integrated with electrical, plumbing penetrations, and so on.

“We don’t just make lumber, we don’t just make a CLT panel. We design, engineer and fabricate a structure one at a time,” Tolnai says.

All wood is purchased at commodity prices directly from North American sawmills in typical lumber species and sizes. Structurlam then checks the wood for moisture content and strength before it is turned into mass timber products.

“We buy our wood at a pretty consistent 15 per cent moisture content, lower than lumber, so we have to make special arrangements with the mills to kiln it to what we need. If it’s outside of that we sticker it and condition it naturally until it’s ready for our process,” Wentzel says.

At the original Maple Street CLT facility in Okanagan Falls, the glulam and CLT process begins with a Metriguard 2350 transverse Sonic Lumber Grader, or e-rater, that measures modulus of elasticity for machine stress rated lumber.

Depending on the product, lumber can flow to one of two COE finger jointers, or is sent directly to the CLT press, which applies layers of glue to cross-laid lumber boards and sufficient pressure to create the panel.

Sascha Engel works in Structurlam’s CADD studio at the head office in Penticton, B.C.

Both CLT panels and the glulam beams can then be machined by the Hundegger PBA (panel processing centre) or Creno 5 axis gantry CNC that automatically cuts and drills with a variety of tools based on inputted CAD designs. Minda suction systems and Mussell Crane MFG overhead cranes allow the operators to move the heavy panels into place for the PBA machining. The Hundegger itself moves on a track over the panel.

At the newest facility on Wallis Road in Okanagan Falls is a brand-new Hundegger PBA 5 axis gantry CNC, same model as their first only five years newer and with a host of new features such as an automatic tool changer. Rather than using a suction system to move the heavy glued panels, the new facility has a roller conveyor to move panels through the PBA process.

The new facility also features a dust collection system from Edmonton’s VETS Group, and a biomass heating system from COBB that burns residuals from the manufacturing process.

Structurlam’s main office and production facility in Penticton houses a Hundegger K2 3 axis CNC machine, as well as a Creno 5 axis gantry CNC.

Products

Europeans began developing CLT in the mid-90s. Structurlam took advantage of years of product development, and in 2011 adapted it for the North American market.

In 2011, with funding support from the provincial government, Structurlam opened North America’s first CLT plant and began manufacturing its trademark Crosslam CLT.

“Our building-with-wood culture is way more advanced in North America than it is in Europe. They build in masonry and concrete. Nearly every family residence in this country is stick framed, built on site by carpenters. We needed to make a lot of adaptations to the European CLT product development,” Wentzel says.

In order to meet North American fire-testing standards, several adhesive manufacturers developed a new glue recipe that wouldn’t delaminate under heat. After many more tests, as well as manufacturing standards monitored by the APA Engineered Wood Association, wood-frame construction up to six storeys was added to Canada’s building code in 2015. The next version of the code, due out in 2020, is expected to allow for even taller wood buildings up to 12 storeys.

Structurlam made headlines in 2017 as a supplier of the mass timber CLT and glulam used to build the University of British Columbia’s Brock Commons, the world’s tallest mass timber hybrid building at 18 storeys.

Between 85 and 90 per cent of Structurlam’s business is non-residential, heavy industry and commercial. Other notable projects in Canada include the waterfront Vancouver Convention Centre, the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, B.C., the Shane Holmes YMCA at Rocky Ridge in Calgary, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

During CFI’s tour of the finishing facility, employees were hammering in custom steel connections into dozens of massive glulam beams destined for Microsoft’s new headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Progress

Around 225 people are employed at Structurlam’s four manufacturing facilities and the head office. Depending on what products are going through, the facilities will run 24/7, 365 days a year.

Last year was a record sales year for the company, and they expect to continue breaking records now that their newest PBA CNC machine is up and running.

“We needed that machine to be running on Oct. 15. It was a huge bottleneck. And on Oct. 15 is was fabricating panels,” Wentzel says.

Minda suction systems and Mussell Crane MFG overhead cranes allow the operators to move the heavy panels into place for the PBA machining

Timing was essential. Interest in mass timber construction is growing at a faster rate than anticipated, Wentzel says. He expects CLT to well surpass the market adoption rate of similar engineered lumber products like I-joists and laminated veneer lumber, which took between 20 and 30 years to become standard construction material.

“Why? Our building-with-wood culture in North America. Everybody is talking about mass timber. There have been several high-profile projects, and high profile developers are starting to adopt it. When they do that, you know the value proposition is resonating with people. It’s cost effective, it’s fast, it’s quality, and it’s sustainable. When all those buttons are pushed it’s quite exciting,” Wentzel says.

The key for this CEO is keeping on track, or “sticking to our knitting,” as Wentzel puts it. “We need to keep the company upfront and growth is going to do that,” he says.

And the projects keep rolling in.

“Mass timber has been capturing the imagination of architects and developers, and the ICC result means they can now turn sketches into reality. ICC’s rigorous study, testing and voting process now recognizes a strong, low-carbon alternative to traditional tall building materials used by the building and construction industry,” said American Wood Council (AWC) president and CEO Robert Glowinski.

The three new types of construction that will be included in the 2021 IBC are:

• Type IV-A – Maximum 18 stories, with gypsum wallboard on all mass timber elements
• Type IV-B – Maximum 12 stories, limited-area of exposed mass timber walls and ceilings allowed
• Type IV-C – Maximum nine stories, all exposed mass timber designed for a two-hour fire resistance

“The addition of tall mass timber to the International Building Code provides a comprehensive set of safety standards for these new types of construction. This vote caps off several years of scientific research and testing, and verifies that mass timber meets the robust performance standards called for by our nation’s building codes,” said AWC vice-president of codes and regulations Kenneth Bland, P.E.

ICC’s code development cycle continues through 2019. Additional structural requirements for tall mass timber buildings will be considered, with final approval of 2019 proposals expected to occur in late October. The 2021 IBC is expected to be released in late 2020, along with the full set of 2021 I-codes.

Find more information about tall mass timber buildings here.

• Acoustic and vibration performance
• Prevention of seismic risk
• Fire safety
• Forest resources and wood products
• Asian construction market: R&D and market
• Durable building enclosure design

Find the program details here.

Once again this year, the organizers are particularly proud to present a B2B inter-professional trade show that will give those interested an opportunity to exchange ideas with potential collaborators and business partners. The last two days of the congress will be devoted to field visits.

Throughout the event, participants will have the chance to visit the booths of the various exhibitors, consult the poster sessions and visit the Woodrise-cecobois professionals’ competition.

Registrations
Registration will open in February 2019. In the meantime, visit www.woodrise2019.ca for the latest news or subscribe to the newsletter to receive information about the event by clicking on this link.

Read the full article here.

The design for the five-story 156,000 square-foot building was the product of a collaboration between First Tech, Hacker Architects, Kramer Gehlen & Associates engineering and general contractor Swinerton Builders.

During the design process, the team evaluated all available materials options.

“We allowed steel to compete with mass timber throughout the evaluation,” said William Silva, Swinerton preconstruction manager. “From time to erect, fireproofing, foundation systems and other criteria, wood came out on top every time.”

Overall, the use of Structurlam-manufactured cross-laminated timber and glued-laminated beams instead of steel provided a 4 percent cost savings and four fewer months of construction.

Additionally, Silva estimates that the First Tech building sequestered 4,192 metric tons of carbon and avoided 1,622 metric tons of greenhouse gases that would have been emitted through steel manufacturing and construction.

The building demonstrated how methods like preplanning and offsite hole-drilling resulted in faster and safer onsite construction with less disruption to the surrounding neighborhood. All the components were delivered to site as ready-to-assemble prefabricated parts. The construction process allowed teams to work consistently from one end of the building to the other as the building took shape.

“Passersby would ask where all the workers were,” said Zach Davidson, P.E., S.E, the project’s Kramer Gehlen & Associates senior engineer.

Visitors to the site often felt compelled to touch the exposed wood grain and joints while touring the construction.

“Everyone loves wood,” said Scott Barton-Smith, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, a Hacker Architects associate. “The wood building is at home on that site.”

The APA Case Study: First Tech Federal Credit Union: The Building That Wanted to Be Mass Timber, form U-115, is available for download at no cost from the APA Resource Library.

“Last year’s Thank A Framer video has been an enormous success with over 4 million views,” said Peter Wijnbergen, Norbord’s President and CEO. “Thanks to our partnership with HBI, we have already graduated students from training centers in Houston and Tampa who will be the next generation of framers to join the workforce. We will continue to partner with the HBI to train more Americans to become framers.”

To support the campaign, visit www.thankaframer.com to watch the video and join us in our mission to create awareness and encourage young people to enter the trades.

Introduced to cross-laminated timber (CLT) several years ago at an Oregon State University College of Forestry event, Rob Freres, Freres Lumber executive vice-president, says one of his first thoughts after seeing CLT was that “plywood is already cross-laminated.” Looking at the potential of CLT, Freres began thinking of ways to leverage his company’s veneer industry expertise in the developing mass timber building market.

“It seemed like we could make a similar product using less wood fibre,” Freres says, noting that in developing strength properties, using material of various grades, he believes it’s more efficient to accommodate lower grade material by using veneer sheets instead of 13⁄8 in. lumber. “And the benefits of using veneer increase as the product gets thicker and bigger,” he adds.

Researching a possible mass plywood panel product, Freres Lumber vice-president of sales Tyler Freres and his brother, vice-president of operations Kyle Freres, travelled to Europe in April 2015, visited some CLT manufacturers and kicked around some ideas. Back in the U.S., Tyler began working on some test panels with longtime plywood plant manager Jim Walker, who had recently retired.

Some initial testing at the Freres plywood plant, using the existing press and making some 3 in. panels, proved quite positive, showing such a product would indeed outperform CLT, Freres says. By September 2015 they were taking test panels to the TECO lab in Eugene, and had filed a patent in October.

Freres Lumber began testing MPP samples at OSU in January 2016 and had substantiated performance by March. In May 2016 they began ordering test equipment.

While Tyler began the company’s initial MPP product development, Kyle and Tyler began pulling together test machines to explore product development and working closely with OSU’s Advanced Wood Products Lab to prove product viability.

By late 2015 going into early 2016, the Freres R&D team had ordered a used 4×17 ft. test press and Hexion cold press resin with long open time to begin developing the product and samples for testing.

A big part of the process has been developing and executing the scarf joints that connect 4×8 structural composite lumber panels end-to-end. “We wanted to make sure that the means in which we joined the panels together was as strong as possible, so we settled on a structural scarf joint,” Tyler says, adding it has been a challenge since the joint can be difficult to produce in required quantities while also maintaining joint quality.

New plant
When permitting issues kept Freres from locating the new MPP plant adjacent its existing plywood plant, the company decided to use a former mill property it owned roughly halfway between the pressing facility and veneer plant for the MPP project. Construction began in March 2017, and though the weather didn’t co-operate much, and site prep included extensive removal of log yard material while adding 76,000 yards of rock, the facility was ready to begin equipment installation by late August. The new plant is housed in a 320×560 building, plus covered loading-unloading areas outside. Inside, the production half of the plant features a heated floor that maintains temperatures for efficient resin handling, application and curing.

In talking with equipment vendors, the Freres team decided to go with Homag Group and Stiles Machinery, which reports 15 CLT plants under its belt and extensive experience with mass panels and supplied everything from the press area robotic sorter to the CNC system. Deal Manufacturing fabricated most of the material handling and transfer equipment. Local companies CD Redding Construction and North Santiam Paving Co. were the respective building and paving contractors, with Northside Electrical doing electrical work and West Coast Industrial supplying transfer equipment for the scarf line.

At infeed, 4×8 panels categorized as structural composite lumber regardless of layup configuration and certified under ASTM D 5456 are initially processed through a double-end tenoner and glue applicator  (Hexion MF resin). Panels receive scarf cuts and glue, and 481⁄2 ft. segments are fed through a two-track radio frequency curing press supplied by the Ogden Group. As 481⁄2 ft. billets, the mass panels flow down a long rollcase to a flying saw, are sawn and then lifted via a crane system to a work-in-progress area. All overhead gantry cranes and lift systems were supplied by US Crane. Joulin Vacuum Handling provided the vacuum gantries.

A robotic sorter system executes the final panel layup per a pre-programmed product “recipe” and feeds the press. Custom designed by Minda, the TimberPress X 337 can produce panels up to 12 ft. x 481⁄2 ft. and up to 24 in. thick. Extensions and transfers can allow production and handling of up to 60 ft. panels. Press times range up to 130 minutes, and the press can handle multiple panels of different sizes simultaneously. Minda supplied the glue gantry and glue table, while SparTek Industries designed, manufactured and installed the glue head extrusion system. Press controls and the robotic layup system controls are from Aiken Controls. Off-loaded from the press, panels move by rollcase to the finishing side of the plant, where a Weinmann WMP five-axis CNC machine makes finishing cuts such as windows, doors and conduit channels, based on pre-loaded digital files provided by the customer that spec out wall and floor dimensions.

The first press load and panels made it through the plant in December. “The limiting factor in the plant is press time, and if we can keep a fast flow of 24 by 48 that includes multiples of other sizes, it’s always in the back of our mind that we need to keep the press full,” Rob Freres says, adding he can envision various parts of a building system going into the same press load. “We expect our sophistication in using the press will grow over time.”

MPP Believer
Through the Freres team’s R&D efforts, Tyler Freres says, “We believe we’ve come up with an evolutionary jump for this kind of product.” He says people who see the name and think MPP is just plywood glued together are way off track. Pointing to a product sample during the interview, Tyler says, “That six inch panel has 54 different plys with different density grades and orientation, all prescribed by a recipe, so it’s not just a standard plywood product glued together.”

He adds that in addition to being a natural evolution in the company’s veneer-based product line, MPP is also a way for Freres Lumber to diversify away from commodity markets while utilizing more of its LVL-quality veneer production in house.

Like any sales manager who believes he’s offering a better alternative to other products on the market, Tyler cites the benefits MPP products have over CLT, beginning with an inherent advantage in flexibility based on each product’s basic building blocks. The basic CLT building block is a three-layer long-grain-cross-grain-long-grain layup of three roughly 13⁄8 in. pieces of lumber, and any increase in strength requires adding another layer of cross- and long-grain boards, leaving CLT married to a 3-5-7-9 layer system that has to be maintained regardless of strength requirements. By using 1⁄8 in. layers of veneer in building MPP products, panel strength can be more closely engineered to match required properties, he says.

“With CLT, if you want to increase the structural properties of a panel, for example, you have to go from three-ply to five-ply, and that’s a massive increase in the volume of wood used to gain the strength you want,” Tyler says. “With MPP, we can really tailor the thickness of the panel to the structural requirements for the job.”

Less wood volume to meet the required strength values means lower cost, Tyler says: “Instead of paying for seven inches of wood to reach the same strength and values, you may pay for five inches of wood with MPP.” Freres Lumber made noise two years ago when it first announced the product would use “20 per cent to 30 per cent less wood” in the same applications as CLT. Tyler says the two products are more comparable in smaller thicknesses, but for applications requiring larger thicknesses MPP does get into that range of using almost 20 per cent less wood than the same product made of CLT.

Another big advantage with MPP is raw material sourcing, Tyler adds, noting there are real constraints on the supply of high quality lumber that’s been going into CLT production. Meanwhile, MPP is built of veneer sheets that are all density graded, and can reach desired strength properties using a higher percentage of G3 and lower veneers, especially in thicker products, he says.

The Freres team has hired a technical director, Pat Farrell, with experience in the LVL industry who has been a valuable addition in working with engineering values and testing agencies, Tyler says. “We’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time, we’re coming up with new recipes all the time, and a small change in veneer composition can change engineering properties.”

So far, the plant has been producing mostly crane mats as its first products. While continually refining all processes, the company is sitting on go waiting for structural certifications expected this spring, after which they can publish product values and engineering tables. That’s when the MPP venture enters a new phase in the marketplace, and Rob says the company hasn’t had to go knocking on many doors or twist any arms to draw interest in the product.

“We’ve already had a lot of people approach us about using the product, and we’re seeing that the big guys who’ve been involved with CLT projects would like to do more and a lack of suppliers is holding them back. So we’re hoping to feed into that industry,” he says, adding, “We also have engineers telling us if we can get mass timber panels into the building codes they’ll use it.”

Another believer in Freres Lumber’s MPP is the U.S. Forest Service: Last year a grant proposal submitted by Freres won out over 114 proposal entries as the FS identified the MPP plant as its top wood utilization project. In doing so, the company was awarded a US$250,000 grant that went toward purchase of the CNC machine.

Rob says it’s also satisfying to see the 95-year-old company take on a project that’s geared to the future. “Unlike a lot of other family-owned companies, we’re truly blessed with a younger generation (Tyler and Kyle are identical twins, age 42) who are solid individuals, highly capable, have a lot of experience — and are really competitive,” he says. “Once we made the decision on MPP, these young men have really run with it.”

And while the younger generation may be taking the lead with MPP, Tyler says his and Kyle’s father, Freres Lumber President Ted Freres, was “a strident and early supporter” of the MPP project, which would have never gotten off the ground without Ted’s support. He was involved from the very beginning advising on equipment and installation and design of the facility, and “His fingerprints are all over the production processes on the line,” Tyler says.

Tyler also cites the support of all the company’s shareholders and their willingness to deploy capital aggressively in a way that many larger companies couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do: Proof of concept by March 2016, test facility operating by end of year, break ground on new plant in March 2017 and have it completed and started up by December.

“All told, from concept to production in just over two years,” Tyler muses. “Not bad for a small company.”

Special thanks to the Freres family, which sent additional photos.

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Panel World and is reprinted with permission.

“There are a lot of compelling arguments for the use of wood,” says Gilbert Delgado, U of T’s chief of university planning, design and construction.

Recognizing the benefits of building with timber, the Ontario and federal governments are providing funding for buildings that use the material. U of T’s wood tower will be financed in part by those government subsidies, and through university funds and philanthropy, says Delgado.

The tower will be built above the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport and will house a number of academic units, including Rotman Executive Programs, the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education.

U of T is working on the project with Patkau Architects of Vancouver in partnership with MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (MJMA) of Toronto and Blackwell Structural Engineers – all of whom worked together on the Goldring Centre, which opened in 2014.

The Goldring Centre was designed and built with the structural integrity to be the base for the tower so there will be no need to dig deeper in order to build the taller structure, says Ted Watson, a partner at MJMA.

“As part of that project we developed a structural base, a foundation, to put the future tower on top of,” he says. “We don’t have to go down into the ground and all of the mess and construction disruption that goes along with that – that work has been done.”

The tower was originally slated to be built using steel, but after becoming aware of government incentives and of research by members of the Faculty of Forestry, including the former dean Mohini Sain, the university decided to go with timber.

“The more we looked into it, the more excited we got,” says Delgado.

There are many arguments in support of building with timber – the primary one being its environmentally friendly attributes.

“In contrast to concrete and steel, which require a lot of carbon for their production and transportation, wood is something that occurs naturally, and it can be transported lightly,” says Delgado.

Wood also absorbs carbon, says Watson.

“It’s actually taking carbon out of the atmosphere. It’s reducing greenhouse gases,” he says.

U of T’s new tower will be built with cross-laminated timber (CLT) – a method that allows producers to create larger, stronger wood pieces in more consistent dimensions.

“They’re kind of like plywood on steroids,” says Watson.

Using CLT wood, the timber tower will not need to be fireproofed, says Delgado.

“If you try to ignite a log with a match, you’ll find out how difficult it is to ignite,” he says.

The same goes for the wood used to construct the tower.

“We’re talking about beams and columns that are much larger, much thicker, that are much more difficult to ignite,” says Delgado.

Many of the tower’s components will be manufactured offsite so by the time the pieces get to the construction site, they can be assembled easily, quickly and quietly, says Watson.

“They really just show up almost like an Ikea set of parts,” he says. “One crate and a few workers can put a floor up in a few days with very little of the noise disruption that you see with steel and concrete buildings.”

Apart from its technical and environmental advantages, wood buildings are, simply put, aesthetically pleasing.

“Wood has this beautiful natural texture and colouring,” he says. “If you could leave it exposed, it reveals itself in terms of these really beautiful, warm interior spaces – the way it reflects light in yellow and orange tones, which most people find very warm and soothing.”

Building with timber also has a wider economic benefit, says Robert Wright, dean of the Faculty of Forestry and an associate professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

“For years we’ve been seen as a country sending our raw materials out to everybody, and they’ve been sending manufactured goods back to us, so it’s really important that we can build up industries and manufacturing within our own country to use these materials,” he says.

As part of the Ontario government’s tall wood building incentive program, the province has also established a Mass Timber Institute (MTI), bringing together organizations from across the province, including U of T and other academic institutions, to study the building practices and benefits of wood construction. MTI’s interim director is Anne Koven, an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Forestry.

“The Mass Timber Institute can really animate and excite people and promote building with wood,” she says.

The institute has an opportunity to study the construction and future benefits of U of T’s wood tower through all stages of its development, says Wright.

“We need to build these buildings as case studies to actually identify and deal with issues and people’s perceptions of wood building, in terms of design, construction and the training of people who will actually build them,” he says.

U of T’s academic wood tower is still in the design phase of development, awaiting zoning changes to increase the height allowance for tall wood buildings. Construction could begin at the end of 2019.

• Providing funding for research and development of innovative wood products, undertaken by academic and private research organizations, to support potential wood-related changes to the Building Code and other standards 
• Funding post-secondary education institutions to provide skills development and technical training and to create tools relating to using wood in construction
• Supporting the establishment of a tall wood research institute in Ontario, in partnership with researchers, universities, and colleges
• Demonstrating the successful use of mass timber in design, construction, and the fire safety of taller wooden buildings (seven storeys and higher) including four tall wood demonstration projects.

Two Canadian architecture firms – Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects – will design to showpiece structure.

Dubbed the Arbour, the building will serve as a campus building for the downtown Toronto college and house 16,250 square-metres (approximately 175,000 sq. ft.) of floor space. It will cost about $130 million to build.

“The Arbour is destined to become a landmark in the city, driving forward advancements in sustainable innovation and green buildings throughout Canada,” Anne Sado, the college’s president, said in a statement. “We hope that this building will serve as an example on how we can incorporate sustainability into all aspects of our lives, including where we learn, work and play.”

Geroge Brown picked the winning design team from a field of four finalists, determining the winner based on the innovative use of wood, energy use and building resilience, among other factors. Vancouver-based Acton Ostry also recently completed work on the 18-storey Brock Commons Tallwood House at the University of British Columbia.

Recent advancements such as special cross-laminated timber plates – which function like concrete slabs – have made taller wood buildings feasible. The innovative approach is seen as both sustainable and supportive of broader Canadian industries. Building codes in several provinces, including B.C., Ontario and Quebec, have been amended to support the new type building.

The Arbour is expected to become home to Canada’s first Tall Wood Research Institute. It will also house the George Brown school of Computer Technology and other research facilities dedicated to climate-friendly building practices.

Crews are expected to begin work on the structure on a 0.23 hectare site at Queens Quay East and Lower Sherbourne Street in 2021.

The privately owned company remains versatile to changing market conditions by designing some equipment in-house and looking overseas for new solutions.

“We’re able to do all of this because we have an ownership group that trusts our judgement and allows us to come up with new ideas,” operations manager Doug Pauze says during an interview with CFI at the Nanaimo facility. “It’s fun coming to work each day and being able to have a direct impact on the company.”

Those new ideas have included small changes like choosing the right knives for their lathe lines, to large projects such as building an in-house fence post/tree stake program, installing a Japanese-made spindleless lathe line from Meinan and upgrading their log deck with a complete system from Springer-Microtec.

Owner Don McKay started the company and built the Nanaimo facility in ’88, launching production with a single COE lathe line and single log deck. In the mid ’90s, Peter Shields bought into the company. A second COE lathe line and second log manufacturing line were added in 2000, and in 2013 they installed a third lathe line.

The company also operates two separate dryland sorts; Howe Sound Sort in Port Mellon and Menzies Bay Sort in Campbell River. To complete the veneer peeling process, Coastland also operates a drying facility on Annacis Island in Delta, B.C., where they have three dryer lines and a fourth dryer scheduled to be online in late June of this year.

In 2017 Coastland consumed just under one million cubic metres of 100 per cent Douglas fir — all sourced within a 300-kilometre radius of the Nanaimo plant — and produced about 470 million square feet of veneer on a 3/8-inch basis. Between 70 and 80 per cent of Coastland’s product is shipped to the U.S. and 15 to 20 per cent into B.C. with a small percentage heading to Asia.

Peeling process
The veneer production process begins with the use of either a Wagner log loader to unload logging trucks for direct input into the mill, or a Cat 980 loader for any loose log inventory that needs to be inputted into the process. Currently, the logs enter one of two saw lines for processing to 103 inches for the peeling process.

A rarely used railway line divides coastland’s 10-acre mill site, splitting the log deck from the lathe facility, which means logs must be conveyed on a trestle bridge over the railway before being sorted by diameter into three bunks of large, medium and small. This sorting process allows Coastland to efficiently run its lathes based on diameter. “We want to keep our lathes running to their most efficient levels, this means ensuring that the diameters feeding each lathe maximize that particular lathe’s output for quality and production,” Pauze says.

Before heading to the lathe, logs are placed in one of 13 conditioning vats that shower them in hot water, heating the wood to a core temperature of 120 F, a 10- and 12-hour process. Conditioning softens the wood, making it easier to peel, and creating a better quality product when conditioned properly, Pauze explains.

The two COE lathe lines begin with Altec XY Scanning systems, while the third line, the Meinan line, uses its own proprietary XY scanning system. The purpose of the XY scanning system is to help position the log in the lathe in the optimal position for the greatest veneer recovery and quality of peel.

After each log is peeled, the sheets are graded for moisture and quality. On the original COE line through a Ventek Nv4g grading system and uses the Ventek Multipoint Diverter System to direct the veneer to the stacking systems. On the second COE lathe line, Coastland has been working with Altec on the development of a new green scanner system to grade the sheets and direct them to the stackers. Last but not least, the Meinan lathe line utilizes its own scanning technology to grade the sheets before being directed through its own diverter system to the stackers.

Green veneer is barged from Nanaimo to Coastland’s drying facility in Delta. About 70 per cent of their veneer product is dried; the rest is sold in green form to customers who dry it themselves and produce products such as plywood and laminated veneer lumber.  

The Nanaimo facility produces 32 square foot (4×8-foot) veneer sheets, as well as fence posts and tree stakes from the cores.

Coastland uses 100 per cent of the fibre that comes into the mill. “Everything we do with that log goes into a value stream,” Pauze says. Trim ends and any veneer or core that doesn’t meet quality standards form a chip pile that is sold to nearby pulp mills. The facility itself is heated by a 24MM BTU Wellons thermal oil hog-fired burner, which is powered by bark and sawdust from the log deck.  

Many upgrades
Installed in 2013, the third lathe line was a huge project for Coastland that lead to a capacity increase of up to 40 per cent. The company chose Japanese manufacturer Meinan to supply the lathe, which was installed between the original two lines.

A big perk of the Meinan line is that logs are only required to be conditioned for two to four hours, which saves both time and energy costs, Pauze says. “Even then we don’t have to condition the logs, we can peel it cold, but the quality of the peel is a much superior when you heat it up,” he says.

The Meinan line is a spindleless system, which essentially means the lathe uses spiked discs to drive and peel a log. The result, Pauze says, is slicing fibres instead of tearing them, creating a smoother, more consistent quality of peel.

In 2017, Coastland upgraded its strapping system to a first-of-its kind model from Itipack. Built at their main factory in Italy, the system automatically places both top and bottom dunnage, and requires just one operator.

In 2016, Coastland upgraded its No. 1 veneer line with a Ventek (now USNR) Nv4g scanning system, catch-up tray controls, clipper controls and the Ventek MPDS diverter.

“It was the best investment we’ve made in a long time,” Pauze says. “The most difficult part was just getting the equipment in here because we don’t have a lot of room.” Installation involved cutting a hole in the roof of the facility to drop the equipment in place. An unexpected benefit is a new sunroof that lets the sun heat the facility in the winter and heat escape from the roof in the summer.

This winter Coastland began a complete retrofit of its log deck line, choosing to install the first complete Springer-Microtec system in North America. The new log deck is the costliest capital project the company has undergone since 2000.

“The concern I had with this is will it be robust enough? Being built in Europe, the thought was it won’t be built as strong and sturdy for our needs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The way it’s built is very strong and the maintenance costs are very low because there is no banging and clashing. It’s a very simple, elegant system,” Pauze said.

The new single line will run faster than the current two lines. A brand new Nicholson A8 debarker will be the natural speed bottleneck, but will still allow the line to run at 400 feet per minute.

The new deck will also include two scanning systems; one is for scaling to determine volumes. Coastland is beta testing a new scaling scanning system for Microtec, which is in the process of being certified for automatic scaling with bark on.

The second scanner is a 3D scanner, which is essentially a veneer prediction model. “Say I want a minimum 40 per cent veneer yield from each block to make it up to the lathes. Each log has to meet this criteria and if it doesn’t we’ll chip it. Everything going up to the lathes should meet that criteria,” Pauze says.

Microtec-Springer is providing the complete log processing system for Coastland, while SKS Engineering has assisted in the layout and designed the waste system for this line. The deck should be up and running by the end of May.

Coastland is dedicated to constant improvement in the quality and efficiency of their products. “One thing we pride ourselves on is innovation here. We think outside the box,” Pauze says.

“We like to be creative and innovative in everything we do. It makes it interesting for everyone who works here,” he says. “If you think you can do it, go ahead and try it.”

Watch a video tour of Coastland’s Nanaimo facility at www.woodbusiness.ca/tag/video

The result? Their client sawmills in South Africa are now generating greater productivity, higher quality products, and increased profits.

“Our main business is optimizing the drying process,” says the younger Viljoen, who works from Sedgefield in the Garden Route section of the Western Cape.

“Our strong suit is my father’s 50+ years hands-on knowledge, not only of drying, but the sawmilling industry as a whole, and my 20-year wood technology/IT automation background.”

When Johan retired from milling in 2005, he decided to use his hands-on approach in helping other mills to improve their kiln drying. But he quickly discovered a problem – mills were now very technology driven, using computers, PLC and SCADA interfaces. He soon realized that processes happen behind the scenes in software code that he had no control over.

This is where Henco got involved. With his IT knowledge, the Viljoens installed their first PLC/SCADA based kiln controller in late 2005. Installations and upgrades followed at regular intervals. The client base grew, and by 2013 Henco joined Timbersoft on a full-time basis after a career in IT and automation.

In 2013, Henco started a small research project where he combined solar and heat pump technologies with their PLC and SCADA system to dry hardwoods “smokeless without a boiler.” The kiln dried Eucalyptus boards, which normally dry in four weeks, dried in less than two weeks.

This technology opened up many more advancements, including the development of smoke/boiler free drying and ISPM15 heat treatment systems.

“It also allowed me to make an in-depth study of the drying process, dynamics, and controls, enabling me to really improve our drying system by leaps and bounds. We used Johan’s vent cycle approach and developed a dynamic, self-adjusting schedule.

“Although not yet 100% foolproof, we are very close. The system keeps improving. The goal is to leave the operator with only a start button…the program does the rest and stops at target moisture content (MC%). The operator won’t have to make any decisions,” Viljoen remarks.

Since Henco joined the company full time, the business has grown by more than 300 percent and is still growing. Kilns running their system are currently drying about 300,000 cubic meters annually and are expected to increase to 400,000 cubic meters by the end of 2017.

Measuring Moisture

Moisture measurement is an integral link in the drying management chain — and forms part of Timbersoft’s Process control. For that very important reason, Timbersoft relies upon moisture measurement.

Viljoen says a moisture meter in the hands of a kiln operator is like a calculator or Excel spreadsheet in the hands of an accountant. Neither can go without it.

Viljoen personally uses a Wagner L606 handheld meter to measure moisture in the kilns because of its speed, accuracy, dependability, consistency, and ease of use. Many of his clients use Wagner’s MMC220, L612 and L622 models, and the L722 stack probe for exactly these reasons.

“The Wagner brand is very big in South Africa sawmilling with good reason. If you think capacitance moisture meter, Wagner is the first name that comes to mind. Even in student literature used by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Wood Technology course, the Wagner is used as an example of a capacitance meter,” Viljoen says.

“You don’t hear of a Wagner meter that just stopped working,” he adds.

While in-kiln moisture meters are important in achieving excellent results, Viljoen believes that MC alone should not be used as the only guide to where the schedule should be. However, for stopping at a desired final MC, it cannot be beaten.

“The way the moisture evaporation rate in the timber reacts to a set point should be taken into consideration. This can be seen by observing how your vents react to a set point, but only when preparation, process control, and maintenance remain constant.

“If you have the in-kiln moisture measuring facility AND you know how to interpret all the information your kiln controller is giving you, then you are on the road to becoming the best kiln operator a boss could ask for,” Viljoen declares.

High-Tech Advisory

Because the Viljoen team is highly knowledgeable about using technology to dry timber, Timbersoft has achieved exceptional success. However, he cautions that operators who do not know how to interpret the information provided by high-tech systems can block improvements.

“A kiln operator should be more skilled than just able to see the dry bulb is running low (call the boiler room), or the wet bulb is running high (fix water issue/check probe), or the in-kiln target MC% is reached (pull the timber),” he declares.

The new high-tech systems have made kiln drying more graphic, and for a good operator with a clear understanding of these systems, it should be considerably easier. But for operators who lack this understanding, Viljoen says the ease of changing multiple variables can and has been catastrophic.

“Kiln operators who use high-tech systems should never make more changes to a schedule than what they can accurately identify the outcome of,” he remarks.

“Make a study of your kiln controller. Don’t just accept everything it presents you with. Try to figure out the logic it’s applying. More often than not, the programmer has no idea what kiln drying is about. The same applies to the kiln expert – he/she often has very little idea what programming is about. The operator needs to ask questions because the more he knows and understands, the more he’ll realize how little he knew when he started,” he adds.

Kiln Drying Management

Viljoen says there are five points of drying management. If one of the first three changes, then the schedule optimization is affected.

The first three points include preparation, process control, and maintenance. Preparation involves sawing accuracy, board dimension, and stacking procedures. Process Control involves airflow, energy distribution and management, humidity control, and venting. While maintenance involves electrical, mechanical, instrumentation, and structure.

“When any of those three changes, it affects the dynamics of the kiln. This affects the rate at which moisture leaves the timber – meaning that the MC is not yet where it’s supposed to be at that stage in drying.

“A MC-based schedule is more forgiving, as it is supposed to only progress to the next stage of drying when a certain MC is reached. A standard time-based schedule, however, won’t know what to do. This is why it’s of utmost importance that a kiln operator spots these abnormalities on the process graph and have the authority to stop the kiln and have it fixed,” Viljoen says.

Achieving Higher Profitability

Quality control is essential for production yield and profitability. And one of the key factors in a good quality control program is moisture management.

Inaccurate readings can lead to delays, low yields, and poor grade inspections. That’s why Timbersoft considers kiln moisture monitoring, using the Wagner moisture meters, to be part of their overall success.

These engineered wood products are mainly shipped south of the border to supply the U.S. homebuilding market – although Weyerhaeuser also supplies the product to the Canadian and Japanese homebuilding markets.

“One of the advantages that Weyerhaeuser has is that we can engineer a solution for you,” says Dan Wallace, technical director of engineered lumber products for Kenora TimberStrand. “This provides a lot of advantages to a builder including less waste, which means less cost. There are some real advantages to using engineered wood products… like quality and consistency.”

The TimberStrand LSL products are a popular choice for homebuilders due to their ability to resist splitting and checking on the ends, as well as its resistance to bowing, twisting and shrinking. The LSL beams are able to accommodate large holes for plumbing, wiring and conduits – upwards of 4-5/8” in a 14” beam – without hindering its structural performance. The strands in the LSL products are aligned in one direction as a method to maximize the wood’s natural strengths.

The impressive plant employs 200 associates that work across four shifts that keep the facility operating 24/7.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest employers in the area,” Wallace says.

Consistent quality
One of the ways that the plant ensures the consistency of its LSL products is through the use of an ultrasonic blow detector and thickness gauge systems, supplied by Airstar, a California-based engineering company. The plant started out with a blow detector to ensure its products met the necessary bonding specifications, and later added a four-channel laser thickness gauges on the outfeed of the sander and an eight-channel laser thickness gauge on the outfeed of the press.

“They’ve turned out to be very helpful pieces of equipment for us,” Wallace says. “When you’re pressing products you don’t want to be under-pressing (too thin) or over-pressing (too thick). These instruments help our operators fine-tune the final press and sander thickness to make sure we’re producing correct dimensions and utilizing the wood… there are really process tools that help us stay on target and gives our operators quick feedback if adjustments are needed.”

One of the advantages of the Airstar system is the support offered by the supplier to help navigate any issues that come up with the equipment.

“They can dial into our system online and help us,” Wallace says. “This has been pretty helpful. Of course, like with any technology, you can only do so much as an operator before you need the guys that built the equipment to come in and take a look at it [which Airstar is willing to do].”

Building LSL
The LSL produced on site is created from a combination of aspen and birch trees, with about 90 per cent of the species used being aspen. After logs come into the yard they are placed in conditioning vats for several hours to soften the fibres. They are then placed on conveyors, run through metal detectors and sent through one of the plant’s two A5B Nicholson debarkers. After being debarked, the logs are broken down via one of the plants two Pallmann stranders into very specific strand dimensions. Those strands are then conveyed to an area where they are blended with MDI resins before being fed into a steam-injected, single-opening press where they are pressed into large billets weighing upwards of 7,300 lb.

Once pressed, the billets are scanned by the Airstar eight-channel laser thickness gauge to ensure they are within specifications before being sent to a cooling system. After they are cooled the billets are sent through an Imeas Sander. The Airstar four-channel laser thickness gauge on the outfeed of the sander then checks the wood product to make sure they are still meeting thickness specifications.

The billets then pass through the Airstar ultrasonic blow detector to be scanned for bond integrity and if a defect is detected, the system will automatically reject that material.

The sanded billets are then cut to multiple widths using a Mereen-Johnson rip saw and then sent to the end of the products line where they are strapped, cut to length, wrapped and stored for future shipping.

Challenging times
When asked about some the Kenora plant’s more challenging times since pressing its first billet in the fall of 2002, Wallace recalls the downturn in the U.S. homebuilding market.

“It was pretty touch-and-go for a while,” he says.

That said, Weyerhaeuser never permanently shut down the mill during those times and continued to run the plant (although not a full capacity) until it rode out the storm.

As far as present challenges go, Wallace focuses on continuing to optimize processes at the plant.

“The biggest challenge is that we keep running our plant as efficiently as possible,” he says, adding that the company also needs to continue to grow its market share by telling the great story of Weyerhaeuser’s engineered wood product offerings. “It’s really all about being a complete engineered solution for the customer.”

Alongside Alain Juppé, some 20 officials will sign the Bordeaux Alliance, including Mr. Stéphane Dion, Ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union and Europe. The immediate support from Brazilians, Canadians, Finns, Japanese, Walloons, and Swiss to this Alliance will confirm its international scope.

The work of the WOODRISE International Alliance will focus on three areas:

• Encourage international synergy;
• Identify good practices in terms of wood usage, from the forest to recycling buildings;
• Evaluate quantitative and qualitative evolution in wood usage of construction worldwide.

Two major activities will occur during WOODRISE 2017:

• Dissemination of the WOODRISE Paper: a compendium of international best practices in economic, industrial, urban, and architectural development encouraging wood as a material, from the forest to the city, with a commitment to sustainability and biodiversity;
• Signature of a memorandum of understanding between six national research centres:
  • Brazil: Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnólogicas do Estado de São Paulo S.A., associated with the government of the state of São Paulo’s Department of Economic Development, Science, Technology, and Innovation (EDSTID-SP). Additional information: www.ipt.br 
  • Canada: FPInnovations, a not-for-profit world leader that specializes in the creation of scientific solutions in support of the Canadian forest sector’s global competitiveness and responds to the priority needs of its industry members and government partners. It is ideally positioned to perform research, innovate, and deliver state-of-the-art solutions for every area of the sector’s value chain, from forest operations to consumer and industrial products. FPInnovations’ staff numbers more than 430. Its R&D laboratories are located in Québec, Montréal and Vancouver, and it has technology transfer offices across Canada. Additional information: www.fpinnovations.ca 
  • Finland: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, a limited liability, not-for-profit corporation constituted publicly and established by the law, operating under the Finnish Department of Employment and the Economy. Its activities focus on three areas: high knowledge intensity products and services, intelligent industry and energy systems, and solutions for natural resources and environment. VTT benefits from its wide, multi-technical knowledge base to consolidate Finland’s and Europe’s industrial competitiveness. Additional information: www.vttresearch.com 
  • France:
    • Institut Technologique FCBA, whose mission consists of promoting innovation and technical progress, and participating in the increase of productivity and quality in the industry, by adopting an integrated approach and implementing synergies in the industry. Additional information: www.fcba.fr 
    • Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment – CSTB, a public organization dedicated to building innovation which focuses on four key activities: research and expertise, evaluation, certification and knowledge dissemination, organized in response to the issues on energy transition in the construction industry. Through those activities, it supports the construction stakeholders in innovations in building quality and safety. Additional information: www.cstb.fr 
  • Switzerland: Lignum, Economie Suisse du Bois, an umbrella organization for the Swiss wood and forest economies. It includes all major associations and organizations in the industry, research and training institutes, public corporations and many architects and engineers. Additional information: www.lignum.ch 

The event was inaugurated Tuesday evening by Alain Rousset, President of the Région Nouvelle Aquitaine, Georges-Henri Florentin, of the Institut technologique FCBA, and Line Beauchamp, Delegate General and personal representative of the Quebec Premier for the Francophonie. The conference officially started today with presentations by Georges-Henri Florentin of the Institut technologique FCBA, France, Pierre Lapointe of FPInnovations, Canada, and Mitsumasa Midorikawa of the Building Research Institute in Japan. Other notable speakers over the course of the four-day event include the Honourable Stéphane Dion, Canadian Ambassador to Germany and Special Envoy to the European Union and Europe, Alain Juppé, Mayor of the city of Bordeaux, Robert Jones of Natural Resources Canada, and Michael Green of Michael Green Architecture, Canada.

Why WOODRISE?
An emerging trend in many cities around the world, such as Bordeaux, mid-rise and tall wood buildings contribute to a rethinking local planning while considering the associated environmental challenges.

To better understand this trend, and the unique qualities and potential of wood buildings, WOODRISE is bringing together a large community of international stakeholders around four objectives:

• Confirm globalization of demand for mid-rise and high-rise wood building construction into a dynamic low-carbon environment for sustainable cities,
• Demonstrate international scientific and technological excellence in mid-rise and high-rise wood buildings,
• Identify economic development opportunities and how to implement them with regard to these new markets of the wood sector.
• Value competencies and national resources in a circular economy.