by Linda Ashton lem. Koch and his research team tin, vice president of manufacturing for devised a method to use the low-quality Roy O. Martin Lumber Co. and part of Move over, plywood. Oriented-strand hardwoods. And the Martco Partner- the Martco Partnership. board is here. ship, based in Alexandria, was Crossties are taken to the Martin It's less expensive. It's as durable. It interested. creosoting plant in Alexandria. After the has as many uses. And it is the wave of "We did severalfeasibility studies and strands from the waferizers and the the future. it looked like a good idea. It was a shaper-lathe are transferred to one of "Oriented-strand board is a direct means of using these hardwoods and four green storage bins, they are substitute for ply~:' said Jerry making them into a resalable product," metered into one of three rotary dryers Buckner, plant manager for the Martco Buckner said. where the moisture content is reduced oriented-strandboard plant in Umcrjeo. The raw product, made of wood such to about 4 percent from almost 100per- OSB, as it is commonly called, is a as sweetgum, ash, pecan and hackberry, cent, Buckner said. structural panel made of reconstituted is sliced into half-inch by three-inch Once out of the dryers, the strandsare wood. Wood products authorities have strands, bouOOwith phenolic resins and rotary screenedwith the fi~t materials hailed OSB - a waferboard - as one pressed into boards. removed to fuel the dryers. From the of the major advancements in wood The aSB process begins with the screens, they are metered into one of utilization technology this decade. It delivery of hard~ logs, which are four dry storage bins. Four resin will take its place in the wood products put into storage. "We try to use them blenders apply about 5 percent resin market alongside ply~, which on a first in, first out basis," Buckner solids and I percent wax. "The resin gained widespread acceptanceabout 20 said. binds the strands together and the wax years ago. After the logs are cut into 8-9 foot gives it protection from moisture picked But the product is not the orily trend- blocks, they are. fed into the drum up should the board get wet," Buckner setting aspectof the plant, located about debarker where they are jostled around said. 15 miles south of Bunkie. The plant until the bark is removed and used for The strands then journey to the itself could serve as a prototype for the hot oil systemwhich heats the press, Schenk former. Four layers - a face. other plants in the South, Buckner said. Buckner said. The blocks then go to the a back and two cores - formed here. The Martco plant uses hard~ ex- waferizer decks. Eight foot blocks are The top and bottom faces are oriented clusively - 28 to 30 different species cut into three short pieces for the disk in machine direction and the core layers found on the firm's 14O,(XX)-acre waferizers. are oriented in the cross direction. holdings near Lem~n. "We have over Nine foot blocks go to the crosstie Orientation is a mechanical process. one million cords of hardwood processing machine where they are run Face panel strands are forced through pul~ on our forestlandsdown here. through a shaper-lathe removing the a grid aligning them in machine direc- And they are virtually low-quality or strands for aSB production and leaving tion. Special rolls rotate strands from low-value hardwoods:' Buckner said. a prescribed size of crosstie at the the core pockets, forcing them to lie The use for l~-quality hardwood was center. perpendicular to face-panel !."trands. once limited to pulp chips. But Peter The shaper-lathe was developed by From the formers, the mat is run over Koch, then at the u.s. Forest Service Koch in his hard~ utilization lab. a weigh scale that automalically main- Southern Experiment Station in "This is the first commercial machine Linda Ashton;s a staff r~port~r ".;th th~ A/~x- Pineville. \\1>rkedto resolve that prob- based on his patent," said Johnny Mar- alldri4ZDaily T~ Talk.

FORESTS & PEOPLE 13 FIRST QUARTER. 1. tains the proper ~ight so that the forming screens)to be on top," Buckner "We built the plant to run basically pressed board will be the proper densi- said. Seven-sixteenth inch boards are 4OO,(XX)feet a day," Buckner said. Pro- ty. Buckner said. Overweight and used for roofing and the rough surface duction currently is about 325,(XX) underweight boards are rejected and helps prevent carpenters and roofers square feet a day, on a 3/8ths inch basis. returned to the core. from sliding off the boards, Buckner "In other words, we take boards 12 in- The mats are trimmed and separated. said. ches by 12 inches, 3/8ths inches thick They come through the former as a con- "We have the option of turning or not and ~ make 325,(XX)of those per day," tinuous layer of material on individual turning. Quarter-inch we do not. Seven- he said. At full produCtion the plant will screens. The mat trim saw cuts out a sixteenths we do." use about 38 truckloads of 100inch swath that allows one screen to take off The boards are moved to the diameter pulpwood per day. onto the loader before the next mat is Wdrehousefor shipping - 95 percent by The plant is producing about 78 per- conveyed forward. truck and 5 percent by rail. Ninety per- cent of what Martco ~d like, he said. The 8-foot by l6-foot mats are loaded cent of the OSB is sold as Weldbord by "We think by February (1984) we will 16 at a time and charged into the Champion International and the other 10 be over 100 percent of our desired pressure per square inch on the mats. percent is sold by Martin distributors as quota." Press platens are heated to about 400 Tuff-Strand. By press time, Buckner said he ex- degrees Fahrenheit. The market area for the product is the pected the plant to be running four full A 7/16ths mat is pressed for about South, from Texasto Florida with parts shifts, seven days a week, bringing the 6-1/2 minutes. The loader then of Oklahoma and Arkansas thrown in, number of people employed at Martco discharges one board at a time to Buckner said. ..~ ~ a freight advan- in Lemoyen to about ISO. On a yearly another trim saw which cuts the board tage (on product price) over plants in the basis, the plant alone generates about a into two 4-foot by 16-foot lengths. A north. How far up North we go deter- $6 million payroll, he said. crosscut saw trims them to four 4-foot mines how much our advantage is," he The first OSB production began in by 8-foot boards. said. August, about ~ years after construc- The panels are graded and stacked in The plant has the capability of pro- tion on the $30 million plant began. bins. From the bins the 7/16ths panels ducing board thicknesses that range Martin credits the staff at the research are sent to a unit turner where the from one-quarter inch to three-quarter station with the development and the boards are turned to the rough side. inch, he said, but the plant only research of hardwood use that made the "When ~ are running 7/16ths.~ want manufactures one-quarter and 7/16ths plant a reality. '1bey ~rked on utiliza- the rough surface (caused by mat- thicknesses right now. tion of low-grade Southern hardwoods

The Lemoyen Manco piant is one of . kWIdin ils \ot-' utllzation of PI'eYiouIIy unmerchantable hardwoods

14 FOAESTS&PEOPLE FIRST QUARTER. ,* SI-..I8 of oriented ~ bO8rd are CX)II1)r8S88dIimlAtaneoully, ~. 8M trinvned. to be manufactured into panels... we not compete.One of the leastdesirable g~n or dry storage bins the process were the first ones to utilize all the speciesis oak which the sawmill will could be completed in about an hour, research they did." utilize. "You might say the balanceof Buckner said. But the new plant was not without its the two mills will be good for each Fewer people are required to run an problems. Reports of frequent fires in other," he said. OSB plant than a plywood plant- the mill cast some doubts about this For example,Buckner said. if a large another factor that holds down cost. new-fangled process. ash pulpwoodlog that can be usedfor "The basic advantage we have over "We had some problems with fires," lumber arrivesat the OSB plant, it will plywood is much lower wood cost and Buckner said. "We found that our dry be kicked~r to the sawmill.A log that a lot fewer people. To make the same bins had some metal wear strips which is too small for the sawmill will be amount of plywOpine if so desired, receiving public acceptance. The staff is still working some of the it will run exclusively on hardwood "We have a little resistance from the remaining bugs out of the system. "The becausepine is not grown in this area. guy who's been using pl~ for 20 down time we are running is fairly low; Bucknerforesees a trend in the South years. Why should he change?" our actual runtime is very satisfactory for waferboardplants. Conversion to at The main reason to change is the at this point," Buckner said. leastpartial useof hard~ for wafer- cheaper price, he said. The boaId passes Buckner believes the future for the boardis coming, he said. A Texasplant the same certification and requirements plant looks good. Construction has is converting for production using that plywood does, and in some cases, begun on a sawmill adjacent to the OSB Southern pine, Buckner said, but the provides a slight structural advantage. mill with the projected open date June raw material costs are greater than "You are not really taking a risk," or July 1984. hardwood. Buckner said. Waferboard has a little The most desirable species for the OSB production is quick. It takesa better stiffness in both directions and OSB plant is sweetgum, a very low couple of hours to run through the en- can be used in a lot of places where value lumber for which the sawmill will tire process,and barring any holdupsin c-liIUIN Oftpag~ 37

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FORESTS & PEOPLE 37 FIRST QUARTER, 1984